A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Alison Bechdel, cartoonist (LGBT History Month 2011)

Alison Bechdel  is a celebrated cartoonist and author of the long-running comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. Her groundbreaking graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, was awarded the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book. Bent Alaska presents her story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

Alison Bechdel

“The [comic] strip is about all kinds of things, not just gay and lesbian issues—births, deaths and everything in-between happen to everyone.”

Alison Bechdel (b. September 10, 1960) is a celebrated cartoonist and author of the long-running comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. Her groundbreaking graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, was awarded the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.

A native of central Pennsylvania, Bechdel and her siblings grew up in a small town. Her parents both taught at the local high school and her father, the subject of her first memoir, was the town’s mortician. Bechdel attended Oberlin College, where she graduated with a B.A. in 1981.

Dykes to Watch Out For was published in 1983 and became a syndicated comic strip in 1985. With her signature subtle wit, Bechdel took on the complex and often stereotyped world of lesbian relationships through her comic alter ego, Mo. The strip has become a cult classic.

In the late 1990’s, Bechdel began work on her first graphic memoir about her family, Fun Home. The memoir focuses on her relationship with her father and his death. Time Magazine honored Fun Home as No. 1 of the 10 Best Books of 2006, calling it “a masterpiece about two people who live in the same house but different worlds, and their mysterious debts to each other.” The book won a Lambda Book Award, an Eisner Award and the 2006 Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award. It was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Dykes to Watch Out For continued production for 25 years. In 2008, Bechdel suspended work on the award-winning comic strip to create a graphic memoir about relationships. The same year, Houghton Mifflin published a complete collection of her work, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For.

Bechdel resides outside of Burlington, Vermont.

Alison Bechdel was interviewed by MiND TV about her bestselling graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Watch:

For more about Alison Bechdel, visit the Dykes to Watch Out For website, the Alison Bechdel page on Amazon.com, her LGBT History Month page, or the Wikipedia article about her.

Photo credit: Alison Bechdel came to Brussels to promote her new autobiographical book Fun Home. She signed her book in the comic store Brüselm 29 Oct 2006. Photo by Tineke on Flickr; used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

John Ashbery, poet (LGBT History Month 2011)

John Ashbery is one of the most successful 20th century poets. He has won almost every major American literary award, including the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Bent Alaska presents his story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

John Ashbery

“My poetry is disjunct, but then so is life.”

John Ashbery (b. July 28, 1927) is one of the most successful 20th century poets. He has won almost every major American literary award, including the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Ashbery graduated from Harvard University, where he studied English and served on the editorial board of the Harvard Advocate. He received his master’s degree from Columbia University. After graduating, Ashbery spent three years in publishing before moving to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship.

Returning to the U.S. in 1957, Ashbery attended graduate classes at New York University. Thereafter, he returned to Paris, where he supported himself as an editor. He eventually moved back to the U.S. to become the executive editor of ARTNews magazine.

Ashbery’s success began with frequent publication of his poems in magazines such as Furioso and Poetry New York. While in France, his book Some Trees won the Yale Younger Poet’s Prize. He has won many awards, including the Bollingen Prize and the McArthur Foundation’s “Genius Award.”

His Pulitzer Prize-winning poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” which also won the National Book Award and the National Critics Circle Award, is unique for its triple prize status. The poem pulls together his favored themes: creating poetry and the influence of visual arts on his work.

Ashbery’s career has been marked by controversy. Response to his poetry ranges from praise for his brilliant expressionism and use of language to condemnation for his work’s nonsensical and elusive nature.

A prolific writer, he has published over 20 books of poetry, beginning with Tourandot and Other Poems. His work has been compared to modernist painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Critics assert that he is trying to translate visual modern art into written language.

Since 1974, he has supported himself through teaching positions, the last of which was as the Charles P. Stevens, Jr. Professor of Language and Literature at Bard College. He lives in upstate New York, where he continues to write poetry.

Here he is reading his poem “”Interesting People of Newfoundland” from Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, winner of the 2008 International Griffin Poetry Prize. Watch:

For more about John Ashbery, visit his LGBT History Month page or Wikipedia article.

Photo credit: Poet John Ashbery at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival’s gala for the presentation of Best of Brooklyn, Inc’s BoBI Award, 12 September 2010. Photo by David Shankbone, via Wikimedia Commons.

LGBT books well-represented during Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read, while simultaneously pointing out the dangers of censorship by spotlighting books challenged and often actually banned from libraries in the U.S. As usual, books challenged for LGBT content or themes are well-represented.

Judith Barrington, Valerie Miner, & other great writers in UAA annual reading series

Judith Barrington and Valerie Miner are among the writers participating in the Summer 2011 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series from July 10–19 at UAA. This is the fourth year for the event, which is held annually in conjunction with the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing of the UAA Department of Creative Writing & Literary Arts (CWLA).

