Back in October, we told you about the Open Door Project, a literary contest for gay male writers launched by former Avalon Publishing Group editor Don Weise and other editors who had pioneered the mainstreaming of gay literature in the late '80s and '90s. More than 250 gay men (none of whom had ever published a book of fiction before) submitted entries, and the winner—announced yesterday—was Kirk Read (right), a San Francisco-based performance artist and HIV counselor who is also the author of the memoir How I Learned to Snap. (Jurors for the prize included Christopher Bram, Alexander Chee, Samuel R. Delany, Dennis Cooper, Robert Gluck, E. Lynn Harris, Scott Heim, Andrew Holleran, David Leavitt, Stephen McCauley, Dale Peck, and John Weir.)

"From the first few sentences of his story it's clear that Kirk is a writer with a voice all his own," Weise commented. "The judging committee as a group agreed, consistently singling out the originality of Kirk's voice but also his deft handling of humor, dialogue, character development, as well as his explicit yet intelligent use of sex as an integral part of the story. I'm thrilled to have such a fresh and uninhibited talent as the first recipient of the Open Door award." Read will collect his prize—a trip to New York City where he'll meet with editors and agents, plus a public reading and a private reception—next January, and Weise hopes the contest will become an annual event: "Enough complaining about how hard the business is, especially for marginalized groups like gay writers. I hear all about that a lot but seldom do I ever hear anything about people being proactive and actually doing something constructive to correct the problem. That's our mission at the moment."

At a private reception in Manhattan last Thursday night, bestselling author Elizabeth Strout (front and center) spoke to the winners of the 2008 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards: Joanne Dominique Dwyer and Amy Leach (middle row), Jennifer Culkin, Jolie Lewis, Hasanthika Sirisena, and Therese Stanton (back row). Jaffe created the foundation in 1995 to provide financial support and encouragement to young writers at the start of their careers; last year, the grants were raised to $25,000.

Previous recipients of Jaffe Foundation grants include Judy Budntiz, Rebecca Curtis, Rivka Galchen, and Ellen Litman. Among this year's winners, Culkin already has an essay collection scheduled for publication next year, while the others are all working on significant projects, including poetry and short story collections, essays, and novels.

(photo: Star Black)

The New York City chapter of the Romance Writers of America held its annual Golden Apple Awards reception last Thursday night at the Upper East Side's Havana Room, with chapter president Elizabeth Mahon (right) on hand to present citations to literary agent Deidre Knight (whose award was accepted by Knight Agency member Pamela Harty) and Dorchester editor Chris Keeslar. (Author of the year Dee Davis and publisher Raeline Gorlinsky of Cerridwen Press were also on hand to receive their prizes, while actor Jason Gaffney accepted a lifetime achievement award on behalf of his mother, author Suzanne Brockmann.)

Before the awards were handed out, authors and agents mingled and caught up with each other; among the topics of conversation: Lori Perkins's recent blog post about how the current economy will affect writers: "Close on any offer that comes your way now, or try to get a three book deal, because it's going to be very slow for the next few months."

(photos: Lisbeth Eng)

Thank you to all the readers who voted for GalleyCat in the "best publishing/industry blog" category of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week awards. It's a great honor to been selected as the winner in this category, and to be described as "already a must-read." Let's take a moment, though, to recognize the four other nominees:

• Book Club Girl
• Book Ninja
• Buzz, Balls, and Hype
• and From Where I Sit

Earlier this week, The National Book Foundation announced that publisher Barney Rosset will be honored with "The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community" at the National Book Awards ceremony on November 19, 2008.

To celebrate, I caught up with Neil Ortenberg, the former publisher of Thunder Mouth Press and the executive producer of a new documentary about Rosset's life, Obscene. Ortenberg recalled Rosset's fight to publish banned works by Henry Miller and D.H. Lawrence, marveling at the fact that brave booksellers were arrested for selling Tropic of Cancer--even after the country's highest court had approved the book's publication.

The literary lion also reminisced about a collision between governmental bureaucracy and hypocrisy...

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