OutWrite: The Speeches That Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture

by Julie R. Enszer (Editor), Elena Gross (Editor)

Overview

Running from 1990 to 1999, the annual OutWrite conference played a pivotal role in shaping LGBTQ literary culture in the United States and its emerging canon. OutWrite provided a space where literary lions who had made their reputations before the gay liberation movement—like Edward Albee, John Rechy, and Samuel R. Delany—could mingle, network, and flirt with a new generation of emerging queer writers like Tony Kushner, Alison Bechdel, and Sarah Schulman. 
 
This collection gives readers a taste of this fabulous moment in LGBTQ literary history with twenty-seven of the most memorable speeches from the OutWrite conference, including both keynote addresses and panel presentations. These talks are drawn from a diverse array of contributors, including Allen Ginsberg, Judy Grahn, Essex Hemphill, Patrick Califia, Dorothy Allison, Allan Gurganus, Chrystos, John Preston, Linda Villarosa, Edmund White, and many more. 
 
OutWrite offers readers a front-row seat to the passionate debates, nascent identity politics, and provocative ideas that helped animate queer intellectual and literary culture in the 1990s. Covering everything from racial representation to sexual politics, the still-relevant topics in these talks are sure to strike a chord with today’s readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978828032
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/18/2022
Pages:	342
Sales rank:	323,735
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

JULIE R. ENSZER (she/her) is the author of four poetry collections, including Avowed, and the editor of The Complete Works of Pat Parker and Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989. Enszer edits and publishes Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal. She lives in central Florida.
 
ELENA GROSS (she/they) is an independent writer, curator, and culture critic living in Oakland, California. Her research specializes in conceptual and material abstractions of the body and representations of identity in fine art, photography, and popular media.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction Julie R. Enszer Elena Gross 1

Your First Audience Is Your People Judy Grahn 22

American Glasnost and Reconstruction Allen Ginsberg 29

AIDS and the Responsibility of the Writer Sarah Schulman 36

Does Your Mama Know about Me? Essex Hemphill 41

The Effects of Ecological Disaster Susan Griffin 47

More Fuel to Run On Pat Calipia 52

AIDS Writing John Preston 58

Lesbians and Gays of African Descent Take Issue 64

The Color of My Narrative Mariana Romo-Carmona 69

Survival Is the Least of My Desires Dorothy Allison 80

Speaking a World into Existence Janice Gould 95

I'll Be Somewhere Listening for My Name Melvin Dixon 101

What Fiction Means Allan Gurganus 108

The Gift of Open Sky to Carry You Safely on Your Journey as Writers Chrystos 116

An Exceptional Child John Preston 123

Aversion/Perversion/Diversion: An Excerpt Samuel R. Delany 136

Less Than a Mile from Here Jewelle Gomez 147

Two Poems: "The Bridge Poem" and "A Pacifist Becomes Militant and Declares War" Kate Rushin 161

We Have to Fight for Our Political Lives Linda Villarosa 166

On Pretentiousness Tony Kushner 180

Heroes and Saints from Downtown Luis Alfaro 190

Remembrances of a Gay Old Time Edmund White 196

Imagination and the Mockingbird Minnie Bruce Pratt 209

A House of Difference: Audre Lorde's Legacy to Lesbian and Gay Writers Cheryl Clarke 226

Keeping Our Queer Souls Nancy K. Bereano 243

Making a Fresh Start: The Challenge of Queer Writers Craig Lucas 254

A Menopausal Gentleman: An Excerpt Peggy Shaw 264

Voices from OutWrite 269

Acknowledgments 293

Notes on Contributors 295

Permissions 305

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/21/2022

More than two dozen keynote speeches, panel addresses, memorial lectures, and performances from the OutWrite conferences of the 1990s come together in this fascinating and rousing volume. Arranged chronologically from 1990 to 1998, the volume reflects how the conferences gained impetus and focus thanks to the inclusion of more feminist and BIPOC voices. Essex Hemphill discusses the objectification of Black gay men in his 1990 speech “Does Your Mama Know About Me?”; Mariana Romo-Carmona’s 1992 keynote “The Color of my Narrative” urges writers to resist “censorship, exclusion, deliberately twisting history to support the Eurocentric view”; and Cheryl Clarke pays tribute to Audre Lorde’s enduring power in her 1996 lecture “A House of Difference.” The pieces are a phenomenal look at a serires of events that defined the concerns and shaped the politics of LGBTQ literary America: “We are the evolving revolution,” said keynote speaker Minnie Bruce Pratt in 1996, “and the work we make is part of the world that will come to be.” Far from academic ephemera, these resonant messages offer ever relevant takes on the current discourse around identity, inclusion, dissent, and the responsibility of the artist. The result is an indispensable addition to literary and cultural history. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Remembering the Queer Literary Conferences of the 1990s," by Julie R. Enszer and Elena Gross

The Georgia Review

March 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us by Karla J. Strand: "This volume is a collection of speeches and presentations from the annual OutWrite Conference which ran from 1990 to 1999. Included are queer greats such as Dorothy Allison, Jewelle Gomez, Allen Ginsburg, Minnie Bruce Pratt and more."