Gay/lesbian youth are doing better than you think, says Ritch Savin-Williams

LGBT youth are a lot stronger and more resilient than we usually give them credit for. That’s what Dr. Ritch C. Savin-Williams of Cornell University said this past Monday as a guest on Line One: Your Health Connection on KSKA, Anchorage’s public radio station. The program can now be downloaded or listened to online.

It Gets Better, the book: A “message in a bottle” to LGBT youth

Not all kids have access to YouTube. And so the It Gets Better Project’s message of hope for LGBT youth is now in a book: time, now, to get it into every library.

RAW seeks submissions for Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest

Every year, Radical Arts for Women (RAW) sponsors a short story contest open to all women living in Alaska. The contest is named in honor of Nicole Blizzard, a local lesbian writer and creator, publisher, and editor of the local LGBT literary journal Naked Ptarmigan, who passed away in December 2009.

To enter, you must be a woman living in Alaska as of January 2011. Stories must be fiction of between 250 and 5,000 words and contain some lesbian content. Per the contest website, “The fiction and lesbian stipulations may be interpreted by the author, but we are not seeking poetry or non-fiction. Erotica is acceptable.”

Entries must be mailed in (no electronic submissions!), so writers, leave yourself with enough time to get to the post office!  The postmark deadline is Friday, April 1.

And if you win?  Generous cash prizes: first place $500, second place $300, and third place $100.  Winners will be announced at the Anchorage annual women’s show Celebration of Change, which will take place this year on Saturday, April 23, at the Wendy Williamson Theatre on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. The first place winner’s story will also be published on RAW’s website.

There are formatting and other issues to be addressed in submitting any writing for contests or publication, so check out the complete submission guidelines on the RAW website.  And while you’re there, enjoy the writings of past years’ winners, too!

Alaska’s Barnes & Noble stores join national No Name-Calling project

“Bringing awareness to the seriousness and severity of name-calling, teasing, bullying and cyber bullying is very important to Barnes & Noble. We’re pleased to be partnering with Simon & Schuster and GLSEN for such an important effort,” said Mary Amicucci, vice president of Children’s Books for Barnes & Noble.

“GLSEN is excited to work with Barnes & Noble to bring No Name-Calling Week’s message of respect to youth across the country throughout the month of January,” said Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Executive Director Eliza Byard. “As the world’s largest bookseller, we applaud Barnes & Noble for embracing this opportunity to raise awareness about the problems of name-calling and bullying.”

Barnes & Noble stores across the country have events planned throughout January to recognize No Name-Calling Month including: All stores will host a national Storytime event on Saturday, January 15 at 11 a.m. The event will include a Storytime reading of the books Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and One by Kathryn Otoshi, arts and crafts and other activities.

From January 15 through January 23, stores will host Barnes & Noble Educator Appreciation Week. Stores will have No Name-Calling materials available for teachers and educators including book recommendations, tip sheets for organizing No Name-Calling events, lesson plans for elementary and middle school students, classroom posters and buttons, [and] in-store panel discussions with GLSEN local chapters. Exclusive No Name-Calling articles by James Howe and Jodi Picoult will be featured in the January line-up of the More In Store program available on NOOK, the Barnes & Noble eBook Reader.

Barnes & Noble.com will feature a No Name-Calling page. Exclusive video content from bestselling children’s, teen and adult authors will be placed on the site during the month of January… The authors will discuss their thoughts on and experiences with bullying.

Transgender podcast debuts with Alaska show on "Transpeople and Christianity"

The first show of “Good Morning, TransAmerica!” is now available, with news and discussion on transgender issues around the world, hosted by Anja Gensel of Anchorage, Alaska.

The first show is called “Transpeople and Christianity: Does God have a plan for us?” Anja and her guests address why many fundamentalist Christian churches reject transpeople, how they hijacked the Anchorage Assembly hearings last summer, and why they have it wrong.

We ask the question “Can you be transgendered, AND be a Christian?” We hear from Anchorage Televangelist Jerry Prevo, Pastoral Minister Sarah Gavit of St Mary’s Episcipal Church, and two Christian Transwomen, Kelly Johnson and Piper Moritz.

Another local segment on the show is “TransLife in a small Alaskan town” with commercial fisherman and transwoman, Carrie Thorne. Carrie also discusses her experiences with Dr. Toby Meltzer, who performed SRS, Voice modification and FFS on her.

Other guests include Lisa O. discussing her SRS results performed in Thailand by Dr. Suporn.

Finally, Mental Health Clinician Roni Lanier, M.S. reviews the book: “Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working With Gender-Variant People and Their Families” by Arlene Ister Lev.

Plus, the podcast opens with a review of recent transgender world news.

The second show is called “TransLife in Australia” and will be available in June. For the third show, Anja travels to Chicago to the 2010 “Be-All” International Gender Conference.

“Transpeople and Christianity: Does God have a plan for us?” is available HERE.

For more information on the next shows, visit “Good Morning, TransAmerica!” on TransAlaska Pipeline, the website for Transgender Alaska.

Kathy Griffin looks for gays in Anchorage