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Michael Thomas Ford

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Michael Thomas Ford
BornOctober 1, 1968
Period1990s–present
Notable worksAlec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me, That's Mr. Faggot to You, Last Summer, Changing Tides, What We Remember
Website
www.michaelthomasford.com

Michael Thomas Ford (born October 1, 1968) is an American author of primarily gay-themed literature.[1] He is best known for his "My Queer Life" series of humorous essay collections and for his award-winning novels Last Summer, Looking for It, Full Circle, Changing Tides and What We Remember.

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books for both young readers and adults. He is best known for his best-selling novels Last Summer, Looking for It, and Full Circle and for his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. His work has been nominated for eleven Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gaylactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Were puss").

Career

1990s

Ford began his writing career in 1992 with the publication of 100 Questions & Answers about AIDS: What You Need to Know Now (Macmillan), one of the first books about the AIDS crisis for young adults. Named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the book became the most widely used resource in HIV education programs for young people and was translated into more than a dozen languages.

The follow-up to that book, The Voices of AIDS (William Morrow, 1995), was a collection of interviews with people whose lives have been affected by the AIDS crisis. This book too was named an ALA Best Book, as well as a National Science Teachers Association-Children's Book Council Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children and a Booklist magazine Editors' Choice.

Ford's next book, 1996's The World Out There: Becoming Part of the Lesbian and Gay Community (The New Press), was a handbook for people coming out and wanting to know what it means to be part of the queer world. It earned him his first Lambda Literary Award nomination in the YA category, as well as a Firecracker Alternative Book Award nomination.

1998 saw the release of two books, the first being OutSpoken (William Morrow), a collection of interviews with gay and lesbian people that was again aimed at young adults. The book was named both a National Council of Social Studies-Children's Book Council Notable Children's Book in the field of Social Studies and a Booklist magazine "Top of the List" selection, and received a Lambda Literary Award nomination, Ford's second in the YA division.

Ford's second book to come out that year was Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me (Alyson Books), the first of what has come to be known as the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. The book received a Lambda Literary Award for Best Humor book, winning out over titles by lesbian comic Kate Clinton, columnist Dan Savage, and cartoonist Alison Bechdel.

Ford next wrote 'That's Mr. Faggot to You (Alyson Books, 1999). Ford obtained a Lambda Literary Award, edging out previous winner comedian Bob Smith. That same year he began recording his weekly radio show for the GayBC Radio Network.

2000s

The third in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series, It's Not Mean If It's True (Alyson Books), arrived in stores in 2000. Following in the footsteps of the first two, the book was an instant bestseller, and Ford was once again nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for best humor book. Although he lost to comic superstar David Sedaris, the attention earned Mike the notice of Michael J. Rosen, director of the James Thurber House and editor of the prestigious "Mirth of a Nation" series of Best American Humor Writing. As a result, two of Mike's essays were included in the second Mirth collection (Simon & Schuster, 2002) and featured on a CD read by actor Tony Roberts.

Also coming out in 2000 were two other projects. The first was Ford's first audio recording. My Queer Life (Fluid Words), featured Ford reading some of the most popular pieces from his three essay collections. The recording also contained two songs from "Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me," a musical project for which Ford wrote the lyrics and performed the narration. A full-length recording of the musical, performed by the Lehigh Valley Gay Men's Chorus, is also available on CD. My Queer Life received rave notices in audio media journals, and was named one of the two best humor audio books of the year (the other being David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day).

In December 2000 Ford released Paths of Faith: Conversations about Religion and Spirituality (Simon & Schuster). Written for young adults, the book was a collection of interviews with leaders from a wide range of spiritual traditions and included the last interview given by former Archbishop of New York John Cardinal O'Connor. The book was well received, and was named a Booklist magazine Top 10 Religion Book of the Year, a Booklist Editors' Choice "Top of the List" selection for YA Nonfiction, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

In October 2001 Ford's fourth essay collection, The Little Book of Neuroses, hit bookstores and like the previous three collections became an instant favorite with readers, immediately shooting to #1 on numerous regional bestseller lists. Also like the others, in February 2002 it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, giving Ford an unprecedented four consecutive nominations in the category of Best Humor Book.

This Queern Life, a stage production written by Ford premiered at the Loring Playhouse in Minneapolis in 2002. Also in that year, his short story "Night of the Werepuss" was published in the Lambda Literary Award-winning collection Queer Fear II and was nominated for a Gaylactic Spectrum Award for best short fiction.

In 2003 Ford released his first novel for adults. Published by Kensington Books, Last Summer. Publishers Weekly described the book as a "brimful first novel about life, love and self-discovery" and praised the "crisp prose and snappy, contemporary dialogue," while Entertainment Weekly lauded Ford's prose, calling it a "winner" and "addictive."

Also appearing in 2003 was Sting, an unusual and haunting vampire novella included in the book Masters of Midnight, and My Big, Fat, Queer Life, a best-of collection compiling the most popular essays from his "Trials of My Queer Life" series. Both books received Lambda Literary Award nominations.

In early 2004 Ford surprised fans with the arrival of Ultimate Gay Sex, a beautifully photo-illustrated guide to sex and relationships for which he wrote the text.

Ford's second novel for Kensington Books, Looking for It, was published in the summer of 2004. Centered around the lives of a group of gay men living in a small upstate New York town, the novel was heralded by Booklist as an "engaging page-turner of lives within lives, an insightful and entertaining read about what we seek, and what answers we find within and without."

Ford's second vampire-themed novella was featured in the 2004 Kensington Books collection Midnight Thirsts.

2005 brought the publication of The Path of the Green Man: Gay Men, Wicca, and Living a Magical Life (Citadel Press).

In 2006, Ford released the much-anticipated novel Full Circle. Called by one reviewer "the Great Gay American Novel", the book chronicled the lives of two men—best friends born a day apart in 1950—through six decades.

Changing Tides, Ford's fourth novel for adult readers, was released in August 2007. Exploring the themes of family and self-discovery, the novel centers around a marine biologist in Monterey whose quiet life is turned upside down by the arrival of his estranged teenage daughter and by his attraction to a graduate student.

In October 2008, Ford returned to his young adult roots with the publication of Suicide Notes (HarperCollins), the blackly comic story of a young man forced to come to terms with his emerging sexuality after a failed attempt at ending his life puts him in a psychiatric hospital.

In 2009 Ford released his fifth novel with Kensington, What We Remember, a portrait of a family torn apart when the father, believed to have committed suicide, is found to have been murdered. As the mystery around his death is unraveled, so too is the tragic history of a family that isn't what it seems. What We Remember won the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Mystery.

In December 2009 Ballantine released Ford's Jane Bites Back, the first of a three-book series about Jane Austen, who still exists as a vampire bookshop owner living in the New York suburbs, who has to deal with two suitors and a dark figure from her past. In May 2010 Ford published The Road Home, his sixth novel for Kensington Books.

References

  1. ^ Guthmann, Edward (2000-09-26). "Seriously funny - gay author Michael Thomas Ford". The Advocate. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)

Additional sources

Day, Frances Ann (2000). Lesbian and Gay Voices: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Literature for Children and Young Adults. Greenwood Press. pp. 188–190. ISBN 0-313-31162-5. pages 191-193.

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