Synopses & Reviews
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In 2003, after serving five and a half years as a carpenter in a North Dakota National Guard engineer unit, Bronson Lemer was ready to leave the military behind. But six months short of completing his commitment to the army, Lemer was deployed on a yearlong tour of duty to Iraq. Leaving college life behind in the Midwest, he yearns for a lost love and quietly dreams of a future as an openly gay man outside the military. He discovers that his father’s lifelong example of silent strength has taught him much about being a man, and these lessons help him survive in a war zone and to conceal his sexuality, as he is required to do by the U.S. military. The Last Deployment is a moving, provocative chronicle of one soldier’s struggle to reconcile military brotherhood with self-acceptance. Lemer captures the absurd nuances of a soldier’s daily life: growing a mustache to disguise his fear, wearing pantyhose to battle sand fleas, and exchanging barbs with Iraqis while driving through Baghdad. But most strikingly, he describes the poignant reality faced by gay servicemen and servicewomen, who must mask their identities while serving a country that disowns them. Often funny, sometimes anguished, The Last Deployment paints a deeply personal portrait of war in the twenty-first century. \''
Review
"In the tradition of Richard Rodriguez, this stirring memoir of a first-generation Mexican American's coming-of-age and coming out is wrenching, angry, passionate, ironic, and always eloquent about conflicts of family, class, and sexuality....An unforgettable story of leaving home today." Booklist
Review
"A deeply felt work that belongs in the company of classic American memoirs such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, When I Was Puerto Rican, and Hunger of Memory....Engrossing, supremely enjoyable, and beautifully written." Jaime Manrique, author of Eminent Maricones
Review
"Rigoberto González is a writer who walks, with an elegant gait, the line between sorrow and laughter, anger and acceptance. His prose is shaped by the poetry of irony. And he is a master of it." Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown: The Last Discovery of America
Synopsis
Heartbreaking, poetic, and intensely personal,
Butterfly Boy is a unique coming out and coming-of-age story of a first-generation Chicano who trades one life for another, only to discover that history and memory are not exchangeable or forgettable.
Growing up among poor migrant Mexican farmworkers, Rigoberto González also faces the pressure of coming-of-age as a gay man in a culture that prizes machismo. Losing his mother when he is twelve, González must then confront his father’s abandonment and an abiding sense of cultural estrangement, both from his adopted home in the United States and from a Mexican birthright. His only sense of connection gets forged in a violent relationship with an older man. By finding his calling as a writer, and by revisiting the relationship with his father during a trip to Mexico, González finally claims his identity at the intersection of race, class, and sexuality. The result is a leap of faith that every reader who ever felt like an outsider will immediately recognize.
2007 Finalist, Randy Shilts Awards for Gay Nonfiction, Publishing Triangle Winner, American Book Awards, Before Columbus Foundation
Synopsis
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In the midst of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy debate, a gay former soldier offers a firsthand account of his experiences in the Iraq war, capturing the real experience of gay servicemen and servicewomen. \\\\n
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Synopsis
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Bronson Lemer served in the North Dakota Army National Guard for six years, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. His writing has appeared in Blue Earth Review, The Rekjavik Grapevine, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. He teaches English and humanities courses at Turtle Mountain Community College near Belcourt, North Dakota. \\\\n
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Synopsis
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From sensual pieces to comical romances, from inner city dramas to portraits of gay domesticity, the stories in this collection reflect a vibrant and creative community and redefine received notions of “gay” and “lesbian.” \\n
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Synopsis
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Lázaro Lima is associate professor of Latino studies at Bryn Mawr College and author of The Latino Body: Crisis Identities in American Literary and Cultural Memory. Felice Picano is an accomplished author, editor, publisher, journalist, screenwriter, and playwright, and is one of the founders of the Violet Quill. \\n
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Synopsis
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As the U.S. Latino population grows rapidly, and as the LGBTQ Latino community becomes more visible and a more crucial part of our literary and artistic heritage, there is an increasing demand for literature that successfully highlights these diverse lives. Edited by Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano, Ambientes is a revolutionary collection of fiction featuring stories by established authors as well as emerging voices that present a collective portrait of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience in America today. With a preface by Picano and an introduction by Lima that sets the stage for understanding Latino literary and cultural history, this is the first anthology to cross cultural and regional borders by offering a wide variety of urban, rural, East Coast, West Coast, and midwestern perspectives on Latina and Latino queers from different walks of life. Stories range from sensual pieces to comical romances and from inner-city dramas fueled by street language to portraits of gay domesticity, making this a much-needed collection for many different kinds of readers. The stories in this collection reflect a vibrant and creative community and redefine received notions of “gay” and “lesbian.” '
Synopsis
Winner of the American Book Award
About the Author
Rigoberto González is the author of So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks, a selection of the National Poetry Series, and of Other Fugitives and Other Strangers. A recipient of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships and of several international artist residencies, he has also written two children's picture books, a literary biography, and an award-winning novel, Crossing Vines. He is on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta–a coalition of Chicano/Latino activist writers. He works and lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
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Editors\\\' Note: The Name of las Cosas
Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano
Preface
Felice Picano
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Genealogies of Queer Latino Writing
Lázaro Lima
Kimberle
Achy Obejas
Pandora\\\'s Box
Arturo Arias
Shorty
Daisy Hernández
Puti and the Gay Bandits of Hunts Point
Charles Rice-González
Porcupine Love
tatiana de la tierra
The Unequivocal Moon
Elías Miguel Muñoz
Dear Rodney
Emanuel Xavier
This Desire for Queer Survival
Horacio N. Roque Ramírez
La Fiesta de Los Linares
Janet Arelis Quezada
Malverde
Myriam Gurba
Aquí viene Johnny
Raquel Gutiérrez
Haunting José
Rigoberto González
Imitation of Selena
Ramón García
Currawong Crónica
Susana Chávez-Silverman
I Leave Tomorrow, I Come Back Yesterday
Uriel Quesada
Six Days in St. Paul
Steven Cordova
Arturo, Who Likes to Shave His Legs in the Snow
Lucy Marrero
Contributors \\n
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