Lethe's gay titles include an array of
gay-positive novels, poetry,
erotica and literature for gay men & lesbians. In addition, Lethe
has partnered with the White Crane Institute
to bring out new and classic titles in gay spirituality and gay wisdom
under the White Crane Books imprint. Lethe is one of the
world's
leading publishers of gay and lesbian spirituality, poetry, and
independent fiction. Below is a list of Lethe Press's books of gay
spirit, spirituality and wisdom--both fiction and non-fiction.
click cover for larger image
Freedom Glorious Freedom
The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life
For Gays, Lesbians,and Everybody Else
By John J. McNeill
n
Freedom, Glorious Freedom, acclaimed author John J. McNeill shows
how lesbian and gay Christians can achieve full spiritual
maturity and self-acceptance. McNeill discusses freedom of
conscience and discernment of spirits, ancient teachings of the
Christian church that have a special urgency for lesbian and gay people
who need to free themselves from all the homophobic authorities and
deal with God on a direct and personal basis. The liberating
process of coming out of the closet is seen as a spirit-filled effort
to achieve the glory of God by becoming fully alive.
McNeill offers a twelve-step spirituality as a spiritual
process of liberation from all addictions in order to experience the
love of God in its fullness. The epilogue expresses in detail
a philosophical vision, looking both to the past and to the future, of
how gay liberation fits into the Spirit-directed evolution of human
history and its role in the ongoing struggle for human liberation.
For more than thirty-five years, John J. McNeill, an ordained priest
and psychotherapist, has been devoting his life to spreading the good
news of God’s love for lesbian and gay Christians.
Sex as God
Intended
A Reflection on Human Sexuality as Play
By John J. McNeill
with Festschrift essays celebrating the life and work of John J. McNeill
For more than thirty-five years, John J.
McNeill, an ordained priest and psychotherapist, has been devoting his
life to spreading the good news of God's love for lesbian and gay
Christians. McNeill presents a simple and straightforward answer to the
question: What did God invent sex for? The answer, derived from an
incisive investigation of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, is that God
intended sex as a source of pleasure, joy and love.
This book represents a concise summary of the wisdom culled over a
lifetime. McNeill's ideas have enriched the faith of thousands,
including fellow teachers, religious scholars, ministers and lay folk.
This volume includes a Festschrift to John McNeill, celebrating his
life and work in a series of essays by students, friends, and
activists, honoring him for his lasting contribution and spelling out
how he touched their lives and work.
Toby Johnson • Mark Jordan • Robert E. Goss
• Jim Mitulski • Mary Elizabeth Hunt • Sr.
Jeannine Gramick • Vincent Virom Coppola • Virginia Ramey Mollenkott •
Mel White • Daniel Helminiak • John Stasio •
Brendan Fay and Rev. Troy Perry
Contemplations
of
the Heart:
A Book of Male Spirit, Photography, Digital Imaging and Text
By Peter Grahame
Contemplations of the Heart highlights men of many different ages,
shapes, sizes and colors. The non-erotic, non-objectifying male nude
photographic and digital images, and the meditation-style text, are
reflective of positive self-image and self-acceptance, and it suggests
how these may lead to a deeper sense of the spiritual self, most
especially for Gay men. Hard cover, mostly full color, the book
measures 5.75 in. x 8.25 in. All male photo subjects appearing are 18
or older. This book is very reasonably priced, and a great gift.
An intriguing look into current-day religious life…
The story of a young Catholic teaching brother realizing the true
meaning of serving others and living life, Seventy Times Seven is
readable and entertaining, with just the right twists and turns to keep
the reader engrossed.
Getting Life in Perspective A Fastastical
Romance By Toby Johnson
Sweet, sexy, wise and thoroughly entertaining, this mytho-historical
novel, featuring two lovable apparitions from the late 1800s America,
interweaves a heart-warming storey of youthful romance and adventure
with an ageless life-affirming and gay-positive spiritual message
...along with just a touch of the Twilight Zone.
A collection of essays by the English socialist
poet,
anthologist and early homosexual activist. The book is an attempt to
make an objective comparison between the origins and practices of pagan
religions and christianity.
