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Lewis DeSimone (born January 18)
Jan. 18th, 2015 10:25 am
A native Bostonian, Lewis DeSimone majored in English at Harvard and earned an M.A. in creative writing at the University of California, Davis. He currently lives in San Francisco, which he believes is as close to paradise as the Lower 48 can get. His work has appeared in Christopher Street, the James White Review, the San Francisco Sentinel, the Bay Area Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Harrington Gay Mens Fiction Quarterly, and the anthology Beyond Definition. His debut novel, Chemistry, is a love story about the ineffable qualities that draw people together and sometimes force them apart.The Heart’s History won a 2012 Rainbow Awards as Best Gay Contemporary General Fiction.
Further Readings:
The Heart's History by Lewis DeSimonePaperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Lethe Press (May 5, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590213424
ISBN-13: 978-1590213421
Amazon: The Heart's History
Amazon Kindle: The Heart's History
This is Edward architect, friend, lover, mystery. Everyone has their own Edward a kaleidoscope of images struggling to define a man who has never let anyone get too close. But now, Edward is dying, and all of his loved ones are desperate to understand him, to connect fully with him, before it's too late.
In this beautiful and haunting novel, Lewis DeSimone, author of the acclaimed Chemistry, explores the hidden depths of love, the struggle to maintain a balance between connection and individuality. Edward's illness is set against the backdrop of a sea change in gay culture, a time when AIDS is assumed to be simply a manageable condition, and when the drive for assimilation through marriage, or the military has begun to trump the distinct characteristics that were once a source of pride. Deftly shifting perspectives to paint a compelling portrait of a man and a community on the cusp of a critical transition, The Heart's History gives hope that, despite the impossibility of ever achieving true oneness with another person, it is the attempt itself that gives life its greatest joy.
More Rainbow Awards at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, Rainbow Awards/2012
Betty Louise Berzon was born to a middle-class Jewish family on January 18, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. The family moved to Tuscon, Arizona when Berzon was young, and upon graduating high school she attended Stanford University, majoring in journalism and creative writing. In 1949, Berzon got a job in a bookstore, which turned into a short-lived career as a bookseller. She owned and operated Berzon Books in 1951 in Los Angeles, but it went out of business after one year.
In the following years, she experienced a bout of depression and sought treatment in a psychiatric hospital. After her release from the hospital, she got a job in a sanitarium and enrolled in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a psychology student. While working on her degree, Berzon took a job as a caseworker for the American Red Cross Military Hospital Service, and later for the San Diego County Probation Department. By 1958, she had graduated with a Master's degree in Psychology from San Diego State College and hadbegan working for a psychotherapy research organization, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI). There, she developed her psychotherapy career and created program materials for group therapy sessions called the Bell & Howell Encountertape Series. She evenually left WBSI and established herself as a consultant, developing workshops, training sessions and seminars in group therapy, personal growth and interpersonal relationships. She later received her Ph.D. (Picture: Terry DeCrescenzo)
Evelyn Torton Beck (born January 18, 1933), Women’s Studies and Jewish Studies Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, holds Ph.D.s in both Comparative Literature (University of Wisconsin, 1969) and Clinical Psychology (The Fielding Graduate University, 2002). She is best known in the LGBTQ community for her ground-breaking, now classic book, Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology (Persephone Press, 1982; Crossing Press, 1984; revised and expanded edition, Beacon Press, 1987). 
In 1954, just out of college, she married Anatole Beck with whom she had two children, Nina Rachel Beck (who was a plaintiff in the successful suit for civil unions in the state of Vermont) and Micah Daniel Beck. At the age of 40 she came out as a lesbian and divorced in 1974. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her life partner, L. Lee Knefelkamp, who is also an LGBTQ activist in the field of higher education. Beck and Knefelkamp married in Vermont.
L. Lee Knefelkamp, professor of psychology and education, Teachers College, Columbia University, teaches in the programs of social–organizational psychology and higher education, and she has also held administrative posts as program coordinator and department chair. She also directed the student development graduate program at the University of Maryland, served as dean of the school of education at American University, and as academic dean of the faculty at Macalester College.
Wynn Wagner (born January 18, 1951) now has an honest-to-gosh dad-gum mother-in-law named Rita. He and his husband — Rick Wagner — were married in Washington DC, after shacking up since the 1990s. Before the marriage, both their last names were Wagner. Nevertheless, Wynn announced that he was taking Rick’s last name. They were also married in the Old Catholic Church. 
Dr. Wagner holds a Th.D. from St. Wolbodo Theological Seminary. He also holds degrees from St. Alban Seminary and TCU. Wynn — the son of Swedish nationals but adopted by an unsuspecting and otherwise innocent family in Fort Worth — has written numerous gay and spiritual books, including the Vamp Camp series, influential, Commitment Issues, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Old Catholic Church, and Recovering Catholic. He was the editor of a hand full of liturgical texts currently in use around the world.A retired archbishop writes explicit gay romance novels. It’s a niche. 