Jenny Block wins a Lambda Award!

Last night Jenny Block won the Lambda Award in the category for bisexual book for her book Open: Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage. The Lambda Literary Awards seek to recognize excellence in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature. Each year, over 80 judges -- writers, booksellers, librarians, journalists -- assess the entries in more than 20 categories. Check out Jenny's website at to learn more about her book and get on her newsletter!

DIRT authors on tour!

The editor and contributors to DIRT: The Quirks, Habits, and Passions of Keeping House are on a multi-state book tour. Check out this great picture of them reading at Borders 10 Columbus Circle last week. From left to right: Mindy Lewis, Patty Dann, Mindy Greenstein, Sally Koslow, and Joyce Maynard. Catch them at one of the following events!


Tues June 2nd, 6-8PM Cornelia Street Café, Greenwich Village
Laura Shaine Cunningham, Katy Brennan, Lisa Selin Davis, Thad Rutkowski, and Alissa Quart

Sat June 6th, 7PM Inquiring Minds Bookstore, New Paltz NY
Laura Shaine Cunningham, Rand Richards Cooper, Mindy Lewis
Reception and raffle for Eco-friendly products donated by True-Value Hardware

Sun June 14th, 2PM McIntyre’s Bookstore, Fearrington Village, Pittsboro NC
Julianne Malveaux, Nancy Peacock, Lisa Solod Warren

Sat August 8th, 11AM, Toadstool Bookstore, Peterborough, New Hampshire
Mindy Lewis, Joyce Maynard, Mimi Schwartz

Tues Aug 11th, 7PM Books, Inc., Alameda CA
Kayla Cagan, Mindy Lewis, Krista Lyons, Louise Rafkin

Sun Sept 13th, 4PM The Lounge at Hudson View Gardens
Kathleen Crisci, Rebecca McClanahan, Laura Shaine Cunningham

Announcing the She-Smoke Virtual BBQ Contest

Julie Reinhardt, co-owner of Smokin’ Pete’s BBQ in Seattle and author of the newly released She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book (Seal Press/ June 2009), is excited to announce the She-Smoke Virtual Barbecue Contest, which aims to create the largest virtual barbecue in the world. Perfect for Memorial Day and the upcoming summer weekends, The She-Smoke Contest will not only bring together the wonderful community of BBQ, but will also serve as a fundraiser for Heifer International to fight world hunger, as Julie will donate $1 to the organization for every entry.

Here's how the contest works:

1) View the contest trailer HERE.
2) Have a barbecue and video tape it.
3) In your 1-3 minute video tell us what you are smoking or grilling (we're not going to get too hung up on definitions here), and tell us what barbecue means to you.
4) Upload your video in response to the trailer on YouTube.
5) For every entry we will donate $1 to Heifer International.
6) Contest dates are now through June 15th. Winners will be announced by July 5th.

Categories include:

1) Best looking barbecue (we can't eat it virtually, so make it a feast for our eyes!)
2) Best Video
3) Best Party - let us feel like we are there!
4) Most Interesting Smoker
5) Best Overall Entry/Grand Champion

Winners will receive a signed copy of She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book, and the Grand Champion will receive a Junior Traeger Grill! A $399 value, thanks to Traeger Grills!

For more information, go to Julie’s website.
Watch the YouTube contest video.
Or read Julie’s Blog.

We look forward to seeing all your BBQ videos!

Helen Boyd on Air America

Helen Boyd, author of My Husband Betty and She's Not the Man I Married, was interviewed earlier today on Air America on Nicole Sandler's show. It's a great clip, which you can access here:

Start it at Minute 9.

Though the interview is a lot about what it's like to be in a trans relationship, with plenty of personal questions for Helen, the interview was prompted because of Jennifer Finney Boylan's op-ed in the NY Times earlier this week about being “differently married.” Boylan is a trans woman, legally a female, married to a woman because she married her when she was still a man.

This was a largely overlooked issue in Labor of Love, by Thomas Beatie. The media doesn't really want to talk about the fact that trans people are allowed to marry as long as they're legally "opposite sexed," while gay and lesbian couples can't. And Thomas sheds light on the ironic fact that he and his wife Nancy could have easily gotten sperm if they had wanted to conceive as a lesbian couple, but his being trans made doctors suspicious of his mental stability.

The fact is that trans folks and genderbenders mess things up for people who like everything to be in nice, neat categories. And kudos to Jennifer for pointing out the obvious:

"It’s my hope that people who are reluctant to embrace same-sex marriage will see that it has been with us, albeit in this one unusual circumstance, for years."


---Brooke