I’m the new faculty advisor for PRIDE, our U’s gay-straight alliance. October 11 is National Coming Out Day, and in addition to doing a big push with a “gay? fine by me.” t-shirt campaign, we’re doing a “Read Out.” The aim is for students, faculty, and staff to read selections from literature written by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (or generally queer) authors.
I’m still sorting out in my head what I’ll choose or suggest, but my list includes:
- James Baldwin
- Emily Dickinson
- Oscar Wilde
- John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
- Jeanette Winterson
What about you, dear reader? Any suggestions?
rock on, george, for being part of this.
what about david sedaris? most of my students who are readers love sedaris.
I’d include Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, W.H. Auden, Audrey Lorde . . .
Quentin Crisp
Early Rita Mae Brown
Willa Cather
Jim Carroll
Sappho
Herman Melville
Walt Whitman
Marcel Proust
Colette
Gertrude Stein
E.M. Forster
Virginia Woolf
Tennessee Williams
Yukio Mishima
(I think I got a little carried away. Sorry about that.)
What everybody else said. With the additions of:
Alan Hollinghurst (sp)
Adrienne Rich
HD
I second Whitman and Rich, especially… and would add, maybe, Frank O’Hara, Mark Doty, and D.A. Powell.
Langston Hughes
and Essex Hemphill–Ceremonies has some fantastic pieces–come immediately to mind.
But really what I want to say is, can I please come up there and read some James Baldwin out loud? I so love Baldwin, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to read any of his stuff out loud to actual listeners, just to myself.
Come on up, Scriv. It’s only about a 150-minute drive for you.
Thanks, everybody, for the suggestions. There are a few names I hadn’t thought of. Keep ’em comin’, please.
when, when, WHEN is this happening? is this part of the gathering on the quad, 11-2?
anne sexton, simone de bouvier, anias nin?
Thanks for the additional names, Denise.
Yes, this will be part of the events on the quad between 11 and 2.
Thanks to Emily for an in-person suggestion of Augusten Burroughs.
And hey, why not William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg?