Because of the AIDS epidemic, the gay community lost hundreds who could have passed on a rich history. That rich history is now lost. Local gay writers, Dave Lara and Victor Yates, believe writing is documentation and without documentation stories of the invisible will be unheard. Lara's first novel, Butterfly Dream, is about a gay, Jewish man growing up in Hitler's Germany. Yate's book, A Love Like Blood deals with the intersectionality of race, religion, immigrant life, and sexuality and how t...
Because of the AIDS epidemic, the gay community lost hundreds who could have passed on a rich history. That rich history is now lost. Local gay writers, Dave Lara and Victor Yates, believe writing is documentation and without documentation stories of the invisible will be unheard. Lara's first novel, Butterfly Dream, is about a gay, Jewish man growing up in Hitler's Germany. Yate's book, A Love Like Blood deals with the intersectionality of race, religion, immigrant life, and sexuality and how they can disrupt the father-son relationship. Both Lara and Yates will read from their novels.
BIOs
Victor Yates won the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction. His work has appeared in Windy City Times, Edge, Message, Gorgeous, and Boulevard. As a graduate of the Creative Writing program at Otis College, he is the recipient of an Ahmanson Foundation grant. He is the winner of the Elma Stuckey Writing Award (1st place in poetry) at Morehouse College. He received an Oprah Winfrey scholarship and appeared on Oprah’s Surprise Spectacular show. Two of his poems were included in the anthology, “For Colored Boys,” which was edited by Keith Boykin. The anthology won the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award.
Dave Lara's second book, War on Repose is soon to be released. He is a 67-year-old Hispanic, gay male, who served in the US Navy from 1965 to 1970. He was discharged for being gay (a criminal offense in 1970) and started working at Pacific Bell as a janitor cleaning toilets. Recently, he appeared on Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 5 during the makeover episode with other out veterans. He was paired with Jinx Monsoon, who gave him the name Fortuna Monsoon. Jinx Monsoon won Season 5. His first novel, Butterfly Dream, is about a gay, Jewish man growing up in Hitler's Germany.