Lodestar Quarterly

Felice Picano

Felice Picano's first book was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Since then he has published twenty volumes of fiction, poetry, and memoir. Considered a founder of modern gay literature along with other members of the Violet Quill Club, Picano also founded two publishing companies exclusively publishing the work of gay authors: SeaHorse Press and Gay Presses of New York. His exhibit "Early Gay Presses of New York," debuted at the ONE Institute in Los Angeles and will be in San Francisco's Central Library beginning November 15, 2002.

We present to Felice Picano the first of our lodestar designations. He has remained a paradigm of literary excellence to us for more than twenty-five years, yet his work in our community of writers has often exceeded the definition of lodestar. What follows is an exclusive essay by the prolific writer and selections from his unpublished diaries remarked upon by Washington, D.C. writer and editor at Chi Rho Press, Kevin Stone Fries.

Essay by Felice Picano:
My Problem with Time

Collection by Kevin Stone Fries:
The Felice Picano Diaries: Spring 1982

FICTION

K.M. Soehnlein Jones Was the Guy

His first published story after an acclaimed debut novel introduces Manny and the boy he wants to fuck more than anyone else.

Sara McAulay
Mild Steel

An excerpt from the forthcoming novel of the same name shows us a place where "nothing is real and everything is real and all things are possible."

David Pratt
My Movie

A boy documents the arrival of his uncommon sexuality in the world of his own imagined movie.

Christopher Lord
Cleaning Au Naturel

Harmon Weydon and his charming ami George return in this provocative story of getting dirty and cleaning up.

DRAMA

		Prince Gomolvilas Critical Mass
Pull out your rubber bands! The San Francisco playwright takes on conversion therapy.

SUBMIT

Unfortunately, Lodestar Quarterly is no longer accepting submissions. Thank you for your interest and good luck in placing your manuscripts elsewhere.

POETRY

Gerry Gomez Pearlberg From Dyke Dialects / Lesbian Objects

Fellow poet Justin Chin believes her poetry "has an undertow of raw verve that hits hard and hits true."

Daniel W. K. Lee
Kama's Clay, Disarm, Desire Stays, Sequela

A New York City-based artist and writer on a one-man mission to restore our love for love poems.

Thea Hillman
Fag Hag Gone Bad

She's performed a birdcall on The Tonight Show and appeared on the cover of the Oakland, California phone book, but the renowned slam poet is most proud of her tag-team haiku championship title.

horehound stillpoint
A Mouthful of Queer

Poet and pervert. Savior to excess. Scribe of tricks. He's been named all of these for no small reason.

Lauren Wheeler
in the east and to be a cocktail waitress, you must

Among the fiercest of slam poets, her ferocity ignites with the written word itself.

Buddy Wakefield
Fran Varian's Grandmother

Inside his skin he's got a friend who's willing to give him everything he ever wanted in exchange for all he's ever been.

Malka Geffen
Not Quite a Year, Put Your Whole Self In, Heliotrope

Here is the chemistry of direction and the impalpable yen that draws us to one another.

Melissa Fondakowski
The Fall and Who Has All the Answers Knows This

The Sow's Ear Review chapbook winner cunningly tempts us as the release of her debut poetry collection draws close to hand.

Michelle Maihiot
Bombers and Auto

Her poems reside precariously upon the thin membrane between animus and regret.