ReadOut 2021 Organizing Committee:

Edie Daly: member of the Womyn’s Energy Bank that made the original donation of books that started the LGBTQ Resource Center collection at the Gulfport Library and current board member; core member of the ReadOut 2021 Organizing Committee; author of The Old Lesbian Memory Quilt: Stories Told by Edie Daly on Her 80th Birthday. 

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Sonja Franeta: Sonja Franeta is a writer, translator, educator and activist. Author of Pink Flamingos: 10 Siberian Interviews and My Pink Road to Russia and other writings, both books are available in English and Russian. She is retired from teaching English in Oakland CA although she still teaches part time in Florida. She and her partner with their two cats live in Spain for part of the year.

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Susan Gore:  joined the LGBTQ Resource Center board as the Circle of Friends liaison in 2015, became board president as it transitioned to an IRS-recognized nonprofit in 2019; core member of the ReadOut 2021 Organizing Committee; co-editor with Rev. Keith Kron of Coming out in Faith: Voices of LGBTQ Unitarian Universalists; Mantra: “It’s not done ‘til it’s overdone.” 

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Ellen Levy: author of a series of two published and two soon-to-be-published books of historical fiction, was a member of the planning committee for Readout 2021. She retired from a career in non-profit management, where she supervised programs for people with disabilities, college interns, under-employed immigrants, and the elderly. She has been an active board member for several lesbian groups in Boston.  

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Jeanine "Dr. Jazz" Normand: musician and professional writer, majored in premed, lived in France twice, performed concerts, taught writing workshops, and organized for women’s rights around Europe, the Caribbean, and the USA. Normand started the lesbian special collections at Duke University, and she enjoys spearheading and co-coordinating women’s music festivals and lesbian writing conferences, including ReadOut 2021. A lesbian feminist activist in coastal Alabama, Normand, the bilingual Editor at Marsh Rabbit Press, also consults in international business.

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Barbara Talkov: has extensive experience working on public policy issues and direct services to improve the communities and lives of women, children and youth. She has worked with not-for-profit agencies and coalitions of them, with municipal government, and with both the legislative and executive branches of state government. Her community involvement has included serving on a variety of not-for-profit and local government boards, as well as various advisory committees.  These have focused on LGBTQ issues, the arts, health and human services, sustainable agriculture, and professional associations.

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Milton Wendland: LGBTQ Resource Center board member and a core member of the Organizing Committee for ReadOut 2021; a faculty member in the Department of Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of South Florida, where he teaches courses like LGBTQ+ Cultures, Queer Film & TV, and Sexualities Studies.