Paperback Originals and the Origins of Contemporary Gay Literature

Posted on January 19, 2011 by CLGBTH

Deadline for abstracts: February 15, 2011
Deadline for final essays: June 15, 2011

Novels known collectively as “out gay pulp” — paperback originals published with accelerating frequency in the 1960s—have received increasing attention, from popular collections like John Preston’s Flesh and the Word, Michael Bronski’s Pulp Friction and Susan Stryker’s Queer Pulp to the circulation of pulp covers in postcards, address books, and posters. Scholarly attention to this phenomenon has been more sporadic; an excellent bibliography by Tom Norman, essays by David Bergman and John Howard, and those by the various contributors to The Golden Age of Gay Fiction haven’t yet spurred a deeper, more engaged critical interest. Sixties paperback originals have been seen as quirky cultural anomalies or even insignificant pornographic outpouring rather than a significant literary and cultural intervention.

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American Historical Association

Posted on January 11, 2011 by CLGBTH

126th Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL
January 5-8, 2012

Deadline: February 15, 2011

The 126th annual meeting of the American Historical Association will be held January 5–8, 2012, in Chicago. The Program Committee welcomes proposals from all members (academic and nonacademic) of the Association, from affiliated societies, from historians working outside the United States, and from scholars in related disciplines. The theme for the meeting, described in greater detail here, is “Communities and Networks.” While seeking proposals for sessions that explore facets of this broad topic, we also welcome submissions on the histories of all places and time periods, on many different topics, and on the uses of varied sources and methods. We also invite members to employ and to analyze diverse strategies for representing the past, including fiction, poetry, film, music, and art. The AHA is a capacious organization, unique among learned societies in its devotion to the full range of historical scholarship and practice. Our program will reflect this strength, and we will seriously consider any proposal that advances the study, teaching, and public presentation of history.

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Evening with The History Project at AHA

Posted on January 3, 2011 by CLGBTH

Members and friends of the Committee on LGBT History attending the AHA annual meeting are invited to join the Committee on Saturday, January 8, from 6:30-8 pm at The History Project, Boston’s LGBTQ community history project. Founded in 1980 by local activists, archivists, and historians, THP has been a pioneer in documenting LGBTQ community history, from a diverse range of exhibits to its full-length book, Improper Bostonians. On Saturday evening, THP volunteers will discuss their current exhibits and projects, and take questions from those in attendance.

The History Project is located at 29 Stanhope St. (on the fourth floor of the Living Center), about a ten-minute walk from the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Please meet us by the registration desk at the Marriott by 6:15 pm, and we will walk over as a group to The History Project. Members and friends of the Committee on LGBT History are also welcome to meet us at THP; if you are walking or taking other transit on your own to THP, please call upstairs (617-266-7733) to make sure someone can let you inside the building, in case the front door is locked.

After the event, some of us will go across the street for drinks at Club Cafe, one of Boston’s most popular LGBTQ nightspots.

No reservations required, although if you are planning to attend, please email Ian Lekus so that he can provide a rough estimate to The History Project as to how many people to expect.