FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HOLLYWOOD, Florida (February 10, 2009) — Top Pen Press introduces the collected fiction of noted poet, author, editor G. Winston James.  Comprised of twelve fundamentally human, and at times viscerally disturbing, stories evoking comparisons to Greek Tragedy and to the writing of notable authors as diverse as James Baldwin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Shaming the Devil is an erotic, brutal, emotional and thoroughly thought-provoking collection examining the individual, familial, and societal complexities of desire.

Ferro-Grumley and Violet Quill award-winning author, Trebor Healey proclaims that “James’ stories are not stories of victims, but rather of individuals grappling with violence, oppression, negligence and their own courage to be who they are at whatever the cost.  James’ voice is a mature voice, a voice too little heard in gay fiction these days, or in fiction generally…With these stories, James breathes new life into American fiction.”

Randall Kenan, winner of multiple literary accolades including the prestigious Whiting Writers’ Award and Rome Prize declares that “James’ vision of sexuality and the human condition is soul-shaking…As with Fyodor Dostoevsky, at times you begin to think G. Winston James knows everything about human nature.  This book is like electricity, but reading it will do more than simply shock you.”

Dr. Wilfred Samuels, editor of the Encyclopedia of African-American Literature asserts that “like Baldwin, [G. Winston] James validates all forms of sexuality, particularly homoerotic sexuality, as a legitimate subject matter of serious literary exploration; however, unlike Baldwin, James does not abandon or murder his central characters—as Baldwin does in Another Country, in fear that the world might not be ready for this subject matter.”

At a time when LGBT leaders seem reluctant to challenge efforts to desexualize homosexuality, author Alphonso Morgan pronounces that “[i]n the fiction of G. Winston James, sex is revolution, peep shows are poetry, and the dark places that exist in parks and public restrooms are lit with a blinding insight into the hearts of men.  Shaming the Devil is a curt, subtle, fluid collection… The best new fiction I have read this year.”

Top Pen Press publishes work that illuminates, confronts and perplexes perceptions of queer people of color. The goal of the press is to foster greater personal and intellectual investigation and understanding of the complexities of lives outside the heterosexual, American mainstream by publishing meticulously well-written literary novels, short story and essay collections, anthologies, as well as poetry.  Top Pen Press seeks to introduce and promote the most provocative and creative writers of these new queer times.

G. Winston James is a Jamaican-born poet, short fiction writer, essayist and editor.  He holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and is the author of the poetry collection The Damaged Good: Poems Around Love and the Lambda Literary Award finalist collection Lyric: Poems Along a Broken Road. James is also co-editor of the historic anthologies, Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing and the Lambda Literary Award finalist publication Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity.

IN STORES MARCH 2009

ISBN-10:  0-9770797-0-8
ISBN-13:  978-0-9770797-0-4
Price: $14.95 USD

Top Pen Press
P.O. Box 223436
Hollywood, FL 33022

Email:  toppenpress@gmail.com
Website:  www.toppenpress.com