Originally from Savannah, Georgia, Perry Brass grew up, in thefifties and sixties, in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economicallyimpoverished, and very much gay. To escape the South's violenthomophobia, he hitchhiked at 17 from Savannah to San Francisco - anadventure, he recalls, that was "like Mark Twain with drag queens." He'spublished 12 books and been a finalist five times in 3 categories(poetry; gay science fiction and fantasy; spirituality and religion) forLambda Literary Awards. His novel Warlock, A Novel of Possesion, won an"Ippy" Award from the Independent Pulblishers Association for best gayand lesbian book in 2002.

He has been involved in the gay movement since 1969, when heco-edited Come Out!, the world's first gay liberation newspaper. Later,in 1972, with two friends he started the Gay Men's Health Project Clinic,the first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, still surviving as NewYork's Callen-Lourde Clinic. In 1984, his play Night Chills, one of thefirst plays to deal with the AIDS crisis, won a Jane ChambersInternational Gay Playwriting Award. Although his work has been littlerecognized by academics and the science fiction establishment, theplotlines of his novels have been innovative and prescient. His"science-politico" novel, The Harvest, from 1997, presaged the macabremarket in human body parts that was later uncovered in China and parts ofSoutheast Asia. His novel Albert, or the Book of Man, from 1995,predicted a right-wing take-over of the United States under the guise of"Christian" ethics; and Warlock, from 2001, dissected the vilemachinations of slippery multinational Enron-type corporations which arebasically money-sucking pools that disappear one moment to reappear thenext in another country, and which will do anything for even more money.

Brass's novels combine high action plots, spirituality, politicalawareness, eroticism, and humor. They are therefore hard to pigeon hole.He is first of all a storyteller, in the tradition of Robert LouisStevenson or the Jewish writer I.B Singer, as well as in the renegadetradition of William S. Burroughs. All of these writers have used fantasyand speculative fiction to reveal insights about human behavior. Brassdoes this, but as an openly gay writer.

Brass's books are available at bookstores, online at Amazon.com,InsightOut Bookclub, the Open Book Ltd., or through his website,www.perrybrass.com. He's an accomplished reader and teacher on gendersubjects, gay relationships, and the history and literature of themovement towards glbt equality. He lives in the Riverdale section of "daBronx" with his partner of 23 years, but can cross bridges to other partsof the country without a passport.