From: Brandon278@aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 14:40:42 -0500
Subject: JONATHAN KATZ AND HEATHER LEWIS WIN AWARDS

 FOUR ARE HONORED WITH THE GAY AND LESBIAN LITERARY WORLD'S HIGHEST HONORS,
BUT WHO KNEW?

By Brandon Judell

MANHATTAN, New York, Nov. 18--The Players on Gramercy Park, a National
Historic Landmark, was designed by the architect Stanford White thanks to the
largesse of the actor Edwin Booth in 1887. This was to be the home of The
Players association he started along with Mark Twain and William Tecumseh
Sherman. The group's purpose: to bring his fellow actors into agreeable
contact with members of other professions.

This past Friday night, no actors were in sight, but plenty of eyeglassed gay
and lesbians authors, editors, agents and people who want to be seen with
such types (e.g. Crown and St. Martin's editors Michael Grumley and Keith
Kahla,  architect Dan Lansner, poet Christine Cassidy, acerbicist Patrick
Merla, essayist Lawrence Mass). As the attendees stood about with their
extreme winter pallor intact, chicken-on-a-stick went by on trays while
carrots and celery gamely stood alongside a dip on a lone table. Cost:
$45.00.

"Everyone looks very nice," observed Arnie Kantrowitz, whose  autobiography
"Under the Rainbow"--the first post-Stonewall bio-- will be rereleased next
year

This night's awards, all given out in the name of four rather amazing men who
had died from AIDS in the past decade, were once part of the Lambda Literary
Awards festivities. Apparently, those in charge at The Publishing Triangle,
the umbrella organization seeking to increase respect for lesbian and gay
literature, wanted more of their own spotlight and decided to go out on their
own a few years ago. 

They did so again this year with no publicity, meager attendance, and the
most uncomfortable wooden chairs east of Cedar Rapids. Their efforts had
apparently gone into selecting the most worthy winners, so who can argue with
that?

The Ferro-Grumley Awards were created to honor the two authors and lovers,
Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley. (Please note that Edmund White, an
attendee, wrote in the foreword to Grumley's posthumously published novel
"Life Drawing": "Sex has gotten a bad name recently, but this book reminds us
that sex is something worth dying for. It's rare that we read a book by a
handsome man; most writers are so homely that only the best of the lot rate
being called 'distinguished.' " Mr. White appeared to be more lucid this
night.) 

Annually, a panel selects a gay and a lesbian author for his and her novel of
quality that came out within the previous year. The bestowees receive a check
and ego reinforcement . In 1989, Dennis Cooper and Ruthann Robson won. Last
year Jeanette Winterson and John Berendt cashed in. For 1995, Heather Lewis
for "House Rules" and Mark Merlis for "American Studies" were deemed the
champions of the gay word, and they were popular choices.

Stephen Greco who helped administer these laurels noted that the selection
committee "had a lot of problems this year that the Emmy Awards didn't. We
had a lot of choices."    

The striking Heather Lewis, attired in a tasteful men's suit with her rich
brown tresses reaching past shoulder length, smiled as she accepted her $1000
honor and said: "My landlord will be really glad I got this." Mark Merlis
pursued her with "everyone swore I didn't have to make a speech so I don't
have one."

The presenter of The Robert Chesley 1995 Gay and Lesbian Playwriting Award
wondered aloud perhaps inappropriately, "Maybe theater has outlived its
usefulness" before noting that the winner was Victor Lodato.  Mr. Lodato was
presently traveling through South America and didn't even know what his play
"House of Tricks" had wrought him. A friend however was present and shared
that the playwright was "somewhere in the Andes with a blonde goddess
spending her inheritance." He added that the duo were also planning to hit
Machu Picchu and confer with the elemenentals, then switch clothes and travel
in drag.

The major prize of the night was The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime
Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Literature. Mr. Whitehead had been one of the
first editors in the country to champion queer writers, besides working with
Anne Rice and Buckminster Fuller.  Past recipients included Audre Lorde,
James Purdy, and Samuel R. Delaney.  The 1995 winner: Jonathan Ned Katz. 

Katz, who numerous books include "Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men
in the U.S.A.," "Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A New Documentary," and "The Invention
of Heterosexuality," almost single-handedly opened up the field of gay
history.

A humble Katz strode onto the stage thanked his lover of 20 years, noted that
growing up he was a "silent sissy" who listened while brother raved on about
Tito and his dad praised Stalin. He ended with "Please remember we're in the
age of the plague . . . Let us not destroy ourselves from within."

(For those interested in making tax-deductible contributions to the Bill
Whitehead/Ferro-Grumley Awards Trust, send your contributions to: Community
Funds, Inc., Two Park Avenue, New York, NY 10013.)