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- by  New College News

Lauren Fields, a third-year student at New College of Florida, will have a book published in the summer of 2009 as the winner of a contest entitled Project: QueerLit. Her novel, Maladaptation, will be published by Queer Mojo, an imprint of Rebel Satori Press, which is an independent publisher of books on spirituality and revolutionary personal transformation.

Fields, from Naples, Florida, writes under the pen name of L.A. Fields. She is concentrating in English at New College and plans to explore a career as a writer following her graduation in 2010.

“I’m excited for the opportunities and exposure that this contest is giving me,” said Fields, who is already a published author of four short stories. “New College has provided the perfect environment to allow me to pursue writing as a career.”

Assistant Professor of English Robert Zamsky, who was Fields’ advisor this past year, was delighted with the news. “I am both pleased and not at all surprised by Lauren’s success,” he stated. “Her ambition and dedication – her zeal, really – are terrific.  I’m very happy for her.”

Fields currently has four short stories out –two online, and two in print anthologies. They include:

“The Funeral Director” – Published online at Ignavia Press, 2009.
“Bluff” – Published in Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, Dark Scribe Press, 2008. (Expected reprint in Wilde Stories, Lethe Press, 2009.)
“Happiness” – Published in Cool Thing: The Best New Gay Fiction From Young American Writers, Running Press, 2008.
“Walls” – Published online at Still Blue: More Writing By (For or About) Working-Class Queers, 2008.

Queer Mojo provides this synopsis of Maladaptation: “Sixteen-year-old Marley Kurtz is an incurable bookworm who is sent to a program for ‘maladapted’ youth in Loweville, Colorado, after his parents discover he has been having an affair with a man forty-three years his senior.  Once there, Marley befriends the wry yet optimistic Missy, who is fifteen and pregnant in the lowest town on earth, and falls in love with Jesse, an ice-eyed sociopath with an outlaw for a father and a corpse for a mother. As the stress of the summer causes Marley’s physical and mental health to decline, it is unclear which of his new friends has the worst influence on him, or whether the instruction of a small town’s Baptist-run therapy group will do more harm than good to everyone involved.”

The Project: QueerLit contest celebrates and brings media attention to unpublished authors of queer writing and opens doors for publication of their work. The contest is open to any unpublished author of an English-language novel with queer and/or bent content. For more information, visit www.projectqueerlit.com.
For more information, contact Aimee Chouinard, Media Relations Coordinator, at (941) 487-4152 or [email protected].