Pushing the Envelope
By Lisa C. Moore
Lambda
Book Report, February 2004
Temple University Press publishes an average of two to three books
connected to gay and lesbian studies per year—but don't equate
the small number with slim content. "We're more concerned with the
intellectual quality of the book, its timeliness in general, and
secondarily what fields it fits in," says Janet Francendese, TUP's
editor-in-chief. To that end, TUP has earned accolades for its gay
and lesbian books from the Lambda Literary Foundation and the Gustavus
Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North
America. One title, Q&A: Queer
in Asian America, edited by David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom,
received honors from both, as well as the Book Award from the Association
for Asian American Studies.
There is a staff of seventeen at TUP, including four in editorial:
Francendese, a former educator, is in charge of acquisitions; and
there are two senior acquisitions editors, Micah Kleit and Peter
Wissoker, and an assistant editor, William Hammell. However, there
is no one person responsible for acquiring gay and lesbian titles.
"Temple is complicated because our list is categorized by interdisciplinary
scholarship," Francendese says. "We're each responsible for certain
fields, but there's overlap. I typically do American history, American
studies, ethnic studies, but our political science editor will also
do ethnic studies books. We'll do gay and lesbian studies as it
relates to our lists." Ultimately, Francendese, and Temple University
Press' director and board, decide which books get published.
There are twenty-eight gay/lesbian TUP titles in print. The first
was The Mirror Dance: Identity
in a Women's Community, by Susan Krieger, in 1983. "That
was an ethnography of a lesbian community; as far as I know, it
was the one of the first academic studies on the lesbian topic,"
says Francendese. That year, 1983, was also Francendese's first
year working for the press. She recalls, "The former director [David
Bartlett] believed we should be doing books on important social
and social justice issues, and he is gay himself. There was a press-wide
interest in reflecting the burning issues of the day. His push was
to publish books that would be broadly interesting to people, accessible
in language, and concern social justice issues." When Bartlett retired
in 1987, the press continued its integrated mission.
In addition to publishing books related to gay and lesbian studies
within each field, TUP also has a "Queer Politics,
Queer Theories" (QPQT) series that focuses on "politics in the
broadest sense: not only state- and government-oriented studies,
but also community politics and the internal politics of new social
movements," according to the web site. Most recently, TUP published
Officially Gay: The Political
Construction of Sexuality by the U.S. Military, by Gary
L. Lehring (2003). Shane Phelan (Sexual
Strangers: Gays, Lesbians, and Dilemmas of Citizenship,
2000) originally developed the idea for the QPQT before retiring
from academia; Craig Rimmerman (From
Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United
States, 2001, also in the QPQT family) is the current series
editor.
One of TUP's best-selling gay/lesbian books was Lesbian
and Gay Marriage: Private Commitments, Public Ceremonies,
by Suzanne Sheman (1992). "That was written for a broad popular
audience, not an academic audience. We sold thousands of copies
of that book," Francendese says. But Francendese wishes that William
Turner's A Genealogy of Queer
Theory (2000) had gotten just as much attention. "[Turner]
talks about Foucault and other theorists and what impact they have
had and should have had on writing history. ...To some degree queer
theory has fallen out of favor, particularly among historians,"
she adds, noting, "I don't know if it was ever in favor with historians.''
Francendese is particularly excited about the fall
2004 titles. TUP will release the paperback of Marc Stein's
The City of Sisterly and Brotherly
Loves, a community history of gay Philadelphia, and Francendese
is editing Legalizing Gay Marriage:
Vermont and the National Debate, by Michael Mello. "He teaches
law in Vermont Law School," says Francendese. "[The book is] about
the development of the decision in Vermont to support gay civil
unions. He's not so much interested in the legal aspects of the
decision as what happened when the state supreme court made its
decision and bounced it to the legislators. He focuses on how the
legislators decided, despite vehement response against it by local
Vermonters, to create legislation for it. It also looks at Howard
Dean's role in the Vermont legislation. Mello argues that what happened
in Vermont is the kind of debate that will take place in all the
other states."
Temple University Press do's and don'ts
Temple does accept unsolicited manuscripts, but, says Francendese,
"Don't send a manuscript cold." Contact her or one of the other
acquisition editors and ask if it's something Temple University
Press would be interested in.
"Books happen in a lot of different ways. We do get plenty
of book that come in unsolicited just because we're known for particular
areas, but we also know people that we'd be interested in publishing,
and we go after them."
Temple almost never publishes novels or poetry.
"We're always looking for material that's original and has
a point of view and [is] by and large well-written." |
