JUAN ALONSO
Visual artist, curator and winner of numerous awards including the Gap Grant from Artist Trust and a recent Seattle Arts Commission Sustaining Purchase Award.

Has being queer affected your artwork or the way you perceive art?
I have always been affected by whatever is going on, not only in my personal life, but also in the world at large. As an artist, I respond to important issues in a more subtle way (with concept, paint, and canvas) than an activist would. I know that being queer has affected the work I create and seek, but probably as much as being an immigrant or other characteristics that make up who I am.

Who is your favorite queer artist?
Personally, I find it too self-limiting to pick a favorite anything, much less an artist. I have had my artistic heroes throughout my career, some famous and most of them dead, but I couldn’t really tell you if they were queer or not. Here and now, two queer Seattle artists that we should all be watching are Pam Keely and Reilly Jensen. They are both enormously talented women who would make any community proud.

IAN BELL
Producer, The Brown Derby Series at Re-bar. “Crazy Whores” is the latest series of plays featuring re-workings of famous films such as “Fatal Attraction” and “Single White Female.”

How do you see queer ideas blending into theatre?
There has always been an implied association between queer culture and the stage; theatre is a nonjudgmental haven for all kinds of societal misfits. As society become less judgmental towards queers, we see more complex, three-dimensional portrayals of queers on stage. This doesn’t mean that the stereotypical “Sissy” has been eradicated on stage (or screen), but these days the “Sissy” is portrayed with more specificity, and nuance than before.

Who is your favorite queer artist?
Richard Simmons.

MATTHEW STADLER
Literary Editor of “Nest” Magazine and novelist whose work includes “Landscape: Memory.”

You work with gay youth and are currently writing a novel. What do you think the next trend in gay literature will be about?
I don’t think there will be any gay literature in the future—at least, I hope there won’t be. Lit becomes gay lit when homophobes make it impossible to just be homo and be real. We label our stories to deal with the shit they’re bringing down. Where there’s no homophobia there’s no gay lit. The worse the homophobia, the worse the lit. Have you read “Best Little Boy in the World?” In 1970, it was ground breaking. Today, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, except as a history lesson. In the future, I think great sex will saturate great literature, as it always has. And it will be even greater for not being gay or straight or anything but literature. That said, maybe we’ll also get out of the romance, lean into description, look outside ourselves, try a little tenderness, and thrill to the sound of future music.

Who is you favorite queer writer?
Proust. Queer as paste. Ravishing. Nowadays we have Robert Gluck, who is sublime, and Steve Weiner, who is straight but is super queer in his lit. His two books, “The Museum of Love” and “The Yellow Sailor,” are fabulous.

GINA MAINWAL
Musician, filmmaker, and director of the documentary, “Signed, Stamped and Delivered: The Story of the Typing Explosion.”

Do you consider yourself a queer filmmaker or do you just make films?
Ultimately, I would rather be known as just a filmmaker, or just a musician, but I understand that need in our culture for labels like “queer.” If I can break the stereotype or give a broader sense of it, then I usually feel better about accepting that label.

Who is your favorite queer filmmaker?
This week it’s Lisa Cholodenko [director of “Fine Art”].

Give us a short bio about your film and what you want to accomplish.
The 30-minute documentary profiles three women who type poetry on demand (on vintage typewriters) while wearing ‘60s secretarial outfits and forcing the audience to “follow the rules.” It traveled to over 12 festivals around the world and won “Best Local Short” and “Audience Favorite Local Short” at the 2003 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. I am currently working on a short narrative, and this time there will be queer characters.