Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literay Press is very excited to announce that Ken Harvey's book was awarded the Violet Quill Award for Best Gay/Lesbian Fiction of 2001! Congratulations to Ken for an award well-deserved.   And another exciting event: Ken Harvey's book has been translated into Italian and published by Playground Press of Rome. Here's what they have to say about it (if you can read Italian, that is):   Ken Harvey Ragazzo di zucchero Traduzione: Carlotta Scarlata Formato: 13 x 17,5 Pagine: 152 Prezzo: 12 Euro ISBN: 88-89113-11-1   Nel vasto panorama della letteratura americana pubblicata in Italia, la Playground propone una voce che ha i tratti di un’originalità sommessa. Se la tendenza dei giovani autori è quella di unire sperimentalismo e disincanto, Ken Harvey, con i suoi racconti, esprime un amore smisurato per la vita, un’osservazione obiettiva della società americana ma sempre nell’ottimistica prospettiva del recupero di valori essenziali che continuano ad agire sotterraneamente anche in contesti desolati: la solidarietà, la generosità, il gusto per le piccole cose. In lui rivive lo spirito del regista americano Frank Capra, una semplicità sempre alimentata dall’ironia e dalla convinzione che la crudeltà è di questo mondo ma non è la sola protagonista. Forte di una lingua precisa ed essenziale, Ken Harvey sforza di raccontare una realtà nella quale sempre più spesso interagiscono, si incontrano e si scontrano, gay e straight (espressione americana per definire gli eterosessuali). Nei racconti di Harvey spesso i protagonisti gay, paradossalmente normalizzati e risolti, sono gli spettatori delle sconclusionate vicende degli eterosessuali: madri depresse, anziani eccentrici, padri violenti, giovani pieni di vita ma disorientati. I racconti di Harvey non ci parlano solo della “comunità gay”, ma del mondo, della vita di tutti. Ken Harvey vive a Boston e tiene corsi scrittura a Cambridge (Massachusetts). I suoi racconti hanno vinto nel 2001 il prestigioso premio per la letteratura gay ‘Violet Quill Award’, fondato da Edmund Withe. "Rovesciando le mucche" è stato selezionato dall’autorevole premio per racconti ‘Pushcart Prize’ e ha ricevuto una menzione speciale dal ‘Willa Cather Prize’. I suoi racconti sono apparsi su numerose riviste, da The Massachusetts Review a Other Voices, da River Styx a The James White Review. La raccolta di racconti “Ragazzo di zucchero” è il suo libro d’esordio.

Excerpt: The title story from if you were with me everything would be all right:

In the used bookstore, an old white house off the Maine Turnpike that smelled of pine shelves, Owen was looking through some postcards next to a stack of Saturday Evening Posts. He picked one of those cards out of the bin to study more carefully, a blue and green sketch of the Thousand Islands International Bridge between Ivy Lea, Ontario, and Colin's Landing, New York. The caption called the bridge "the largest international project in the world" since it was made up of five bridges, including the "World's Smallest International Bridge and having ten miles of highway through the very heart of the Thousand Miles."

"These bridges, that's all," Owen said. "You know me." Owen was an architect and was fascinated by the structure of things. "What about you? What'd you find?"

"A few books. That Gielgud bio I'd been looking for," Arthur said. "It's time to pick out your print like you promised. You feeling okay now?"

Owen had gotten dizzy in the car. He said it was a little light-headedness when he asked Arthur to drive for him. They'd come up from Boston that morning to Ogunquit where they'd planned to have dinner and browse in this store that also sold maps, historical documents, and various prints: flowers, birds, and turn-of-the-century sketches of a number of Maine's colleges, including Bowdon, where Owen had gone over twenty years ago. Arthur never missed a chance to be sentimental and wanted to buy Owen a print of the college for his birthday. Because Owen thought the gift too expensive, he insisted on paying for dinner this evening as well as a room the two of them were to share in the motor lodge.

In turn, Owen agreed to pick out a print of his alma mater, even though he hated reminders of his youth. Owen was about to turn forty-five, an age, he sometimes thought, when anything good that happened to him would have to be labeled "a long time coming." He was slowly losing the lovely reddish brown waves of hair that made him so attractive all his life, and now wore glasses more to hide the thin lines around his eyes rather than to improve his vision.

"I'm feeling better, I guess," Owen said to Arthur now. He ran his finger along the International Bridge on the card, picking up dust. It seemed odd talking about his own health since Owen was used to worrying about Arthur and when he would eventually get sick. At first he thought he could handle that Arthur was infected, but as the two of them considered shifting their lives for each other, perhaps even living together someday soon, Owen had begun to panic.

