Books & Beer

Hammonton Pride and Chimney Rustic Ales present Books & Beer, and evening celebrating queer authors.

Books & Beer features four award-winning and accomplished authors: David Jackson Ambrose, Kathy Anderson, Larry Benjamin and Laurie Greene. Experience live readings, Q&A and signing with each author, and the opportunity to purchase their works. Complementary non-alcoholic beverages and a bite to eat will be available, and Chimney Rustic Ales' array of brews will be available to purchase.

PLEASE READ: It is important for you to RSVP if you plan on joining us. Food and seating will be based upon pre-registered attendees. Walk-ups are welcome unless stated otherwise prior to the event.

For more informtion about Hammonton Pride, visit our website!

David Jackson Ambrose's 2022 novel Unlawful Disorder (Jaded Ibis Press) is the winner of the 2023 IPPY silver award for LGBTQ fiction and a bronze Reader View award in the thriller category. "Unlawful" is the story of Bowie Long, diagnosed with schizophrenia from the age of 18, as he tries to avoid coming into the hands of police, who view people with mental illness as threats to society and places them in jail or into compulsory treatment. Added to that, Bowie has a gambling addiction that leads him to illegal acts, making contact with police unavoidable. Even the best intentions of those who love him can't seem to save him from his trajectory into the prison industrial complex where Black men are eaten alive.

David's second novel, A Blind Eye (NineStar Press) is the winner of the 2021 Rainbow Award. A Blind Eye is a look at the ways that domestic abuse and generational traumas affect various families, and the ways the term 'disability' is manipulated to marginalize and isolate traumatized people - particularly children of color and individuals in same sex relationships. David is an Adjunct Professor of English who has worked in the behavioral health field for over twenty years. He holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph's & Temple Universities. He is at work on his fourth novel.

Kathy Anderson is the author of the novel, The New Town Librarian (NineStar Press, 2023) and the short story collection, Bull and Other Stories (Autumn House Press, 2016), which won the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. Once upon a time, she was a new town librarian in real life. She holds a Master of Library Science degree and worked for the Atlantic County Library System in public libraries in small towns across South Jersey. To connect: https://www.kathyandersonwriter.com.

Bronx-born wordsmith Larry Benjamin is the author of the gay novels “Excellent Sons: A Love Story in Three Acts,” which is a 2022 Lambda Literary Award winner in the Gay Romance category, and a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist; “Unbroken,” which was a 2014 Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a 2014 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold medalist; “The Sun, the Earth & the Moon;” “In His Eyes;” “Vampire Rising,” an allegorical novella.

Laurie Greene is a Professor of Anthropology at Stockton University in New Jersey, where she has taught since 1968. She is the founder of the LGBTQ+ Youth Safe Space Initiative at Stockton and an advocate in the local LGBTQ+ community. She is also the author of queer erotic poetry published in literary journals and a number of other works on phenomenology, most recently Teaching Contemporary Yoga: Physical Philosophy & Critical Issues (Routledge 2022), and Drag Queens and Beauty Queens: Contesting Femininity in the World's Playground (Rutgers 2020). She has three perfect adult children and two spoiled cats who run the home she lives in in Ventnor, New Jersey. Her favorite color is the rainbow.