The Year in Gay Books: Mouse Soars, J.K. scores and more!

Best Gay Spirituality

All: A James Broughton Reader (White Crane Press)

Although James Broughton (1913-1999) was best known as a poet and a filmmaker, he was also a deeply spiritual man. All is a collection of Broughton’s major contributions to gay spirituality, with interviews, poetry and prose not available to us for many years (if at all).

Best Gay Travel

Looking for Love in Faraway Places and Gay Travels in the Muslim World, edited by Michael Luongo (Harrington Park Southern Tier)

Luongo, editor of 2004's Between the Palms: A Collection of Gay Travel Erotica, continues in this tradition with two new anthologies of true gay travel stories. Of the two, the more interesting one is Gay Travels in the Muslim World, a collection that includes, among other interesting revelations, the true story of a gay soldier’s tour of duty in Iraq.

And now for the bad news.

Insightout is phased out

Lovers of good gay books suffered a major loss when Bookspan announced that it was phasing out some of its smaller book clubs, including the LGBT-oriented Insightout Book Club. Though Insightout had 50,000 members, that was not enough to keep the club profitable enough for the parent company. It remains to be seen whether the remaining Bookspan clubs will do enough to promote gay books and gay authors and cater to the needs of queer book lovers, especially in areas without LGBT bookstores.

Though Insightout remains in business as of this date, it refuses to take in new members and it is only a matter of time before it ceases to exist.

Book publishers go out of business

Two major lines of LGBT books called it quits in 2007. Carroll & Graf, which under editor Don Weise has produced an impressive list of gay fiction and non-fiction, was discontinued by the new owners of its parent publishing companies.

Meanwhile, the Haworth Press, publisher of Harrington Park Press and its Southern Tier, Alice Street and Positronic lines, was sold to Taylor & Francis without its gay imprints. Though Haworth hopes to find a buyer for its Harrington Park line, it has been not yet been able to find one. Harrington Park Press is one of the major publishers of good LGBT fiction and non-fiction, including some of the best books of 2007. With news like this, it is no wonder that many gay authors are now resorting to online “vanity presses” to publish their books.