NCWN

My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them by Allen Smith

University of Wisconsin Press, $25

ISBN 978-0-299-23120-0

 Durham-native Allen Smith has published an essay on Jessica Lange that appears in
the University of Wisconsin's new anthology, My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who
Inspire Them.  In very short, very tender essays, a variety of gay male writers, from poets to playwrights to a standup comic, pay homage to an even wider variety of women who have inspired them," noted Publishers' Weekly. From Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Midler, and Diana Ross to Queen Elizabeth I,
Julia Child, and Princess Leia, these divas have been sister, alter ego, fairy
godmother, or model for survival to gay men and the closeted boys they once were.
And anyone—straight or gay, young or old, male or female—who ever needed a muse, or
found one, will see their own longing mirrored here as well. These witty and
poignant short essays explore reasons for diva-worship as diverse as the writers
themselves. My Diva offers both depth and glamour as it pays tribute
with joy, intelligence, and fierce, fierce love.