From Library Journal
This excellent anthology includes over 50 essays, poems, and coming-of-age stories by teenagers and established writers?from James Baldwin to Rita Mae Brown? some excerpted from classic full-length works. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Dr. Virginia Uribe, Founder, Project 10
A remarkable resource filled with poignant, eye-opening, and very funny pieces that will inspire and affirm without ever preaching or becoming heavy-handed.

Deneuve
A diverse collection. . . [of] essential staples for the queer reader interested in tracing her literary predecessors and contemporaries.

Lambda Book Report
An excellent introduction to gay and lesbian literature.

Next, New York
Filled with poignancy and a glimpse of hope for our future.

Just Out, Portland, Oregon
Growing up gay is, in some ways, harder than it has ever been. . . This anthology extends words of hope to youth who need to know that they are not alone.

Book Description
Growing up Gay, Growing up Lesbian is the first literary anthology geared specifically to gay and lesbian youth. It includes more than fifty coming-of-age stories by established writers and teenagers and has been hailed by writers, educators, activists, booksellers, and the press as an essential resource for young people--and not-so-young people--seeking to understand the gay and lesbian experience. The anthology includes selections by James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown, David Leavitt, Jeanette Winterson, Audre Lorde, and others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The first literary anthology geared specifically to lesbian and gay youth, Growing Up Gay is a much-needed resource for young people who are often isolated, shunned by their peers, and treated by schools and the media as though they do not exist. This ambitious collection of more than fifty coming of age stories pairs selections by teenagers with older writers' reflections on growing up gay or lesbian. Fiction by James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown, and Jeanette Winterson counterpoints autobiographical pieces by Quentin Crisp, Audre Lorde, and Paul Monette; diary accounts of growing up gay in the 1980s and 1990s complement poems, stories, and oral histories that tell what it was like to come of age as a gay man or lesbian in the 1940s and 1950s, when the notion of gay liberation was a distant prospect indeed. Topics include discovering one's sexual identity, entering into friendships and relationships, and finding a place within the sometimes hostile, sometimes welcoming worlds of school, family, work, faith, and community. Central to the book are the voices of young people struggling with how it feels to be part of a largely invisible and often misunderstood minority. The anthology also contains a comprehensive resource guide, with suggestions for further reading, listings of gay and lesbian youth organizations, and phone numbers for national and local hot lines.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Diversity is the central theme of this eclectic anthology, which takes a giant step forward in addressing lesbian and gay teens, a group often overlooked in YA literature. Presented in sections on self-discovery, friends, family and ``facing the world,'' this empowering collection of stories, poems, interviews, essays and excerpts from novels takes a healthy overview of gay writing. Equally balanced between male and female voices, its 56 entries represent a well-rounded and refreshing mix of viewpoints, ages and races. Coming out is, naturally, a frequent topic, but some of the most affecting pieces are those that recall the pains of adolescence and the struggles to understand a world that offers little affirmation. Not only does this anthology allow teens to see gay people's lives reflected in a rich variety of literature (from the novels of James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown and Jeanette Winterson, to the resounding voices of poets Essex Hemphill, Dennis Cooper and Pat Parker), but it also reminds readers that the desires, fears and dreams of gay teens are not so different from those of their straight counterparts. A bibliography and an extensive resource directory are appended. Ages 13-up. (Nov.)

Library Journal