Thursday, June 16, 2022

8:00-9:30 pm ET (Eastern Time); 5 pm Pacific Time

Via Zoom link.  Please RSVP for the Zoom link.  (Same as last month, if you attended before) 

E.M. Forster’s novel, Maurice [British pronunciation: MORR iss; 250 pages – nominated by BRUCE].

This is Forster’s classic coming out novel, that he wrote in 1913 but kept hidden for sixty years, until after his death, because of its open and affirmative gay content (Forster also wrote A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India; but we’re only discussing Maurice).

Besides your library (including inter-library loan), and retailers (e.g., Kindle edition $12 [direct link] or use the free Kindle app on any device; book is available from all booksellers in every format), it may be available for a FREE brief e-book loan (may be a waiting period) at OpenLibrary [direct link for Forster – may include both e-book and audiobook versions] or at Internet Archive read Maurice FREE directly online [link here] (nothing to download, just sign in). –– 

*OPTIONAL RESOURCES* for E.M. Forster at Jim’s independent LGBTQ+ Literature site (not affiliated with Yale GALA, Inc. or the YAA). https://jclarkmedia.com/bookresources/#forster

–> ** INVITE ** ANY YALE ALUMNI to our E.M. Forster discussion on June 16 (link includes RSVP)

https://alumni.yale.edu/events/yale-gala-lgbtq-book-club-em-forsters-maurice

NOTE: Our informal group doesn’t have any set “curriculum;” we discuss the books that members nominate and that we all vote for… but ongoing themes, connected to LGBTQ+ experience – sometimes including Yale – do emerge. At discussions, each of us can bring up ANY points we want. We welcome the widest range of opinions, in a lively collegial atmosphere – Boola Boola Redux! 

Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club is a series of lively Zoom discussions of LGBTQ+ contemporary and classic novels, non-fiction, plays, and poetry. All alumni are welcome, of all orientations, genders, races, and points of view. We meet the third Thursday of every month at 8 pm ET via Zoom. 

To register, please email natasha@yalegalaevents.org with the subject line, “Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club: Maurice. 

 
More Info: 

British Library resources on Maurice: https://www.bl.uk/works/maurice

SOME BOOKS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS

We are NOT limited to the below recommendations but see what you think of these diverse titles. Nominate any LGBTQ+ book that interests you, contemporary or classic, whether a work of FICTION (novel, story collection), NON-FICTION (history, biography, memoir, essay collection), PLAY (or musical), or POETRY; there doesn’t need to be a Yale connection. Mention your choice, at a discussion, and I’ll add it to the following list for future group emails. We periodically, live at the beginning of discussions, take nominations and then vote as a group. For our UPCOMING OPEN DATES (‘Third Thursdays’) – in the next couple of months, we need to select books for: June 16, July 21, August 18. If you’re looking for some ideas, here are major LGBTQ+ book ‘best lists’ and award winners (Lambda Literary, Publishing Triangle, Stonewall Awards, more). NEW!  BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) LGBTQ+ literature with links to external BIPOC sites. You’re not limited to those websites. PLEASE NOTE: new titles take a few months to become widely available in libraries. Here are members’ recommendations.

• AMAN recommends: (FICTION) Delicious Foods by James Hannaham;  Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu;  The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.;  The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer.  (NON-FICTION) Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P Carl;  Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
• ANN recommends: The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village memoir by Samuel R. Delany
• BRUCE recommends: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin;  The Gallery by John Horne Burns (1947); Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
• CHIP recommends: Poetry of Emily Dickinson (list of Dickinson’s most openly lesbian poems)
• JIM recommends: The Bell by Iris Murdoch;  The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde;  Julian [last ‘pagan’ Roman emperor] by Gore Vidal;  Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts by James M. Saslow (includes hundreds of art photos; winner of two Lambda Literary Awards) – THANKS to Prof. Saslow, Pictures and Passions is briefly FREE to download complete (use the basic “Download PDF” link; 59 MB).
• MARY ANNE recommends: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
• TASH recommends: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry.
• What would YOU – including new members – like our group to discuss? Nominate ANY LGBTQ+ book that interests you! I’ll add your recommendations here.

BOOKS WE’VE DISCUSSED (Complete List):

• April 2022: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
• March 2022: Ain't I a Woman, by bell hooks
• February 2022 – Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim’s “Musical Thriller”
• January 2022 – Song in a Weary Throat, Pauli Murray’s memoir. (Movie available)
• December 2021 – Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s novel
• November 2021 – Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart’s novel
• October 2021 – Fa**ots, Larry Kramer’s satirical first novel
• September 2021 – The Sparsholt Affair, Alan Hollinghurst’s novel
• August 2021 – The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s thriller novel
• July 2021 – Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette’s memoir
• June 2021 – Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s novel
• May 2021 – The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s play, inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End
• April 2021 – The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne’s novel
• March 2021 – Native Country of the Heart, a Memoir, by Cherríe Moraga
• February 2021 – Leaves of Grass (1855 first version), Walt Whitman’s poetry
• January 2021 – The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s novel
• December 2020 – Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman’s novel [no meetings in October or November]
• September 2020 – The Gods of Tango, Carolina de Robertis’s novel [no meeting in August]
• July 2020 – Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta’s novel
• June 2020 (our first discussion) – Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde’s autobiographical novel (“biomythography”)