Lambda Literary Announces 2010 Writers' Retreat Faculty

FICTION: Nicola Griffith
NONFICTION: Ellery Washington
POETRY: Ellen Bass

The Lambda Literary Foundation is proud to announce faculty for the 2010 Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices.

"In Nicola Griffith, Ellery Washington and Ellen Bass we have three gifted writers who are also outstanding teachers," says LLF Executive Director, Tony Valenzuela, "This year's faculty will inspire and challenge our emerging writers with an unforgettable week in their careers."

Comments LLF Board President Katherine V. Forrest, "The Writers Retreat has been a invaluable experience for our emerging LGBT writers, proved by all the published work coming out of previous Retreats. It's not only a week-long, full immersion in all aspects of craft with our finest teachers, it means linking up with a peer group and interfacing with publishing professionals. This is one of Lambda Literary Foundation's best and most important programs."

Equally distinguished guest faculty will also be presenting workshops and panels; those names will be announced at a later date.

The Writer's Retreat will be held August 8 -15 in Los Angeles. Applications and scholarship requests are due by May 1.

Fiction: Nicola Griffith

Nicola Griffith is an English novelist, essayist and editor who lives in Seattle with her partner, Kelley Estridge.

Nicola has published 5 novels, numerous stories and essays, and a memoir. She also co-edited the award-winning Bending the Landscape series. Her work has been translated into 10 languages and won 16 national or international writing awards, including the Nebula Award for Slow River, the Tiptree Prize for Ammonite, the Premio Italia, and 6 Lambda Literary Awards (most recently for her multi-media memoir And Now We Are Going To Have A Party).

Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Nature, New Scientist, Out, the Huffington Post, and a variety of "Best Of" anthologies.

Nicola has taught workshops and classes in the US and UK at the beginner, graduate and professional levels in academic, corporate and continuing education settings, including Emory University, the Clarion West Writers Workshop, the Romance Writers of America, and the Arts Council of Great Britain.

Writers she has edited or taught have been honored with the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, NEA Award, Stonewall Book Award, Lambda Literary Award, American Academy of Arts & Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, Locus Award, Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, USA Today Notable Book selection, and collection in a variety of "Best Of" anthologies.


Nonfiction: Ellery Washington

Ellery Washington is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Pratt University, in New York City. He has a graduate degree in Contemporary French literature from the Sorbonne University, Paris, France, where was also a lecturer in the graduate comparative literature department.

He is recipient of the PEN Center West - Rosenthal Emerging Voices Award and the IBWA prize for short fiction. His stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and literary publications, including The New York Times, Ploughshares, the Berkeley Fiction Review, The International Review, Nouvelle Frontieres, Out Magazine, and the Harper Collins/Echo Press National Bestseller State by State, 'A Panoramic Portrait of America'.

He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Poetry: Ellen Bass

Ellen Bass's most recent book of poems, The Human Line, was published by Copper Canyon Press in June 2007 and was named a notable book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. She co-edited (with Florence Howe) the groundbreaking No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women (Doubleday, 1973), has published several volumes of poetry, including Mules of Love (BOA, 2002) which won the Lambda Literary Award. Her poems have appeared in many magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly, The Progressive, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, and The Sun. She was awarded the Elliston Book Award for Poetry from the University of Cincinnati, Nimrod/Hardman's Pablo Neruda Prize, The Missouri Review's Larry Levis Award, the Greensboro Poetry Prize, the New Letters Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and a Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She is also co-author of Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth (HarperCollins 1996) and The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Harper Collins 1988, 1994), which has sold over a million copies and has been translated into ten languages. She teaches in many beautiful locations and at Pacific University's low-residency MFA Program.