Thursday News: Lambda Literary Awards, ghostwriting the Hardy Boys, self-expression v. high school graduation, and coffee art
Lambda Literary Awards laud best gay, lesbian and transgender books – Monday night marked the 27th Lambda Literary Awards ceremony, hosted by Kate Clinton. The awards are divided into a wide range of categories, honoring genres such as poetry, memoir, graphic novel, mystery, romance, and genera fiction and nonfiction. Specific categories include Transgender Fiction, Bisexual Nonfiction, Gay and Lesbian Memoir/Biography (separate categories for gay and lesbian finalists), and LGBT Studies. Category winners are listed in the LA Times article.
Two writers were honored with lifetime achievement awards: Rita Mae Brown, author of “Rubyfruit Jungle,” was presented with the Pioneer Award by Gloria Steinem. Filmmaker and author John Waters, who was given the Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature, dedicated his award to the original owners of the Provincetown Bookstore, where he said he worked for a summer when he was young and received his true education. –Los Angeles Times
The Mystery of the Hardy Boys and the Invisible Authors – For all that we talk about authors as individual creators, there’s a reason certain types of writing are referred to as “commercial fiction” — namely that its production and marketing is explicitly commercialized. Book packagers, which are often used for children’s and YA books, exemplify that commercialization, and this article on the enduring industry of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries is a pretty interesting view into the largely invisible and anonymous production of books that, for readers, at least, have featured the same authors’ names for more than 80 years.
Book packagers are a kind of outsourced labor, not unlike factories in China or tech-support centers in Mumbai. They develop new story ideas, recruit and manage freelance writers, and edit the first drafts of series books. Then they deliver manuscripts to the publisher, who rewrite and polish them to produce the final book. “Hiring a book packager is a way of hiring staff without putting them on your payroll,” explains Anne Greenberg, who worked for Simon & Schuster from 1986 to 2002, when Lampton was writing. Greenberg edited hundreds of Nancy Drew mysteries after they came in from book packagers, and suspects she worked on more books in the series (approximately 300) than anyone else. “You have to keep feeding the machine,” she says. . . .
The industry that churns out children’s books has changed surprisingly little in the last century. In 1905, a prolific writer named Edward Stratemeyer founded a network of freelance writers and editors. Though you might expect a writer collective to support writers the way labor unions support laborers, the Stratemeyer Syndicate’s central aim was simply to produce a huge number of books at the lowest possible cost. “Edward Stratemeyer was a genius,” says Greenberg. “He was like an idea machine.” –The Atlantic
Clovis High senior says school won’t let him wear eagle feather on graduation cap – Although I understand school districts’ attempts to maintain a certain gravitas at graduation ceremonies, and that once you start granting exceptions to dress codes, everything has to be parsed, it seems to me that high school students should be allowed to wear symbols of cultural and religious importance to them. The case of Christian Titman, a member of the central California Pit River Tribe, exemplifies the problems that arise when schools attempt to police students’ free expression. Titman, who is graduating after a great deal of last minute effort, wanted to wear an eagle feather attached to his cap (via the tassel). The school district refused, and then the ACLU got involved. Even after the school offered a compromise (which, according to this Yahoo article, has been accepted – Christian can wear the feather in his hair until he officially graduates, at which point he can move the feather to his tassel), the ACLU is concerned about the absence of a policy that addresses protected forms of self-expression for students participating in graduation. Also a great example of how the First Amendment extends beyond literal “speech.” As Titman explains: “The eagle feather is not only a signature of my tribe but it also represents the pride I have for my tribe, my people and my heritage,” he said on Monday. “When I have feathers on I’m connected with ancestors before me.”
ACLU staff attorney Novella Coleman said she’s seen several school districts faced with this question and, “They usually comply because it’s so easy to just let students express themselves in this situation.”
It’s also a matter of Christian Titman’s right to free expression, she said.
“It’s very clear when the government is restricting protected speech it has to actually be based on a rational basis and it can’t just assume what the government finds distasteful is going to be disruptive,” she said.
In a letter sent in late May by the ACLU, California Indian Legal Services and the Native American Rights Fund to Clovis Unified, the legal groups argue federal policy recognizes the significance of eagle feathers to many Native American tribes and that state education code protects students’ right to religious expression. –Fresno Bee & Yahoo News
‘Chewy, We’re Foam’: Coffee Artist Creates Impressive Portraits in Latte Foam – Remember that tired analogy of a book to a cup of coffee? Well, what if that cup of coffee included the pretty cool art of Michael Breach? Check out these cups and see if you think that’s a more even comparison. –ABC News
