Borders Music and Books has teamed up with Lavender Writes, an organization designed to support gay and lesbian writers, to present The Lavender Writes Series, Sunday, April 6, at 1pm. The event will give local writers a chance to read their work to an audience.

The Sunday reading is the first in a series that will showcase the work of gay and lesbian writers, although non-gay writers are also welcome. The writers scheduled for the inaugural event are Jose Alcaraz, Cary Michael Bass, Jim McDonough, Joseph Puleo, John Siegfried, Brenda Squires and Karen Dale Wolman. Express Arts & Entertainment Editor Mary Damiano will read and emcee the event.

Wolman, who founded Lavender Writes, applauded Borders for being supportive of the gay writing community. In February, Borders and Lavender Writes presented a Writers Pride Day celebration, with readings by three local novelists, Mary Britton, E. Robert Dunn and Wolman.

“Rochelle at Borders is wonderful to work with,” Wolman says. “All I have to do is call up and say I’d like to do the event, and Rochelle says, ‘Okay, when?’ I love that about her. As long as the time is free, she sets it up.”

Wolman would also like to feature fewer writers at each reading in order to give each more time to expose the audience to their work. “It’s always a struggle when you have novelists as opposed to poets, because novelists need more time,” Wolman says. “This is one of the few venues where novelists can give a substantial reading instead of just snippets.”

Although this event has a pre-arranged list of writers, an open mic reading is planned for later in the spring.

Lavender Writes was one of the sponsors of the second Not Your Average Bedtime Story reading in November at the Stonewall Library and Archives, at which local writers read steamy passages from their own work. The two readings combined drew over 250 audience members.

“I think that the sex story readings at Stonewall have really shown how much of a need there is for writers to read their work and for people to hear good writing,” Wolman says.

Lavender Writes, which Wolman formed to provide free writing workshops to gay writers and developing forums to feature their work, has received approval from the state and can now apply to the federal government for nonprofit status. Wolman expects Lavender Writes officially to become a nonprofit organization in a few months.

“They like organizations that not only want to do things but have already done things, and we sponsored the sex story reading with Stonewall and now Writer’s Pride Day with Borders,” Wolman says. “We’ve shown what we can do on a small scale, and if we get our status and grant money, we can do things on a much larger scale.”

The fledgling organization will also be a co-sponsor, along with The Express, of an upcoming writing contest. Details will be announced in a future issue of The Express.

The Lavender Writes Series will take place Sunday, April 6, at 1pm at Border’s Music and Books, 2240 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. The event is free, though books and refreshments will be for sale.