Cleis Press is an American independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica , feminism , gay and lesbian studies , gender studies , fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota . It later moved to San Francisco and was based out of Berkeley until its purchase by Start Media in 2014. Its founders were Frédérique Delacoste , Felice Newman and Mary Winfrey Trautmann , who collectively financed, wrote and published the press's first book Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence in 1981. In 1987, they published Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry by Delacoste with Priscilla Alexander.
35-502: Over the years, Cleis Press has published nonfiction books by Susie Bright , Annie Sprinkle , Edmund White , Essex Hemphill , Gore Vidal , Christine Jorgensen , Matthue Roth , Patrick Califia , Violet Blue , Mark A. Michaels and Patricia Johnson and Tristan Taormino , among others. Fiction published by Cleis Press includes works by Achy Obejas , Stephen Elliott , Erastes (author) , reissues of classic lesbian pulp fiction (including Ann Bannon 's historic Beebo Brinker series ),
70-501: A critic for Penthouse Forum , and the X-Rated Critics Association, all of her nonfiction manuscripts and anthology research for "Best American Erotica", costumes, VHS tapes, books, writings— as well as many other artist files from the early lesbian feminist and erotic literary fiction publishing era. The donation culminated with the 2014 year-long exhibit "Speaking of Sex" where Bright's donations were displayed along with
105-598: A human rights imprint that aims to present fiction, nonfiction, and photojournalism from regions where repression and censorship are endangering creative expression. Midnight Editions published The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival in Argentina, a 1986 memoir by former political prisoner and Amnesty International board member Alicia Partnoy , as well as The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade by Jasmina Tešanović . Cleis Press has also published
140-491: A number of books on transgender issues, including Patrick Califia 's Sex Changes: Transgender Politics and Loren Cameron 's Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. More recently, they also published The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals, by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper , a guidebook for the friends and families of transgender and gender-nonconforming children, which addresses significant social, legal, and medical issues. The press has been
175-568: A portfolio of lesbian erotic photography titled Nothing but the Girl , with 30 interviews with the photographers. It won the Firecracker Award and the Lambda Literary Award in 1997. Bright founded the first women's erotica book-series Herotica and edited the first three volumes. She started the national bestselling The Best American Erotica series in 1993. From 1992 to 1994, she
210-521: A screenwriter and film consultant on several films: Erotique, Monika Treut 's Die Jungfrauenmaschine (aka Virgin Machine ) film in 1988 as "Susie Sexper," The Celluloid Closet , The Criterion Collection 's edition of Luis Buñuel ’s Belle de Jour , and the Wachowskis ' film, Bound (in which she also had a cameo appearance). She also appeared as "Susie Bright, the feminist sex writer" in an episode of
245-670: A wide array of the Human Sexuality Collection's historical documents and materials. As part of the exhibit's grand opening, Bright gave the lecture "The Sexual State of the Union", analyzing current sexual attitudes in America, and reprised her show "How to Read a Dirty Movie." In 2022, Bright was in residence at the Cornell University Library for the exhibition Radical Desire: Making On Our Backs Magazine where she presented
280-438: A wide variety of other thematic collections, including Rachel Kramer Bussel 's Please, Ma'am: Erotic Stories of Male Submission, Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists , Alison Tyler 's Frenzy: 60 Stories of Sudden Sex , Mitzi Szereto 's multiple-genre anthologies and Kristina Wright's genre-themed erotic romance anthologies and Best Erotic Romance series. In 2000, Cleis Press founded Midnight Editions,
315-636: A women's point of a view for a female audience. She founded the Good Vibrations Erotic Video Library, the first feminist curation of erotic films available at the time. Susie Bright co-founded and edited the first women-produced sex-magazine On Our Backs , "entertainment for the adventurous lesbian," from 1984 to 1991. Here she began her sex advice column as "Susie Sexpert." She collected these columns and expanded them to publish her first book, Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World in 1990. Bright co-edited with Jill Posener and published
350-584: Is currently run by Start Publishing in Jersey City, NJ. Susie Bright Susannah Bright (born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author and journalist, often on the subject of politics and sexuality . She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and is one of the early writers/activists referred to as a sex-positive feminist . Her papers are part of the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University Library along with
385-408: Is the daughter of linguist William Bright and Elizabeth Bright. Her stepmother is Lise Menn , and her stepbrothers are Joseph Menn and Stephen Menn . Bright lived with her partner Honey Lee Cottrell in the 1980s. She is married to Jon Bailiff, with whom she has one daughter, Aretha Bright. As editor As author Lambda Literary Awards Lambda Literary Awards , also known as
SECTION 10