Ms. Magazine

"The vital, urgent need to tell our stories, to share, to write within and for a community is an inspiring part of any gathering of writers and publishers, but it’s especially evident in the speeches collected in OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture. This anthology documents the pivotal role the OutWrite conferences played in shaping and inspiring a generation of LGBTQ writers. The diversity of speakers gathered here, and the explicit links they make between silenced and marginalized sexual communities and other oppressed communities amidst the devastation wrought by the AIDS epidemic and the ‘90s culture wars is especially valuable. This collection honors the memory of our forebearers—many of whom fired my own passion for critical queer writing—and is sure to bolster today’s artists and activists working against a global pandemic, climate crises, and the continued ascendency of white supremacy and conservative politics."

President & University Professor at The New School - Dwight A. McBride

"The Outwrite conferences of the 1990s marked a critical turning point in the history of LGBTQ literary life and culture. This collection restores to historical memory the anger, the militancy, and the vibrant cultural voices that confronted directly the pain of the AIDS epidemic as well as the racial and gender divisions within the community. The editors have given us a wonderfully moving and inspiring gift by bringing into print these powerfully insightful speeches from the past."

author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives - John D’Emilio

"What a fabulous and fascinating collection of speeches from leading figures in queer arts and letters in the 1990s! For everyone who wishes that they had attended the OutWrite conferences, for those who will enjoy re-experiencing them, and for all who are interested in cultural activism, this valuable anthology will inspire with words, wit, and wisdom."

author of The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History and Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism - Marc Stein

"Oh please, please powers-that-be, have the smarts and curiosity to bring OutWrite back into our lives. This inspiring collection reveals the dialogic community in negotiation/inspiration from all of its corners: where the most rewarded meet the most marginalized, where the grassroots meets the corporate, the dying met the future, and they all sit on the same panels, eat and drink together, make friends and lovers, business deals and friendships, and share aesthetics, politics, argue and thereby influence the creation of the literature."

author of Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 - Sarah Schulman

Erie Gay News OutWrite spotlight and giveaway

Erie Gay News

"Remembering OutWrite: Something extraordinary happens when queer writers gather together," by Julie R. Enszer

Public Seminar

"OUTWRITE: The Speeches That Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture" blog spotlight

Mile High Gay Guy

"A new book captures the rousing speeches of LGBTQ writers," by Merry Johns

OUTvoices

"When I look back at my heavily marked-up OutWrite programs and reread the articles I’d written about it, I’m reminded that as wonderful as many speeches were, they were only part of what made OutWrite so memorable." 

Gay & Lesbian Review

"The incredible importance of queer culture to American culture is usually ignored by heterosexuals and often underestimated by LGBTQ people. OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture edited by Julie R. Enszer and Elena Gross is a magnificent testimony—and until now undocumented archive—of the expanse and the depth of LGBTQ literary and political culture that was the legacy of decades of struggle. Every piece here brilliantly embodies the insights, intellectual bravery, political acumen and sheer courage that went into building a fiercely independent literary and political culture that redefined American culture and still illuminates how we live today. This is an invaluable contribution to LGBTQ literature, Queer Studies, and the everyday reader of queer literature."

Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Harvard University - Michael Bronski

"OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture is an incredible collection that taps into the heart of the queer literary community in the 1990s - the struggles, the successes, the visions, and the revisions. Reading it, I was struck by our loss of an entire parallel culture of LGBTQ businesses, conferences, and infrastructure that existed before the wide spread of the internet—but I was also struck by the continuity of hope, the clarity with which these authors fought for a freer future, against incredible odds. OutWrite is a history that feels searingly present."

author of When Brooklyn Was Queer - Hugh Ryan

Listen for My Name: Julie Enszer and Elena Gross on community care, the AIDS epidemic, and OutWrite, the conference that shaped queer literary history

Poetry Foundation - Off the Shelf Podcast

"The Outwrite conferences of the 1990s marked a critical turning point in the history of LGBTQ literary life and culture. This collection restores to historical memory the anger, the militancy, and the vibrant cultural voices that confronted directly the pain of the AIDS epidemic as well as the racial and gender divisions within the community. The editors have given us a wonderfully moving and inspiring gift by bringing into print these powerfully insightful speeches from the past."

author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives - John D’Emilio