Lethe Press
Paperback,
320 pages
ISBN 1590210077
$19.95
The author of the perennially popular and life-changing
book, Loving
Someone Gay, recounts his own life journey from shame, failure,
guilt
and fear to pride, self-confidence and understanding of true feelings.
Sharing how he made the transformation himself, the first officially
openly gay psychologist in the U.S. and "father of gay-oriented
psychotherapy" points the way for others to claim gay identity and gay
pride and follow him to happiness, meaning, love and success.
The winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's
Science
Fiction
and bestselling novel, Secret Matter
returns to print in a revised
edition for the 21st century. With an afterword by gay theologian,
social commentator Mark Jordan.
BONUS with this edition: Adam and Steve, a whimsical tale
with a profound insight
Kevin Anderson is moving along through his life,
finishing up
college, and getting ready to leave New York for an internship
rebuilding San Francisco after an immense earthquake. Then the Visitors
arrive; a race of human-like aliens touch down in several cities around
the globe, including SF, and nothing will ever be the same. When
Kevin's company is given a contract to build a facility for the
Visitors, he forms a friendship with ïBel, one of their number.
But is
'Bel so alien after all? They seem so human, but they possess some odd
characteristics and seem to be hiding something. What secrets do they
carry, and where, exactly, are they from?
"Jay
Michaelson knows too well that our life is a wedding and a funeral, at
the same time, in any given moment. The erotic on these pages comes
hand in hand with the devotional."
- Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa
" If you are comfortable in your pew, these may not be the poems for
you. But if you want fully embodied poems of outrage and love -- and if
you want to "make a religion of flaw," read Another Word for Sky.
You wonÍt regret it."
- Richard Chess, author of Third Temple
Jay Michaelson is the executive director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish
Culture and Spirituality, and a leading figure in the gay spirituality
movement. Visitors to Easton Mountain, Burning Man, Body Electric, and
many other places have thrilled to his ecstatic, erotic performances of
visionary queer mystical poetry -- and now his first book of poems is
out from Lethe Press. At times reflective, at times outrageous, Another
Word for Sky stakes Michaelson's claim to be the James Broughton,
even the Allen Ginsberg, of his generation.
Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo By Walter L.
Williams
& Toby Johnson
Twenty years after publishing his
ground-breaking The
Spirit and the
Flesh, anthropologist Walter L. Williams breaks his silence and writes
another book on Native Americans. Together with award-winning writer
Toby Johnson, he has produced a work of historical fiction striking in
its evocation of Navajo philosophy and spirituality. Set in the Civil
War era of the 1860s, this novel tells the story of a young Virginian
who finds himself captivated by a Navajo Two-Spirit male. This book
illuminates the truth of what the United States did to the largest
indigenous people of this nation. A novel full of suspense, plot
twists, and endearing romance.
"What can I say about this book. It was
AWESOME. I felt like I was there among the Dine, in the Sweat Lodge, in
Santa Fe watching Joelle sing. I could see the mountains and feel the
hot air and all the glory of the Southwest. I would highly recommend
this book for anyone who loves historical fiction with gay characters
in it. I'd give this book 10 stars if I could, but definitely 5 stars."
Clouds of Magellan is an
independent publishing imprint, based in Melbourne, Australia.
Clouds specialises in non-fiction in the
area of spirituality, broadly defined, and publishes some fiction and
poetry. They publish Michael Kelly, former Dignity leader in Australia
(Rainbow Sash Movement) and part-time resident at Easton Mountain Gay
Retreat in upstate New York.
White Crane Books
White Crane Books is an imprint of
Lethe Press, affiliated with the
White Crane Institute, a nonprofit organization which promotes the
study of the role of gay men, queer sexualities and gender variation
and orientation in the evolution, psychology, sociology, and practice
of spirituality, ritual, and religion.
The White Crane Institute's goal, and the purpose of White Crane Books,
is to foster the gathering and dissemination of information about the
critical role sexuality and gender has played and continues to play in
the development of cultural, spiritual and religious traditions and to
provide a nurturing environment for the continuation and expansion of
those explorations for the greater good of all society.
For more about White Crane & White Crane Books, visit: gaywisdom.org
Gay Perspective:
Things our [homo]sexuality tells us about the nature
of God and the
Universe
By Toby Johnson
Back in print, expanded and updated, with a new Preface by the author,
Johnson's Lammy-nominated bold statement of the spiritual side of gay
consciousness.