Owen put his hand on top of Arthur's, the first time he had touched him since their argument in the car. It had started when Arthur suggested a word game, a simple one, he explained. All you had to do was name a topic, like gay bars, Sundays, blow jobs, pets. The other person then tells what he either loves or hates about the subject. You could take your pick.

"You start," Arthur had said. He took a sip of coffee from the Styrofoam cup in the rack between the two seats.

"Me?" Owen said. "But it's your game." It was so like Arthur to start something, then throw the responsibility to someone else. Sometimes Arthur would call at night, say hello, then wait for Owen to pick up the conversation.

"I really don't know how to begin," Owen said. He looked at his odometer to see how far it was to Ogunquit. The numbers seemed blurred. Then, when he squinted, he imagined the numbers were years in the future spinning by. He suddenly wondered how much longer Arthur would be with him.

"Okay, okay," Owen said. "Let's see. How about love?" He was hoping he might catch Arthur off guard and win this game, even if Arthur didn't want to give out points.

"I don't know," Arthur said. "There's so much. You know, like falling in love or being in love or falling out of love."

"Okay," Arthur said. "I'm going to surprise you. I'm going to tell you something I hate about falling in love. What I really hate is that all those fucking Dionne Warwick songs actually start to make some sense. That drives me crazy more than anything." He flipped his bare feet up on the dashboard and folded his knees under his chin.

"Have you really listened to the lyrics to one of her songs? They're insanely trite and weepy and make total sense once you're in the throes of romance."

"'You'll Never Get to Heaven If You Break My Heart,'" Owen said. "Yes, my dear. That about covers it all."

"Look, I didn't say I liked the songs. I didn't even say that they moved me. I just said that I understand them."

"Actually, I think they do move you, Arthur," Owen said with a smirk. "That's what scares me."

"Now wait a minute," Owen said." I was only kidding. I like how sentimental you are. It's kind of cute."

"Come on. This was supposed to be fun, remember? We were going to smooth things over."

The two of them were quiet. Finally Arthur took the postcard of the Thousand Islands International Bridge from Owen's hand to fill in the void. He turned the card over.

On the back of the card was a two cent Canadian stamp and the postmark June 7, 11; p.m., 1938, Brockville, Ontario. There was writing in black ink that varied light and dark depending on the angle of the fountain pen. The card was addressed to Robt. Carrington, 29 Childs St., East McKeesport, Penn., USA. It read: Bob: If you were with me everything would be all right. Stanley

About the Author: Ken Harvey's work has been published in over fifteen literary magazines including The Massachusetts Review, Other Voices, The Baltimore Review, River Styx, and The James White Review. His short story "If You Were with Me Everything Would Be All Right" was published alongside work by Doris Grumbach and Alfred Corn in The Evergreen Chronicles. The editors of The Nebraska Review nominated his story "Cows" for the Pushcart Prize. He is also the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, including a major writing grant from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Judges for the fellowship included Amy Hempel, Hilma Wolitzer, Stanley Crouch, and James Alan McPherson.

About the book: If You Were with Me Everything Would Be All Right is a collection of thirteen stories, ten of which have been published in nationally distributed literary magazines. Although most of the stories deal with the lives of gay men, much of their spark comes from the mixing of gay and straight worlds. Harvey's compassionate eye was noted by the judges of the Willa Cather Prize when they explained why they named his collection a finalist in their competition. Wrote the judges, "Great humanity...humor and tragedy....some extremely original, compelling writing...This is really good writing in all regards. Some stories are truly remarkable. ... I couldn't put it down."

Many of the stories take place in and around the Boston area as well as in Lynn, on the Massachusetts North Shore. While the stories deal with serious issues, it is the blend of wit and darkness that makes these stories unique. In the title story, a gay couple discovers a postcard with a mysterious message in a used bookstore that sheds light on their own relationship; in "So This Is Pain," a woman escapes the grief of her marriage by traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico; in "The Near Occasion," a gay son tries to find his father who fled the family years earlier; in "Mother Country," the three parents of a child - two lovers and the biological mother - escape to Spain to forget the child's death; in "Mr. Bubble, I Love You," the young son of a therapist develops a crush on one of her patients, with hilarious yet moving results.

There are no villains in Harvey's stories, just flawed people trying to lead the best lives they can. Along with the potholes of the road they travel are many moments of great humor and some optimism, like life itself.

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