#1733086340395420-487: Is the only author in the gay mystery category to have won twice for two different series. Alison Bechdel has won four awards in the Humor category, the most by any single author, and is one of five writers to have won the award more than once (with Joe Keenan , Michael Thomas Ford , David Sedaris , and David Rakoff ). The Humor category has been discontinued. Nicola Griffith and Melissa Scott have each won four awards in
455-579: Is the only writer to have won two awards in the Gay Fiction category for The Master in 2004 and for The Empty Family in 2011 . Paul Monette is the only writer to have won two awards in the Gay Non-Fiction category, for Borrowed Time in 1989 and for Becoming a Man in 1993 . Lillian Faderman is the only writer to have won awards in seven different categories, having received: Several writers have won awards in more than one category in
490-816: The Scifi/Fantasy/Horror category, and are two of six writers to have won the SFFH award more than once (with Stephen Pagel, Jim Grimsley , and Lee Thomas ). Sarah Waters has won three awards in the Lesbian Fiction category, for Tipping the Velvet ( 2000 ), Fingersmith ( 2002 ), and The Night Watch in ( 2007 ), and is one of only three writers to have won the Lesbian Fiction award more than once (with two-time winners Dorothy Allison and Achy Obejas ). Mark Doty and Adrienne Rich have each won three awards in
525-592: The " Lammys ", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literature. The awards were instituted in 1989. The program has grown from 14 awards in early years to 24 awards today. Early categories such as HIV/AIDS literature were dropped as the prominence of the AIDS crisis within the gay community waned, and categories for bisexual and transgender literature were added as
560-462: The Fiction category inclusive of poetry titles) or three (Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry) categories, while if a smaller number of titles is deemed eligible, then a merged Literature shortlist is put forward. However, even when the category shortlists have been merged, judges still retain the right to identify a single winner in the unlisted category; for example, at the 25th Lambda Literary Awards in 2013
595-575: The HBO series Six Feet Under . In 2013, Bright donated her archives to the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library. They included papers and documents from her early activist days in The Red Tide , Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and International Socialists, her early stage and film work, a complete archive of On Our Backs magazine and Fatale Videos, her reviews and research as
630-1241: The Nancy Clue series by Mabel Maney , Virginia Woolf 's first completed novel, Melymbrosia , and an English-language novel set in North Korea, Jia by Hyejin Kim. Other Cleis Press authors are Lori Bryant-Woolridge , Cole Riley , Mitzi Szereto , Neil Plakcy , Radclyffe , James Lear , and Richard Labonté . Cleis Press' erotic anthologies have included work from well known story writers Sacchi Green, Shanna Germain, Jeremy Edwards, Michelle Augello-Page, Charlotte Stein, ADR Forte, and Teresa Noelle Roberts. Cleis Press produces many erotica collections and self-help sex guides, including The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio, The Whole Lesbian Sex Book , and The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex . Some of their collections include Best Gay Asian Erotica, Best Bisexual Women's Erotica, and Best Lesbian Bondage Erotica, and annual anthologies titled Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, and Best Women's Erotica. In winter of 2010, they began of yearly anthology of bondage erotica , starting with Best Bondage Erotica 2011. Cleis Press also publishes
665-518: The Poetry category, and are two of seven poets to have won the award more than once (with two-time winners Joan Larkin , Michael Klein, Marilyn Hacker , Audre Lorde , and J. D. McClatchy ) Richard Labonté , Radclyffe , and Tristan Taormino have each won two awards in the Erotica category, each winning once before the category was split into Gay and Lesbian subdivisions, and each winning their second after
700-709: The adult industry trade— and the first scholar to teach the aesthetics and politics of erotic film imagery, starting in 1986 at Cal Arts Valencia, and then in the early nineties at the University of California. Her film-reviews of mainstream movies are widely published, and her comments on gay film history are featured in the documentary film The Celluloid Closet . As well, she was featured in Maya Gallus 's 1997 documentary film Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality . Bright produced, co-wrote and starred in two plays, Girls Gone Bad and Knife, Paper, Scissors . She worked as
735-488: The archives of On Our Backs . As a teenager in the 1970s, Susie Bright was active in the feminist , civil rights, and anti-war movements. She was a member of the high school underground newspaper The Red Tide and served as the plaintiff suing the Los Angeles Board of Education for the right of minors to distribute their own publications without prior censorship or approval. (Judgement in favor of Plaintiff). She
SECTION 20
#1733086340395770-464: The award more than once (with three-time winners Katherine V. Forrest and J. M. Redmann ). Similarly, Michael Nava has won five awards in the Gay Mystery category, the most by any single author, and is one of only four writers to have won the award more than once (with three-time winner John Morgan Wilson , two-time winner R. D. Zimmerman , and two-time winner Marshall Thornton ). Marshall Thornton
805-466: The bisexual community launched a multi-year struggle that eventually culminated in 2006 with the addition of a Bisexual category. In 2004, the book The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism by the highly controversial researcher J. Michael Bailey was announced as a finalist in the Transgender category of the 2003 Awards. Transgender people immediately protested
