ReadOut Literary Festival

At the LGBTQ Resource Center of the Gulfport library

The LGBTQ Resource Center of the Gulfport Library announces its sixth annual ReadOut Literary Festival February 17-19, onsite at the Gulfport Public Library and live streamed on Zoom. Registration is free and required for Zoom access.  More than 80 authors and a worldwide audience will celebrate the rich diversity of LGBTQ literature onsite in Gulfport (FL), live streamed, and in prerecorded formats. Registration is free and required for Zoom access: ReadOut 2023: A Festival of LGBTQ Literature Tickets, Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 5:00 PM | Eventbrite

ReadOut’s keynote speaker at noon on Sunday, Feb. 19, is Brian Broome. Broome’s memoir, Punch Me Up to the Gods, launched him into literary fame when it was purchased by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt while he was still a student at University of Pittsburgh. His essays about growing up poor, dark-skinned and gay in rural Ohio have been recognized with multiple awards: Kirkus Prize winner for nonfiction (2021), Lambda Literary Awards for Nonfiction and for Gay Memoir (2022), Publishing Triangle Nonfiction Award (2022), New York Times Notable Book (2021), New York Times Editor’s Pick (2021), Stonewall Honor Book (2022) and named a Best Book of the Year (2021) by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Amazon and Apple Books.

Brian will explore the pressures and vulnerabilities confronting queer black boys, how feeling like a perpetual outsider led to escalating drug use and indiscriminate sex and how he used those experiences to create the person he has become. Broome’s essays in Punch Me Up to the Gods are framed around Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “We Real Cool, “an 8-line, 24-word elegy for “cool” black youth. Brian Broome

Lesbian icons Radclyffe and Ann McMan kick off the ReadOut festival at 5 pm. Friday, Feb. 17 with a “long view” of lesbian/feminist publishing – past, present and future.

Radclyffe is a retired surgeon whose 50+ novels have earned more than 25 awards from Lambda Literary, Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) and other writers’ associations. She is president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest LGBTQI publishing companies, winning multiple Indie Publishers (IPPY) Awards. Radclyffe is also a member of the Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame. Radfic

Ann McMan is the multiple Lambda Literary and Golden Crown Literary Society award-winning author of twelve novels and two short story collections. She is a four-time IPPY (Independent Publisher) medalist and a laureate of the Alice B. Foundation for her outstanding body of work. Ann is also a graphic designer who earned the inaugural Tee Corinne Excellence in Cover Design Award from the GCLS, alongside many other national and international design awards. Welcome to Ann McMan – Ann McMan – Treehouse Studio

Other featured authors at ReadOut 2023 include:

• Pete’s Poet Laureate Gloria Munoz (gloriamunoz.com)
• Kitchen Table Arts founder Sheree Greer (Sheree L. Greer (shereelgreer.com)
• 75+ other talented writers of LGBTQ romance, memoir, nonfiction, history, mystery, poetry and more

See Festival details at: ReadOut Festival – ReadOut: A Festival of LGBTQ Literature (lgbtqgulfport.org) and register at: ReadOut 2023: A Festival of LGBTQ Literature Tickets, Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 5:00 PM | Eventbrite

The LGBTQ Resource Center of the Gulfport Library is the only collection of its kind in a public library in Florida, offering more than 10,000 books, CDs and other media, as well as events like ReadOut. The Center’s mission is to promote awareness of the diversity of experiences, contributions and needs of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer. The Resource Center is a 501(c)3 and has been recognized with the Newlen-Symons Award for excellence in library services and outreach by the American Library Association.

Partial funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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