A
Prophet In His Own Land A Malcolm Boyd Reader
Edited by Bo Young and Dan Vera
For over sixty years,
Malcolm Boyd has written truthfully about his own
journey to fullness. From theologian to civil rights pioneer to
coffee house troubadour to gay rights icon, Boyd has courageously and
whole-heartedly shown the way to a deeper, more honest examination of
all our lives, leading by example. Bo Young and Dan Vera interview
Malcolm and his partner Mark Thompson about their years together. Many
of Boyd's previously unavailable articles are reprinted here.
White Crane Books Hardcover,
328 pages
ISBN 1590210115
White Crane Books is proud to re-release Boyd's classic spiritual
biography and coming out story, Take
Off the Masks, for a new
generation of readers hungry for its insight, honesty and soulful
perception. With a new introduction by BoydÍs life
partner, Mark
Thompson, and a newly added postscript by Rev. Canon Boyd himself.
White Crane Books Paperback,
160 pages
ISBN 1590210654
ALL: A James
Broughton
Reader Edited by Jack Foley
In a life that stretched from 1913 to 1999 James
Broughton
witnessed
and commented on the twentieth century from the point of view of an
outsider. In a time aghast at its own horrors, Broughton championed
laughter. He was a poet, not of the ivory tower but of the innovative
street, a playful, urban voice with the notion that a poet could change
the world. In a rational century, he asserted mystery. All: A James
Broughton Reader collects the range of this acclaimed poet and
filmmaker.
White Crane Books Paperback,
272 pages
ISBN 1590210212
In this Lambda Literary
award-winning
title,
Toby
Johnson explores how
the rise of gay identity has become an important part of contemporary
religious development. This dramatic transformation has resulted due to
the perspective of gay men with their ability to step outside the
assumptions and conventions of culture and see things from a different
point of view. This book will reward readers seeking new insight into
faith as well as culture, myth and traditions.
JohnsonÍs
vision of a life-affirming, sex-positive spirituality of love,
cooperation, mutual respect and acceptance is in sync with modern
scientific knowledge, and does not ask the reader to suspend logic or
critical thinking. Gay Christians who are struggling with their sexual
orientation will especially appreciate JohnsonÍs convincing
refutation
of common ñbiblical" anti-gay arguments. A powerful book for
personal
change and a great gift to a gay friend who is unhappy with his life or
suffering from low self-esteem.
Charmed
Lives: Gay Spirit in
Storytelling Edited by Toby Johnson
&
Steve Berman
Storytelling
can be a way of spinning straw into gold, of showing ourselves we have
drawn a long straw in this life. Charmed
Lives offers readers a
collection of fiction and personal essays as an alternative to the
stories that society often tells about gay men. Some are whimsical with
a touch of enchantment, some profoundly spiritual, others romantic--all
offer insight into modern gay life that will inspire and shed light on
the grace of being gay with tales of hope against adversity and love
over loneliness.
A classic of gay mythopoesis. Michael Bails (Seattle WA)
writing an
unsolicited review on the amazon.com site says: "I was recommended this
book after having taken a Body Electric workshop a few weeks before.
From the first page I began to re-live the entire bonding rituals that
we had experienced over that weekend. How to connect, how to
communicate, and how to intimately bond on a higher plane! ... A
definite "must have" book for the gay tribe who would like to interact
spiritually and emotionally!"
White Crane
Books Paperback,
168 pgs
ISBN 1590210239
Arguably the book that started the Gay Spirituality
Movement.
Publishers Weekly wrote: Cultural editor of the Advocate, Thompson here
collects previously published articles and book excerpts from the
magazine, each an attempt to define the status of gay men. In an
introduction he distinguishes between homosexual (a form of sexuality)
and gay: "A social identity and consciousness actively chosen." The
text discusses the gay's role in politics, religion, culture, identity.
Among the contributors are Judy Grahn, author of lesbian/feminist
works; Malcolm Boyd, activist Episcopal priest; Harry Hay, a founder of
the Mattachine Society; writer William S. Burroughs; and Geoff Mains's
presenting an approving, detailed description of sadomasochism.
White Crane Books Paperback,
352 pgs,
ISBN 1590210247
