APRIL 18,2008 justout
GSW: Wli.it became of the
hoi ¡day novel ?
MA: 1 adapted it as .1 play, and
it will premiere this November at
Artists Repertory Theatre. It’s
'¿^7 £
Marc Acito is preparing for a “book singing" at Bagdad
Theater to celebrate the release of his second novel,
called Holidazed. I collaborated
with a screenwriter named Cynthia-Whitcomb,
the head of Willamette Writers and a good friend.
She had the perspective to know what it needed,
because at that point I’d rewritten it so many
I have a great perspective on the generation both
in front of me and behind me. And a great op
portunity to write at a time when we’re seeing
the mainstreaming of gay culture. But I am old
times I didn’t know how to fix it.
enough to remember what the other thing was
like. Armistead Maupin blurbed the [first] book,
GSW: Is being mainstream important to
you? Do you consider your books gay fiction?
and that meant so much to me because obviously
he’s a great influence on my work and also because
he’s part of a lineage.
One thing we don’t have when we’re bom
MA: You mean gay fiction as opposed to
mainstream fiction? To me, “gay fiction” is fic
tion that is principally about being gay. My work,
I think, bridges that divide. If you go to Powell’s
you’ll find it in both gay fiction and regular fic
tion, to which I have no objection. I’m happy to
have two sections of real estate in that bookstore.
I guess I’d be troubled if it was only in gay fiction
exclusively, if it were ghettoized, because that’s
not the intention of the books. Not that I’m not
bothered by the notion, if that’s what I intended
to write. Certainly there are gay characters, gay
issues and some frank discussion of gay sexuality,
so I would expect that only certain straight people
are willing to go there. I’m not put off by someone
calling me a gay writer. Calling me a gay writer
queer is a sense of lineage in your own family. Be
ing bom queer or disabled are the only two mi
norities in which you are a minority in you own
family of origin. So you have to search for your
tribe. Which is a major theme in my work, to find
what’s often called your logical family as opposed
to your biological family. So for Maupin to give
his blessing meant so much to me. He in turn was
mentored by Christopher Isherwood, who in turn
was mentored by E.M. Forster, so I feel I’m in a
position to be included in such a distinguished
family. It’s almost unspeakably humbling and very
exciting to me.
doesn’t necessarily pigeonhole the writing.
M arc A cito presents Marco! The Musical,
GSW: Do you think it’s generational, the
thing about identifying minority writers?
a loopy literary evening of songs and stories, 7 p.m.
April 29 at Bagdad Theater, 3702 S.E. Hawthorne
Blvd. Tickets are $13, which includes a copy of
MA: I just turned 42. It’s an interesting time
Attack of the Theater People, from Ticketmaster.
to be a gay middle-aged man, because I do feel
very connected to our gay fairy godfathers and I
feel very connected to queer youth as well. I feel
G lenn S cofield W illiams writes prose, poetry
plays, periodica and pom m Portland.
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