840-548: The category was split. Karin Kallmaker and Michael Thomas Ford have each won two awards in the Romance category, each winning one before the category was split into Gay and Lesbian subdivisions – Kallmaker with Maybe Next Time and Ford with Last Summer , but in 2004 – and each winning their second after the category was split – Ford with Changing Tides in 2008 and Kallmaer with The Kiss That Counted in 2009 . Colm Tóibín
875-401: The community became more inclusive. In addition to the primary literary awards, Lambda Literary also presents a number of special awards. In both the bisexual and transgender categories, presentation may vary according to the number of eligible titles submitted in any given year. If the number of titles warrants, then separate awards are presented in either two (Fiction and Nonfiction, with
910-664: The judges named both fiction and non-fiction winners in the Bisexual Literature category, and at the 29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017 the judges picked a title from the Bisexual Fiction shortlist as the winner in Bisexual Poetry despite the lack of an advance poetry shortlist. Ellen Hart has won five awards in the Lesbian Mystery category, the most by any single author, and is one of only three writers to have won
945-635: The nomination and gathered thousands of petition signatures in opposition within a few days. After the petition, the Foundation's judges examined the book more closely, decided that they considered it transphobic and removed it from their list of finalists. Within a year the executive director who had initially approved of the book's inclusion resigned. Executive director Charles Flowers later stated that "the Bailey incident revealed flaws in our awards nomination process, which I have completely overhauled since becoming
980-1026: The panel discussion Making a Lesbian Sex Magazine in the Age of the Feminist Sex Wars with Lulu Belliveau, Phyllis Christopher, Del LaGrace, Morgan Gwenwald, Nan Kinney, Jill Posener , Jessica Tanzer, Deborah Sundahl, Karen Williams, and On Our Backs’ staffers, artists, and models. Susie Bright was an editor-at-large and executive producer at Audible Inc. between 2012 and 2023. Her imprint is The Bright List . She has been nominated or awarded an Audie Award four times, including for her production of The Autobiography of Malcolm X . She has produced audiobook titles by Margaret Atwood, Pablo Neruda, Che Guevara, Frank O’Hara, Martin Luther King, Cornel West, Gary Snyder, Charles Bukowski, Noam Chomsky, Ron Kovic and Bruce Springsteen, Betty Medsger, Dorothy Allison, Dan Savage, Tony Hillerman, Joy Harjo, Octavia Butler, and Dave Hickey. Bright
1015-472: The previous year; accordingly, the first awards ceremony may be described in different sources as either the 1989 awards (for the year of presentation) or the 1988 awards (for the year in which the nominated works were published). In 1992, despite requests from the bisexual community for a more appropriate and inclusive category, the groundbreaking bisexual anthology Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Kaʻahumanu
1050-484: The recipient of many awards, including the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Outstanding Independent Press twice (in 1997 and 1999), and several Lambda Literary Awards in 2010. In 2014, Cleis, along with the imprints Viva Editions and Tempted Romance, was purchased by Start Publishing , the book division of Start Media. The staff members of Cleis departed shortly after the transition. Cleis
1085-568: The same year for the same work (note that according to current guidelines a book may only be entered in one category): Several writers have won awards in more than one category in the same year for different works: Several other writers have won awards in more than one category in different years and for different works: Several authors have won awards in three different categories: Numerous Lambda Award-winning works have been adapted for film and television: The Lambda Literary Awards are presented each year to honor works of literature published in
Cleis Press - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-434: The sting of social injustice. The cry of 'That isn't fair!' gets a more impulsive behavior from me than, 'I want to get off!'" Bright was one of the early staff members of Good Vibrations , a pioneering feminist sex toy store, working at and managing the store from 1981 to 1986. She trained with San Francisco Sex Information in 1981. She wrote Good Vibrations' first mail order catalog, the first sex toy catalog written from
1155-586: Was a member of the International Socialists from 1974 to 1976 and worked as a labor and community organizer in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit, and Louisville, Kentucky. She was also one of the founding members of Teamsters for a Democratic Union , and wrote under the pseudonym Sue Daniels in both The Red Tide and Workers' Power . She has said "I was motivated, always, from
1190-482: Was forced to compete, and lost, in the category "Lesbian Anthology". Additionally, in 2005, Directed by Desire: Collected Poems , a posthumous collection of the bisexual Jamaican-American writer June Jordan 's work, competed (and won) in the category "Lesbian Poetry". Led by BiNet USA , and assisted by other bisexual organizations including the American Institute of Bisexuality , BiPOL , and Bialogue ,
1225-532: Was the contributing editor and columnist for San Francisco Review of Books . Bright was the first female member of the X-Rated Critics Organization in 1986 and was voted into the XRCO Hall of Fame, 5th Estate , in 2005. Known as the " Pauline Kael of Porn", she wrote feminist reviews of erotic films for Penthouse Forum from 1986 to 1989. She was the first mainstream journalist who covered
#394605