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We love good books, just like you do
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Welcome to Bywater Books
Dear Readers,
This month we’re delighted to introduce you to Judith Katz. Her critically acclaimed novel The Escape Artist is now back in print. To find out more, see Author Profile and Hot Off The Press below.
We’re also proud to announce that Ellen Hart‘s paperback releases will now be published by Bywater Books. And we’ve just welcomed a new author, Wynn Malone. To find out more, check out Bywater News below.
Giraffe People, the third novel from the award-winning writer Jill Malone, is now available. We’ll be telling you more about it and catching up with Jill in our next newsletter.
The 2013 Finalists for Goldies have now been announced, and congratulations are due to Hilary Sloin and Jesse Blackadder. For more details, see Bywater News below.
Bywater authors and publishers will be attending the Saints and Sinners Festival and Golden Crown Literary Conference. Check out Saints & Sinners 2013 and Golden Crown 2013.
As always, we at Bywater strive to bring you the finest in lesbian romance, mystery, and literary fiction.
Till next time!
Michele Karlsberg
Kelly Smith
Marianne K. Martin
Val McDermid
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After graduation, what’s a young woman to do? Judith Katz got in a car and drove halfway across the country from Northampton, Massachusetts “through the night to Omaha Nebraska (really) to work at the Omaha Magic Theatre.”
So began a time she describes now as “entirely exciting.” Over the course of the next few years, she would act, write, complete an MA at Smith College in Theatre, co-create Chrysalis Theatre Eclectic, join a writing group that included poet and martial artist Janet Aalfs, collaborate with writer Andrea Hairston — and “somewhere in there I shared an apartment with Elana Dykewomon.”
These were years, she says, when “we had a sense that we were making a culture, everything was new.” Which they were, because it was. “Adrienne Rich and Michelle Cliff were making Sinister Wisdom up the hill in Leveret, MA and people like Judy Grahn and the jazz band Alive were showing up all the time in Northampton. There was a lot of permission to make amazing lesbian work.”
Writing for theatre, Judith was one of the creators of Toklas, MN, the popular lesbian soap that ran for five live episodes over two years in Minneapolis.” At the same time, “I began to try to write my first novel, Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound.” She also began to teach — both creative writing and Jewish and gender studies. With such a full schedule, she took a while to complete her first novel, but she had plenty of encouragement: in fact, three grants, one from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). When the book was eventually, it won much acclaim: Judith was awarded the 1992 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction.
In 1996, she published The Escape Artist, now released in a new edition from Bywater Books and which “I am very pleased to say even my mother has read and shared with the ladies at her assisted living residence in Worcester, MA.”
Today, Judith says, “I don’t do theatre any more though I am thinking about performance again.” Where she’d find the time to fit that in alongside her writing is her next challenge: “In 2011 I was offered a job doing academic advising for English majors and Gender study majors at the University of Minnesota. It’s full time, I like the work, and am just now figuring out how to be a writer with a full time job.”
Judith lives in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, where she has spent half of her adult (and all of her sober) life.
by Caroline Curtis
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by Judith Katz
Set in the brothels and gangster dens of Jewish Buenos Aires at the beginning of the twentieth century, The Escape Artist catapults us into the exotic lives of Sofia Teitelbaum and Hankus Lubarsky.
Sofia, a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is wooed from her family by Tutsik Goldenberg who claims to be a wealthy Argentine diamond merchant in search of a wife. In a horrifying turnaround, he delivers her to his sister’s brother in Buenos Aires.
Hankus, also a nice Jewish girl from Poland, escaped from the pogroms that killed her family by passing as a man. An illusionist to the core, she’s created the persona of a handsome and mysterious magician and escape artist. In Hankus, Tutsik spots a different kind of prospect. Managing Hankus could be his ticket to freedom from his sister’s machinations.
But his juggling is the act that brings Sofia and Hankus together. Their attempts to walk the tightrope of love, freedom, and independence are quickly put to the test.
Judith Katz is the author of two published novels, The Escape Artist, and Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound, which won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has received Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and National Endowment fellowships for fiction.
Praise for The Escape Artist:
“Katz lives up to her first novel’s potential in this moving, funny, wholly original picaresque about a nice Jewish girl . . . The pasts and common destiny of two remarkable women — related with perfect timing in Sofia’s convincing Yiddish-tinged English — come together beautifully in this nicely crafted, emotionally satisfying, and well-researched historical fiction.”
—Publishers Weekly
Lesbian Fiction 328 pages
ISBN print 978-1-61294-037-3 ISBN eBook 978-1-61294-038-0
At fine stores everywhere
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Bywater Books is proud to announce we have signed a new author — and it’s someone you’ll already know: Ellen Hart. The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival inducted her into their Hall of Fame in 2005; the Golden Crown Literary Society honored her with a TrailBlazer Award in 2010; and her series about Jane Lawless, restaurateur and part-time PI, has won Ellen five Lambda Literary Awards. (Yup, five.)
