Title of
Book: One Gay American
Author: Dennis
Milam Bensie
Author
Website: http://dennismilambensie.com
Publisher: CoffeeTown
Press
ISBN-10:
1603811532
ISBN-13:
978-1603811538
Price $13.95
Publication
Date: September 2012
Genre of
Book: Memoir
About
the Book: Dennis Milam Bensie is
One Gay American. Born in the 1960s and raised with traditional values
in Robinson, Illinois, Bensie desperately wanted romance, a beautiful wedding,
and a baby to carry on the family name. He denied his sexuality and married a
woman at nineteen years old, but fantasized of weddings where he could be
the bride. The newlyweds "adopted" a Cabbage Patch Doll and
ironically witnessed a Cabbage Patch Doll wedding (a successful fundraiser
staged by a local women's club) where the dolls were granted the type of grand
ceremony off-limits to gay couples.
In search of
his identity as a gay man, Bensie divorced his wife and stumbled through
missteps and lessons that still sting his generation: defending against
bullies, "disappointing" his parents, and looking for love in gay
bars, bath houses and restrooms. He helped his straight friends plan their
dream weddings and mourned his gay friends dying of AIDS.
Although
true love has not yet come his way, Bensie has learned to love himself. Bensie
is the author of the much-lauded memoir, Shorn: Toys to Men, which
recounts his battle with paraphilia. One Gay American tells the rest of
his story and draws parallels to gay history, decade by decade, with newspaper
headlines and quotations. Bensie is the gay neighbor that you either love or
hate. Either way, he's got a lot to say and says it with no apologies.
BOOK
TRAILER:
Overall
Thoughts:
We loved
this memoir with its straight forward, yet edgy verbiage. Dennis doesn’t hold
anything back when sharing about his life growing up in as he put it…An America
Coming Out. All of us here at WOI were also growing up as kids or teens during
those years and remember many of the headlines shared at the beginning of each
chapter.
What is
interesting is how much America has changed and how much it hasn’t on some
topics within the LGBT communities. Since the release of One Gay American, we
have all seen some new leaps toward marriage for the Gay community and more
open conversation about untraditional families. Dennis’ book is timely and also
hits not only on growing up Gay, but also makes us all realize we each have our
struggles, dreams and successes in life. Dennis helps open our eyes to loving
ourselves and in doing so and accepting we are all different, yet alike, we can
learn to love each other for who we all are.
About the Author:
Dennis Milam Bensie grew up in Robinson, Illinois where his
interest in the arts began in high school participating in various community
theatre productions. Bensie’s first book, Shorn: Toys to Men was
nominated for the Stonewall Book Award, sponsored by the American Library
Association. It was also a pick in the International gay magazine The
Advocate as “One of the Best Overlooked Books of 2011″. The author’s short
stories have been published by Bay Laurel, Everyday
Fiction, and This Zine Will Change Your Lifeand he has also been a
feature contributor for The Good Men Project. One Gay American is his
second book with Coffeetown Press and it was chosen as a finalist in the Next
Generation Indie Book Awards and the Indie Excellence Book Awards. He was a
presenter at the 2013 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans.
Dennis lives in Seattle with his three dogs.
You can find out more about Dennis
Milam Bensie, his memoirs and World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/lhtvxyt
To learn
more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com
Coming out on the heels of Gay Pride week, this book is certainly timely.
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