I had not heard the news that noted gay publisher/editor/writer Don Weise died this last January. This is sad and (for me, who did not know him personally) surprising news, given his age. I don't know details, nor do I need to know them. He has left a significant legacy.
I had exchanged a few emails over the years with Weise, starting with my writing to him about a project while he was running Alyson Books between 2007-2010. I was low-key representing a British friend who had a non-fiction book I thought they could publish, though it wasn't meant to be. We still exchanged a few emails, and I found his willingness to write back to me - then perhaps an Associate Editor at Beacon Press - a kindness.
The connection to this blog is Alyson Publications, an LGBTQ publisher started in Boston, in fact in the South End of Boston, in 1980 by Sasha Alyson. There is a lot more to say on this front, and I will save it for another post. Some basic info on Alyson and the press can be found in this Q&A from 1992, by Owen Keehnen. (One thing to research, something lost when Alyson sold the press to Liberation Publications, the publishers of the Advocate in 1995: "Alyson has always been known for its community service. You published and distributed the free book You Can Do Something About AIDS (1987) and also began a gay and lesbian teen pen pal service." Amazing.) I will have to doublecheck, but I believe Alyson worked near his home, which was a much different part of the South End from where South End Press was based, and in fact was close to a bathhouse that closed before I moved to the neighborhood. It was an area very close to the highway, too - for convenience! I imagine it was quite shady at the time, though.
In 2005, it seems Here Media acquired a number of media companies that included Alyson Publications. In 2010, Weise tried to buy Alyson Publications from Here Media to keep it going as a (print) publisher, but Here Media turned him down and turned Alyson into an ebook only publisher (which maybe disappeared them?). This could have returned Alyson to its community roots, back in Sasha Alyson days decades earlier, but it wasn't meant to be. Given Weise's reputation in the community, readers took notice.
Paul Florez Taylor posted this sweet personal remembrance on his insta page:
I found out this morning that my publishing mentor Don Weise passed away, and the news has left me devastated.
Don was a pioneer for LGBTQ+ and diverse voices in publishing at a time when there were none. He deserves enormous credit for today’s literary landscape, a landscape that finally welcomes a multitude of voices, because I can assure you that back in 2008, there weren’t many.
I want to share who Don was from the perspective of a twenty something kid who came to New York dreaming of working in publishing.
When I arrived, Alyson Books was in a terrible place. The previous publisher had pushed the house toward going “mainstream,” away from the very LGBTQ+ voices it was founded to champion. When Alyson was bought by Here Media, everyone on the team was let go except me.
Then Don arrived.
Immediately, the air in the room changed. There was purpose again.
Don believed fiercely in LGBTQ+ literature at a time when the industry largely did not. In 2008, mainstream retailers did not want to take risks on queer books. LGBTQ+ stories were confined to a single shelf, if they were carried at all.
Don brought in authors like Edmund White, Alix Dobkin, and Aiden Shaw. He didn’t just publish them. He fought for them. He traveled to sales conferences across the country, pitching our books to retailers and arguing for their importance not just to a marginalized community, but to the literary canon itself.
These were good books. They deserved to be published.
Don was more than a publisher. He was a champion.
He was also a great boss. He promoted me. He gave me my first office. He trusted me to represent our authors at book conventions. He made me an editor and publishing manager. I learned the DNA of publishing from him.
Because of Don, I served on the host committee of the Lambda Literary Awards for years. Because of him, we threw massive parties that felt like standing at the gates of a new era in publishing.
He also took me for my first lemon drop martini. Light the lemon on fire!
I will never forget watching him walk into a room, always carrying a briefcase with an edited manuscript inside.
Rest in power Don 👑
***
(I trust it's okay to reproduce this with credit as it was found with a simple search.)
I'm intrigued by this narrative as it sounds like Weise did bring Alyson back closer to the vision that Sasha Alyson had in Boston, but he ultimately couldn't get there (when Here wouldn't sell).
So I want to give Don Weise his space, and his flowers, ahead of his memorial service. And I will go back to Alyson's start in 1980 South End (just a few years after South End Press) for a later posting.
RIP Don Weise, indeed, and thank you.
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