Read LGBT Books, Win Prizes

I was delighted to discover the new(-ish) blog GLBT Reading, home of the GLBT Challenge 2010. The goal of the site is to encourage people to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.

To participate in the Challenge, simply read relevant books (or short stories, poems, or essays), post reviews on your blog, and enter the Challenge as directed. Participants will also be entered into drawings for a variety of prizes.

There are also mini-challenges each month, in which people are encouraged to read and post about books on particular topics. The mini-challenge for February is People of Color, and for March it is Graphic Novels. Young Adult works are coming up in April, and Picture Books in September, among other categories.

I know many of you are voracious readers. Go show GLBT Reading some love!

Guest Post: Writing Social Commentary

Melissa Hart is the author of Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood (Seal, 2009), a memoir of growing up in the 1970’s separated from her mother, who lost custody of her children after she divorced their father and came out as a lesbian. (More about it in my 2009 Review of LGBTQ Family Books.) She also teaches writing, and was kind enough to pen this piece for Mombian readers.

Melissa’s own social commentary has appeared in The Advocate, Curve, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune. Her Web site is: www.melissahart.com.

As a journalism teacher at the University of Oregon, I ask my students to write a piece of social commentary and submit it to a newspaper or magazine. Usually, they complete the task without complaint. But last year, a talented young writer named Emily balked at my request. Read the rest of this post »

Gringa Giveaway II

It’s time for the second giveaway of Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood, writer Melissa Hart’s memoir of growing up in the 1970’s separated from her mother, who lost custody of her children after she divorced their father and came out as a lesbian. (More about it in my 2009 Review of LGBTQ Family Books. You can also check out her YouTube video at the bottom of the sidebar to the right.)

The book will go to the first commenter who leaves the correct answer to the question:

Name the recent LGBTQ parenting anthology that included one of Hart’s essays.

Rules and restrictions: U.S. and Canada residents only, please. One entry per person. Don’t worry if your comment is moderated; once I approve it, it will appear based on the time you submitted it. Previous winners of Mombian contests cannot play again. If you are or have been a paying advertiser (or an employee of a paying advertiser) on Mombian, you can’t play.

You must also leave a valid e-mail address with your comment. Don’t leave a postal address, though. If you win, I’ll contact you by e-mail about shipping. (I will then share the winner’s name and postal address only with the publisher, for the sole purpose of allowing them to mail you your prize.)

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

Book Giveaway: Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood

It’s time for a book giveaway! I’m very pleased to offer a copy of Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood, writer Melissa Hart’s memoir of growing up in the 1970’s separated from her mother, who lost custody of her children after she divorced their father and came out as a lesbian. (More about it in my 2009 Review of LGBTQ Family Books.)

The book will go to the first commenter who leaves the correct answer to the question:

Name the documentary that Hart appeared in to talk about her mother’s and her experiences in the 1970’s with homophobia.

If you don’t get it, I’ll be giving away another copy tomorrow (at a different time of day), so you can try again.

Rules and restrictions: U.S. and Canada residents only, please. One entry per person. Don’t worry if your comment is moderated; once I approve it, it will appear based on the time you submitted it. Previous winners of Mombian contests cannot play again. If you are or have been a paying advertiser (or an employee of a paying advertiser) on Mombian, you can’t play.

You must also leave a valid e-mail address with your comment. Don’t leave a postal address, though. If you win, I’ll contact you by e-mail about shipping. (I will then share the winner’s name and postal address only with the publisher, for the sole purpose of allowing them to mail you your prize.)

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 93

Helen and I share the harrowing but not tragic story of totaling our car last week. We then discuss asking and telling at our insurance company, which only covers members and former members of the military. Plus: a new memoir about growing up in the 1970’s as the child of a lesbian mom. And really bad car puns!

(If the video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

A 2009 Review of LGBTQ Family Books

(Originally published in Bay Windows, December 10, 2009. I’ve covered a few of the books below in separate columns, but several of them are new—and good. Enjoy!)

There are still relatively few books for and about LGBTQ families, but 2009 gave us as good and diverse a crop as I’ve seen in a long time. Here are some highlights: Read the rest of this post »

“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 92

Helen and I discuss the second volume of LGBT parenting essays to come out of Canada this year, one that explores the many new and unnamed family connections that are created when one uses a known donor. We also offer some advice and suggestions for those buying gifts for children (or their parents) this season. (We made the podcast with our After Ellen viewers in mind, who are less likely to be parents themselves than those of you reading here. If you have your own ideas for kids’ (or parents’) gifts, please leave a comment.)

(If the embedded video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

It Takes a Queer Village

The Canadians are on a roll. Hot on the heels of Who’s Your Daddy?, the volume of LGBTQ parenting essays I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, comes And Baby Makes More, a similar volume from a Canadian press, but one that focuses on the experiences of those who have used known donors, those who have themselves donated sperm or eggs or been a surrogate, and the children created by these acts.

I have a full review up at Bay Windows, so you can go read it there. Bottom line: Go buy this book, along with Who’s Your Daddy?. Both are the kind of rich explorations of LGBTQ parenting we need more of today. (And despite their origins, both volumes include writers from the U.S. and Australia as well as Canada.)

You can also visit editor Susan Goldberg at her blog, Mama Non Grata, and editor Chloë Brushwood Rose at her York University faculty Web site.

Like Who’s Your Daddy?, though, the book is not yet available in the U.S. (The publisher says it’s coming next March.) It may, however, be ordered from the Canadian publisher, Insomniac Press, or Canadian online bookstores such as chapters.indigo.ca and amazon.ca. Or use it to justify that ski trip up north you’ve been wanting to take.

(And no, I’m not getting any referral fees from those links, although I do for the links to Amazon.com on this site. But the book is so good I didn’t want to keep anyone waiting for the U.S. publication. If you feel guilty, go and do some other holiday shopping at Amazon.com through this link (for which I will get a small fee) and help me justify the time I spend on Mombian.)

“Where Few Men Have Gone Before”

Here is the eleventh in my series of quotes from Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting. I’ll be running them for a couple of weeks courtesy of the book’s editor, Rachel Epstein. I’m choosing the quotes I feel are most intriguing and thought provoking; I don’t always agree with the sentiments, but I hope they will spur some discussion in the comments and encourage you to seek out the book for yourselves.

For more on how to get this Canadian-published volume (and you should!), see my original post about it.

Today’s quote is from Syrus Marcus Ware’s “Boldly Going Where Few Men Have Gone Before: One Trans Man’s Experience”: Read the rest of this post »

Assimilation vs. Difference in LGBT Children’s Books

Here is the tenth in my series of quotes from Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting. I’ll be running them for a couple of weeks courtesy of the book’s editor, Rachel Epstein. I’m choosing the quotes I feel are most intriguing and thought provoking; I don’t always agree with the sentiments, but I hope they will spur some discussion in the comments and encourage you to seek out the book for yourselves.

For more on how to get this Canadian-published volume (and you should!), see my original post about it.

Today’s quote is from Anika Stafford’s “Beyond Normalization: An Analysis of Heteronormativity in Children’s Picture Books”: Read the rest of this post »