A University graduate will return to his old stomping grounds today to talk about his book, "How I Learned to Snap."
Kirk Read, who graduated in 1995, is a free-lance journalist for various gay publications and the former editor of "Our Own Community Press," Virginia's gay and lesbian newspaper.
"How I Learned to Snap" is the story of Read's experiences as an openly gay student at a small southern high school in the Shenandoah Valley.
Read began writing at age 13 and had three plays professionally staged while he was in high school, including, appropriately, one play about coming out in high school.
His book addresses this and other experiences. Among them is his request to bring a same-sex date to his senior prom, something that Read expected to ignite controversy.
Instead, his request was met with a calm approval, proving that acceptance can be found in unexpected places.
The title of the book comes from one particular story about a gay senior who befriended Read in his freshman year. Looking into a mirror, the senior taught Read to say "I am not (snap) afraid," helping him gain the confidence he needed to complete four difficult high school years.
One chapter in the book also details an admissions visit that Read made to the University with his father, offering some tongue-in-cheek commentary on University students' love of Lawn rooms and also those rooms' lack of internal bathroom facilities.
According to his Web site, Read's book is not a victim's tale or a guidebook to surviving high school as an openly gay student. Rather, it is "a call to acceptance, with a Southern accent."
Nancy Damon, program director for the Virginia Festival of the Book, said Read was chosen because the organization was interested in doing a program with gay writers.
Read will be joined today by Alex Sanchez, author of "Rainbow Boys," and Bernard Mayes, author of "Escaping God's Closet."
While at the University, Read was an Echols scholar, writing his senior thesis on themes of rescue and salvation in Horatio Alger novels, contemporary gay porn and the children's television show Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Read will hold a workshop today at noon at the University Bookstore, and a reading at 9 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation, hosted by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Union.
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