A Report From Winter Available from Amazon!
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="140" caption="Report from Winter"][/caption]I’m thrilled to announce that the print version of A Report from Winter can now be ordered from Amazon. Other booksellers should be following shortly. Thanks again to everyone who has helped to make this book possible!
Review: Out in Print
Jerry Wheeler has posted a great review of 'A Report from Winter' on the Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews blog. Here is the text: Earlier this year, I had the privilege of hearing Wayne Courtois read from this manuscript at Saints and Sinners, the grand queer literary conference held every year in New Orleans. The piece he read was about his first date with his partner, Ralph Seligman. By the time he was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. That’s what made me anticipate this book so much, and I’m thrilled to report that A Report from ...
Kind Words: Scott Heim, Jeff Mann, Malcolm Boyd
I’m extremely grateful to three first-class writers who were kind enough to read the galley of my book and offer comments. Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear, had this to say: Wayne Courtois is a smart and gifted writer, shrewd yet compassionate, with a godlike eye for detail. His A Report From Winter is filled with beautiful sentences from beginning to end. It’s a stunning book. Jeff Mann, author of memoirs (Edge), poetry (On the Tongue) and short fiction (The History of Barbed Wire), offered the following: Vivid, gripping, and lyrical, A Report from Winter is a fine examination of family ...
A Report from Winter
A Pervasive SadnessIt’s not often that I look up at a movie screen and say, “Oh, that’s me.” But I had that experience while watching ‘Beginners.’ It wasn’t because I look like Ewan McGregor or Christopher Plummer, though I wouldn’t mind trading my looks for either of theirs. No, my sense of recognition had to do with McGregor’s character, the gentle... Read more
It Gets Better…Except When It Doesn’t
The news about gay teen suicides has been so upsetting, it’s no wonder that the young and old alike have been trying to find solace and to offer it to each other. It reminds me of other national tragedies and their aftermath. The death toll among gay teenagers may be much smaller than what the nation suffered on 9/11, but the outpouring of grief is... Read more
One Year of ‘Winter’
It’s hard to believe that A Report from Winter came out just one year ago. I had many hopes for the book, some of which have been fulfilled. Recognizing that we live in what my publisher calls “a culture of declining readership,” it’s best to keep expectations modest. Far from being a commanding presence, the author—especially the independent... Read more
Where Are They Now?
My brother sent me a couple of photos of my mother’s house in Scarborough, Maine. I still think of it as “my mother’s house” even though she passed away in 1998. My mother's house in Scarborough, Maine My aunt Louise continued to live in the house, by herself, after my mother passed away. Louise died in the summer of 2005.... Read more
Talking Fiction
Sometimes when I’m feeling blue I pick up an Iris Murdoch novel. Yesterday I started rereading an old favorite, A Fairly Honorable Defeat, first published in 1970. There are many astonishing things about Murdoch’s novels, not the least of which is her use of dialogue. When her characters speak, they speak volumes; and it takes very little—a few... Read more
An Introduction to Winter
The captain announced our descent, rousing me from a fitful sleep. The Fasten Seat Belt sign came on, and I groped around for mine, only to find that I hadn’t unfastened it. As the captain’s carefully trained mumble about “our approach to the greater Portland area” continued, I gave the airflow nozzle above my head a twist, and a blast of Arctic... Read more
On a Night When Nothing Happened
Ralph and I celebrated our 21st anniversary last week. Like most gay couples, we don’t have a “wedding anniversary” to look back on, so we measure our relationship from the night of our first date. I wrote about that bitterly cold night in A Report from Winter. This year, to mark the occasion, I’ve written a poem as well. I hope... Read more
You Must Remember This: 2010 Lambda Awards
Anyone who may be worried about the state of LGBT publishing need only look at the massive list of books that have been submitted as eligible for this year’s Lambda Awards (or Lammies). We are talking about no fewer than 400 books. Many critics have noted that 2009 seems to have been the Year of the Memoir. In the Lammies’ Gay Memoir/Biography category... Read more
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About the Book
A Report from Winter is a death-in-the-family story, a love story, and a meditation on the meaning of “winter”—as a season and as a metaphor for family relationships.