Literary Adventures at Sea

Fellow book lovers, have you ever daydreamed about going on a literary cruise? I’ve thought they sounded like fun ever since I learned they existed. Despite getting sick on the last cruise I went on, after receiving a deal offer from Olivia Travel on a lesbian cruise featuring a full slate of author events, I couldn’t resist giving vacation at sea another try.

Our cruise left from beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico. The itinerary included port visits on several Caribbean islands, as well as daily music or comedy shows, so there was plenty to do besides hitting the books! After getting a sunburn while touring San Juan, stuffing myself at the buffet, and giving airtime to my athletic side on excursions, though, the quiet and reflectiveness of the literary programming was welcome.

Sapphire Books is a small, California-based publisher of lesbian books, primarily fiction. This was their second Literary Adventures at Sea cruise collaboration with Olivia, and they pulled out all the stops, bringing maybe a dozen authors and the owner/founder on board. The two biggest names were Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina, and Jewelle Gomez, author of the classic lesbian vampire novel The Gilda Stories (which is soon getting a sequel, over 25 years later!). Both are longtime writers and activists in the queer community. Sapphire’s programming included panels, a main stage discussion between Dorothy and Jewelle, themed readings (such as murder mystery and romance readings), Q and A’s, a cocktail party, and book signings. There was also an opportunity for writers to pitch their projects to publisher Chris Svendsen.

The pitch session was a highlight, surprising Chris with the sheer number of attendees. She’d been expecting a small group, but as the pitches were one-on-one, she had to break the session into two and schedule another one at a later time for some of the participants. It was clear that the queer women on the cruise were eager to tell their stories. Many, like me, had been drawn by the cruise’s literary events. It was inspiring to chat with women about their writing projects – anthologies, detective novels, humorous novels, memoirs. Each of us had five minutes to pitch to Chris. Along with her advice at the beginning of the session, at least one Sapphire author was on hand to offer tips: give a brief plot summary, a hook or tag line like you’d find on the back of a movie, and leave out irrelevant details.

Among the readings and panels, “Romancing the High Seas” stood out. Authors read from works ranging from a spicy story involving a nun to a science fantasy yarn to a tale of four “women of a certain age” with lovers and secrets. I was intrigued by Sallyanne Monti’s reading from her memoir, Light at the End of the Tunnel, detailing a friendship with another woman that began with an email sent to the wrong address that evolved, against all odds, into a lasting romance. That book ended up coming home with me! After the authors read their excerpts, which had a good mix of humor and vulnerability, they answered questions and spoke about their writing processes. “It has to be real,” said one of them, noting that her writing is deeply grounded in personal experience. Another added that “people might like to think lesbians just sit there and pet each other like kittens, but that’s not the truth!” In response to a question about writing sex scenes, one author noted that it’s helpful to write them in the bath (writers, take note!), while others use these scenes to reflect their characters’ inner lives and move the plot forward.     

The biggest event was a moderated conversation between Dorothy Allison and Jewelle Gomez, billed as “Advocating in Turbulent Times” and held on the main stage to a crowded audience. The two authors spoke warmly and engagingly about their past, future, writing projects, and long-lasting friendship. Dorothy came across as a firebrand with a big heart, while Jewelle, whose Gilda Stories hold a special place in my heart and who I partly went on the cruise to see, came across as gentle and kind. There’s a lot of recent debate about the extent to which writers should be accurate and sensitive when writing about marginalized demographics and groups to which they do not belong. Jewelle, calling herself a “bean counter,” noted the need to think of the many different people who might read her books and to be mindful of writing something with inadvertent negative implications for a certain type of reader, citing an example when a young man at a college reading interpreted Gilda as “hating men,” which was not her intent. Thinking this way about your work, Jewelle posited, is a matter of kindness. Dorothy mentioned that the youngest generation of queer people has less community than her generation (which was “always in meetings”), and emphasized the importance of real-world connection – reading blogs, the authors noted, is no substitute for bonding with other people or engaging with good books. Following the reading, I was honored to join other cruise attendees in meeting both authors.  

I left the cruise’s literary adventures at sea with renewed faith in the power of imagination and story. It was wonderful to see so many queer women writers thriving, finding an audience, and connecting with each other through their words! Would I recommend a literary cruise to fellow writers? If you don’t get too seasick, go for it!