Profile
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Comments
authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that period)
who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of gay people
telling what life is, and was, during an important time of history. The
series is aimed to show the newer gay generations what came before and
how these writers helped them to have it so much better. It is also
aimed at nongay people who will hopefully understand why gay people
deserve the rights that nongay people have. Aside from having historic
value they all are great reading!
I crossed paths twice with Felice Picano, once when I submitted a manuscript to his SeaHorse Press from which I got a rejection slip which had a positive note at the end and at a party for Charles Silverstein where I was introduced to Picano and we talked for, maybe, 2 minutes and told him I had read his book,
The Lure, when it was first published and still had my copy. He looked
hot as a young man and is a distinguished looking older man.
Felice Picano has been, and is, a tremendous force in the world of gay publishing having been a founding member of The Violet Quill and several
publishing houses but, most of all, encouraging other writers, young and
old.
Felice Picano was born in New York City in 1944. He was graduated cum
laude from Queens College in 1964 with English department
honors. He founded SeaHorse Press in 1977, and The Gay Presses of New York in
1981 with Terry Helbing and Larry Mitchell; he was Editor-in-Chief there. He was
an editor and writer for The
Advocate, Blueboy, Mandate, Gaysweek, and Christopher
Street. He was the Books Editor of The New York Native. At The Los Angeles Examiner, San Francisco Examiner, New York Native,
Harvard Lesbian & Gay Review and the Lamdba Book Report, he was a culture
reviewer. He has also written for OUT and OUT Traveller. With Andrew Holleran, Robert Ferro, Michael Grumley, Edmund White, Christopher Cox, and George Whitmore, he
founded The Violet
Quill
considered to be the pathbreaking gay male literary nucleus of the
20th Century.
In his memoir Men Who Loved Me, he describes his close friendship with
the poet W. H. Auden. In his
later memoir/history, Art & Sex in Greenwich Village, he writes about
contacts with Gore Vidal, James Purdy, Charles Henri
Ford, Edward Gorey, Robert
Mapplethorpe and many contemporary and younger authors.
Among those who Picano introduced to the public via his publishing companies
were Dennis Cooper, Harvey Fierstein, Jane
Chambers, Brad Gooch, Robert Gluck, Doric Wilson, and Gavin
Dillard. Several of his novels have been national and international
best-sellers, and they have been translated into fifteen languages.
A long time resident of Manhattan and Fire Island Pines, Picano has resided
for periods of time in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, England, and Berlin,
Germany. He now lives in West Hollywood, CA.
Literary prizes
He won the Ferro-Grumley Award and Gay Times of England Award for best gay
novel and the Syndicated Fiction/PEN Award for short-story. He was a finalist
for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was nominated for four Lambda Literary Awards.
Publications
Novels and short
story collections
- Smart as the Devil, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1975.
- Eyes, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1975.
- The Mesmerist, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1977.
- The Lure, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1979, Alyson Books (Los Angeles,
CA), 2002, Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 - Late in the Season, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1981, Bold Strokes
Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 - An Asian Minor: The True
Story of Ganymede Sea HorsePress (New York, NY), 1981. - Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love and Other Stories Gay Presses
of New York (New York, NY), 1983. - House of Cards, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1984.
- To the Seventh Power, William Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.
- Dryland's End, Masquerade Books, 1995, Harrington Park Press (New
York, NY), 2004. - Like People in History, Viking (New York, NY), 1995.
- Looking Glass Lives, illustrated by F. Ronald Fowler, Alyson Books
(Los Angeles, CA), 1998, Bold Strokes Books, Inc, (Valley Falls NY) 2008 - The Book of Lies, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 1999.
- The New York Years: Stories (contains An Asian Minor and
Slashed to Ribbons in Defense of Love), Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA),
2000. - Onyx, Alyson Books (Los Angeles, CA), 2001.
- Tales: From a Distant Planet (collection), French Connection Press
(New York, NY), 2005.
Memoirs
- Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of
Children, Gay Presses of New York
(New York, NY), 1985.
- Men Who Loved Me: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel, New American
Library (New
York, NY), 1989.
- A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay: A Memoir, Faber and Faber
(Boston,
MA), 1997.
- Fred in Love, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 2005.
- Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: Gay Literary Life after Stonewall,
Perseus Publishing, 2007.
- Carroll & **The Deformity Lover and Other Poems, Sea Horse Press
(New York, NY), 1978. - Window Elegies, Close Grip Press, 1986.
Anthology
- 'A True Likeness: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Writing Today (editor)
', Sea
8Horse Press (New York, NY), 1980.
Drama
- One O’Clock Jump (one-act play), produced Off-Off Broadway,
1985. - Immortal (play with music; based on Picano’s novella An Asian
Minor: The True Story of Ganymede), produced Off-Off Broadway, 1986. - The Bombay Trunk, produced in San Francisco, 2002.
Screenplays
- Eyes, based on the novel of the same title (1986)
- Universal Donor (2003)
- Very Large Array (2007)
- Perfect Setting
Nonfiction
- The New Joy of Gay Sex, co-authored with Charles Silverstein, preface
by Edmund White, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1992, revised and expanded 3rd
edition, illustrated by Joseph Phillips, HarperResource (New York, NY), 2004.
