Posted by DSOCom@aol.com on June 18, 2000 at 20:10:15:
For immediate release
BridgeCity Books Announces Publication of
QUEER CORNERS
A New Novel by Donald Olson
* * *
Hailed by Quentin Crisp as "a riveting novel with an unforgettable cast of
characters," Queer Corners will be published by BridgeCity Books in July,
1999.
* * *
All hell is about to break loose in Queer Corners, a comfortably middle-class
gay neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. With the passing of neighborhood
gaytriarch Delmont Percy, the choicest home in this toney enclave goes on the
market. Before the lesbigay neighbors can find the "right" buyer, they hear
the awful news: a straight couple has purchased Delmont's Queen Anne mansion.
But this isn't just any couple-it's Ron Labonne, founder of the American
Christian Alliance (ACA) and his evangelist wife Cornette. And guess what?
They've moved to Portland to launch a statewide antigay rights campaign.
Welcome to Queer Corners, the outrageous and outspoken new novel by Donald
Olson. As timely as today's headlines, it tells what happens as the gay
neighbors are pushed to the limit, and then some, by the homophobia in their
own front yard. Frank, funny, and disturbing, Queer Corners is a page-turner
that deals with issues faced by gay men and lesbians every day.
"The novel was inspired by the two anti-gay rights ballot measures in Oregon
in 1992 and 1994," says author Donald Olson. "What struck me at the time was
how the gay and lesbian side of the story never got told in the straight
media, even though we were the ones who would be affected by the ballot
measures if they passed." Olson and his partner had just moved from New York
to Oregon when Ballot Measure 9 appeared as a public referendum. "It was a
shock, after living in Manhattan, to be in a state where religious
right-wingers were whipping up antigay hysteria. It was an eye-opening
experience. It made me realize that when it comes to gay rights we are all in
the same boat, no matter where we live or who we are."
Olson's last novel, The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley (Bantam, London,
1993), dealt with the homophobic backlash that swept London in 1895 during
Oscar Wilde's arrest and trial. "What happened in Portland a hundred years
later is part of the same continuum," he notes. "It is part of our shared
history of struggle and resilience in the face of on-going bigortry and
discrimination. I saw the campaigns as important landmarks of gay history,
politics that changed lives."
Queer Corners is a novel with a sharp, satirical edge that cuts directly to
the heart of an issue that affects us all. Find out what happens when homo
sweet homo turns into a queer battlefield . . .
Advance Praise for
QUEER CORNERS
Quentin Crisp, author of The Naked Civil Servant:
"Queer Corners is a riveting novel with an unforgettable cast of characters.
The tone is often satirical but the underlying message is serious and
heartfelt. Mr. Olson has written a page-turner that appeals to the bawdy and
the soul."
Francis King, fiction reviewer for London's The Spectator and author of Act
of Darkness, The Woman Who Was God, Dead Letters:
"As an admirer of Donald Olson's previous The Confessions of Aubrey
Beardsley, I was at first astonished to read a novel so different from it.
But I was soon won over by the vigour of the writing, the sparkle of the wit,
and the force and sharpness of the attack on religious bigotry."
Robin Karr-Morse, author of Ghosts from the Nursery:
Gay or straight, readers of all persuasions wil enjoy this romp through the
idiosyncracies of human nature. Olson's wit skewers everyone--and leaves us
waiting for more. Recommended for those of us who like to laugh--at least in
part--at ourselves.
For more information:
BridgeCity Books
1717 S.W. Park Ave., #616
Portland, OR 97201
Phone/Fax 503.220.4171
e-mail: DSOCom@aol.com
To order QUEER CORNERS
Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Tel: 312.337.0747 Fax 312.337.5985
e-mail: ipgbook@mcs.com
DONALD OLSON
Biography
Donald Olson is a novelist, playwright, and travel writer. Born in
Minneapolis, he lives in Manhattan and Portland, Oregon, the setting for his
fifth novel, Queer Corners.
Olson's first apublished novel was The Secrets of Mabel Eastlake (Knights
Press, 1986), a camp, transgender gay thriller based on an old Hollywood
rumor that a famous film actress from the 1930s was really a man. It was
praised by Quentin Crisp as "a delicious parody of all the scenarios ever
written about Hollywood"; City Limits in London described it as "memorable."
Paradise Gardens (Knights Press, 1988), a gay love story written 10 years
before its publication, was nominated for a Benjamin Franklin Award in
Literature and singled out because of its "subtle perception" and "the
elegance of its style."
When A Movie (Meadowland Books, Carol Publishing Group) was published in
1990 the New York Native called it: "first-rate reading . . . as vivid as any
cinematic novel."
Donald Olson's last novel, The Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley (London,
Bantam, 1993) is a fictionalized, first-person account of the life of the
late-19th-century artist Aubrey Beardsley. "Olson traces the growth of a
unique imagination," said the London Sunday Times, "and relishes the . . .
fin-de-siècle atmosphere in which it found expression . . . dripping passion,
envy and lust for life . . . A skillfully sustained exercise in
ventriloquism, and a lively account of a brilliant misfit."
Aubrey Beardsley, whose career was ruined by the homophobic backlash
following Oscar Wilde's arrest and trial in 1895, was also the subject for
Olson's play Beardsley, which premiered in Amsterdam in 1987, was remounted
for the Rotterdam 1988 Festival of Lesbian & Gay Writing in Europe, and given
a new production on the London Fringe in 1992. Olson's first play, Blood, a
comedy about gay parenting, was seen Off-Off-Broadway in 1986. The Garden
Plays, a two-act comedy-drama set in ancient Rome and modern-day Manhattan,
premiered in Portland in 1993. Tourists, a one-act comedy set on top of a
recently discovered pyramid in the Mexican jungle, was produced in Portland
in 1997.
Donald Olson also has extensive credits as a travel writer. He was a major
contributor (Introduction and chapters on London, Berlin, Milan, Florence,
Venice, Rome) to the new Frommer's Gay and Lesbian Europe (June, 1999), the
first gay European guide to be published by a major U.S. travel-guide
company. He is also the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to London
(Frommer's, 1999), Fodor's Oregon (1998), and Berlin (Langenscheidt
Publishers, 1990). His travel pieces have appeared in the New York Times,
Travel & Leisure, and many other national publications, and he has
contributed to travel books published by National Geographic and Michelin,
among others.
Mr. Olson is currently completing work on The Pursuit of Happiness, a sequel
to Queer Corners to be published by BridgeCity Books in 2000.