Are you a writer? A boy? Do you get down with the same sex? Well, it’s your lucky day, ’cause queer editor Don Weise and a who’s who of homo authors just launched The Open Door Project: a fiction-writing contest for gay men.
Weise explains:
The contest is the first of its kind. Never before have gay editors and writers gotten together around a project; the genesis started around our feeling that gay literature was decimated by the AIDS epidemic and has been off track, if you will, ever since. Our purpose here is to help reinvigorate the writing scene, especially where young men are involved.
Judges include Dennis Cooper, Samuel Delany and Andrew Holleran. Pretty fucking sweet, right?
Get all the details after the jump…
The Open Door Project:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
A five-day publishing introduction intensive in New York City– including a series of lunches with literary agents, book editors, and other publishing figures, a public reading, and a private cocktail reception with New York’s writing community will be awarded to the winner of the first Open Door Project fiction competition.
The contest is open to gay men writing fiction with queer content who have not yet
published a book of fiction. Accommodations and transportation will be provided to an out of town winner. Judges include Christopher Bram, Alexander Chee, Samuel R. Delany, Dennis Cooper, Robert Gluck, E. Lynn Harris, Scott Heim, Andrew Holleran, David Leavitt, Stephen McCauley, Dale Peck, and John Weir.
Submit stories or stand-alone novel excerpts of up to 8,000 words by March 1, 2008. The winner will be announced June 08. There is no entry fee.
Submissions should be mailed to:
Don Weise, Open Door Project
c/o Oscar Wilde Bookshop
15 Christopher St
New York, NY 10014
Please do not contact the bookstore for information about the Open Door Project. Queries can be sent to [email protected]. No queries confirming receipt or status of submissions please.
CJ Hetle
I was very interested in submitting a story or two for this contest, but, this web page, just because it’s geared toward a gay male audience…does it have to be so crude? Perhaps they should have started out by saying this was a contest for wet-dream fantasy stories so we real writers aren’t drawn in accidentally.
Yours Sincerely
C J Hetle
John Harper Jr
The article didn’t sound crude in my opinion. The author was just adding pizazz to his writing. This is a wonderful opportunity for any aspiring gay or lesbian writer.
K.G. Schneider
I can’t see how it’s a “wonderful opportunity” for lesbian writers when it’s not open to women. Not grousing, just observing that it would be good to have something like this for lesbians.
Cooper Lee Bombardier
Of course, gay men are the only people who had to pick up the pieces “after” the AIDS epidemic. It’s not like any other queers were affected, right? Tell that to my girlfriend from my early twenties. Oh, wait, you can’t, she died of AIDS in 1994.
dyl19
Does anyone know if the winners have been announced? It says June, 2008, but I can’t find reference anywhere.