Read Kevin Killian's Spreadeagle
, which in this year's Thebes poll, Trebor Healey called "one of the best San Francisco novels I've read." Filmmaker Adam Baran said it's "a blistering, scathing satire of San Francisco’s gay literary and arts culture (and NYC by extension) featuring an unbelievable cast of phonies, fakers, charlatans, criminals, pornographers, art student hustlers, kept boys, meth heads, and deranged psychopaths. Oh, and Armistead Maupin. Laugh out loud funny and totally horrifying at the same time."
A native of New York, a survivor of Catholic schooling, Kevin moved to San Francisco in 1980 and by the end of that decade published two novels Shy
(readers of which, said PW, "will be richly compensated by its intellectually stimulating and emotionally gripping prose") and Bedrooms Have Windows
. Seven years later he released his debut collection of stories, Little Men
, and the following year came his third novel, Arctic Summer
. His second collection, I Cry Like a Baby
, appeared in 2001. His third collection, the brilliant Impossible Princess
, won a Lammy in 2010. He shared an American Book Award for co-editing My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
. A co-founder of the Poets Theater, he is said to have written more than 30 plays. Queering matrimony, he is married to lesbian Dodie Bellamy.
In 2003, when Halle Berry had her Oscar moment for Monster's Ball, as the first black Best Actress, it was also the first time an Academy Award-winning film was solely produced by a black person: Lee Daniels, 43. He followed it in 2004 with the triple-Independent Spirit Award nominated, Kevin Bacon child molester movie The Woodsman. In 2005 he produced and acted in his directoral debut, Shadowboxer
, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren, Macy Gray, and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt. Then came Precious
. Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, it won two, supporting actress and adapted screenplay. It was nominated for five major Independent Spirit Awards and won all five. The movie was also a winner at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the NAACP Imagae Awards, among many others. Daniels' followup, the violent, Zac Efron starrer The Paperboy
, was largely panned, though it was selected for Cannes and Nicole Kidman was nominated for SAG and Golden Globe awards. This year his smash, awards-bait The Butler is a surprise total snub at the Golden Globes after nominations from SAG, Critics Choice, People's Choice, Satellite, and two wins at the second-most unnecessary thing on earth, the Hollywood Film Awards.
Daniels was partners with longtime casting director Billy Hopkins and together they adopted and raised Daniels' niece and nephew. Since their breakup Daniels has been with Andy Sforzini (in purple), still raising their children.
Comments