Yesterday, I talked about the challenge grant to the Lambda Literary Foundation by Emerging Voices fiction fellow Chuck Forester. If you have some money to spare, I hope you'll give.
But if you're a writer and would rather give something other than money, another Fiction Fellow, Eric Nguyen, has announced the Better Book Project:
I am not part of any nonprofit organization. I can't say that I'm an activist in that I stay in an office and do work to help past laws. (After many interviews, I don't think I can truly be an activist in an office). But what I am is a writer. I am a part of culture. I am culture. (All writers and artists are). As a writer, I am doing what I can. I'll do the only thing that I can do. Write. And edit.
Thus, my Better Book Project.
Inspired by Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project, this is a project for the queer literary community. It is our chance (it's our duty), to use our words to their full extent--to save lives, to communicate to our distant selves.
Think about yourself as a teenager. What story, what poem, what words would've made things better, in the face of bullies and unapproving family members, in a small town without a car perhaps, with no visible community? What would you tell them?
I am looking for words-- stories, poems, essays, short memoirs--for an anthology tentatively titled BETTER: Stories, Poems, Essays, Words for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Teens About Growing Up, Surviving, Living, and Thriving. Publication is set for Summer 2011.
Help make the world a better place, talk to Eric. I think it could be an astonishing book. I'll be submitting something. Please, think about it.
This blog has moved.
My blog now lives here:
http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/