The latest books in the Jane Lawless series will now be available in paperback from Bywater. This fall we will be publishing two titles: The Cruel Ever After, in which Jane’s ex-husband comes back to town because he’s “between fortunes”; and The Mirror and The Mask, in which Jane has a missing person to find and a romance to steer off the rocks.
Also this fall, we will be publishing another author new to Bywater, Wynn Malone. Finding the Grain takes us from Alabama to North Carolina and the Mississippi Delta as Augusta “Blue” Riley moves from woman to woman, trying to outrun grief and a love she lost. Wynn, a daughter of the Deep South, grew up around story-tellers who taught her the value of a good story.
Z Egloff‘s new novel Leap has won high praise from reviewer Grady Harp. Highlighting her “polished wit” and “splendid use of language,” Grady begins by saying that “Z Egloff is so fine a writer that the reader venturing into her yard is a bit wary that at some point in this outrageously fine novel she is going to miss a step. She doesn’t.” And he ends with this: “This is terrific writing from a very talented new writer who grabs you by the throat and takes you to places words haven’t managed to find before. She is good.”
The Golden Crown Literary Society has announced the 2013 Finalists for Goldie awards, and we’re delighted to announced that there are two Bywater authors shortlisted in the Dramatic/General Fiction category: Jesse Blackadder for The Raven’s Heart and Hilary Sloin for Art on Fire. Hilary has also been nominated for Debut Author.
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Calling all Book Groups:
Ever wanted to know what an author thinks about her own book?
Choose a Bywater title to discuss at your Book Group, and we’ll arrange for the author to join the conversation — in person, by webcam, or over the phone.
Book Group Leaders, feel free to write us for a complimentary copy of any Bywater book for your review.
E-mail our Publicity Dept at KarlsbergM@aol.com.
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This year is the 10th Anniversary Festival of Saints and Sinners. Cue celebrations!
The festival brings together publishers, writers, and readers, and has won international recognition. This year, Val McDermid, award-winning author and publisher, will be a keynote speaker.
Several other Bywater award-winners will be attending too: Judith Katz; Sally Bellerose; GCLS Trailblazer Marianne K. Martin; and Jill Malone, who will be promoting her third book, Giraffe People.
Two more Bywater authors will be there, each delivering a masterclass: Elana Dykewomon and Ellen Hart, who will be published by us in the fall. For more details, see Bywater Events below.
Also attending will be Bywater Editor in Chief Kelly Smith and Publisher Michele Karlsberg.
The festival runs May 23 thru May 26 and will be held at two venues in New Orleans: Hermann-Grimma House and Hotel Monteleone.
For more details, and to register for the festival, click here.
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Every year, the Golden Crown Literary Conference brings together writers and readers, editors and publishers.
This year, there will be author panels, seminars, and workshops — and plenty of opportunities for socializing, including pool parties and a karaoke night.
And if you’ve not attended before, don’t worry: there will be special events before and throughout the conference, to make sure you fit right in.
This year, the award-winning and best-selling Georgia Beers will be the keynote speaker.
Also attending will be Marcia Finical, author of Last Chance at the Lost and Found; Marianne K. Martin; and Kelly Smith.
The conference takes place June 26 thru June 30 in Dallas, TX, and will be held at the Doubletree Hilton at Campbell Center.
To register for the conference, click here.
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Georgia Beers
will be the Keynote Speaker at this year’s Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) Conference. It will take place in Dallas, TX, June 26 thru June 30, 2013.
Elana Dykewomon
will be giving a masterclass Reclaiming the Scene from Yourself at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. The festival runs May 23 thru May 26, and Elana will be encouraging writers to let go of their expectations on Friday, May 24 at 10 a.m.
Ellen Hart
will be giving a masterclass It’s All Just Formula — or is it? at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. The festival runs May 23 thru May 26, and Ellen will be discussing how to write mystery on Friday, May 24 at
3 p.m.
Jill Malone
* will be reading from Giraffe People, her soon-to-be-published third novel. Come meet her at Auntie’s Bookstore on Thursday, May 16 at
Spokane
WA 99201
For more information: (509) 838-0206 * will be taking part in Eastern Washington University‘s Queer Theory Class on Wednesday, May 22 at 6 p.m.Riverpoint Campus/Phase I Bldg 668 N Riverpoint Blvd Spokane, WA 99202
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Val McDermid
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook.
Bett Norris
Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Joan Opyr
Click for her website.
Mari San Giovanni
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter@MariSanGiovanni.
Hilary Sloin
Click for her blog.
Sally Bellerose
Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Georgia Beers
Click for her website. Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Jesse Blackadder
Click for her blog. ..Find her on Facebook.
Lindy Cameron
Click for her website, and for news of her press.
Cynn Chadwick
Click for her website.
Kate Clinton
Click for her website.
Stella Duffy
Click for her blog. Find her on LibraryThing, MySpace, and Twitter
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