Patricia Nell Warren (June 15, 1936 – February 9, 2019), also known by her pen name Patricia Kilina, was an American novelist, poet, editor and journalist. Her second novel, The Front Runner (1974), was the first work of contemporary gay fiction to make the New York Times Best Seller list. Her third novel, The Fancy Dancer (1976), was the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town.
Early life and education
Patricia Nell Warren was born in Helena, Montana, on June 15, 1936, and grew up in southwest Montana on the Grant–Kohrs Ranch near Deer Lodge.
Warren earned an associate of arts degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, in 1955, then a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1957 from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.
In 1959, Warren was employed by Reader's Digest and worked there for 21 years; she became an editor of both the magazine and the Condensed Book Club. She divorced Tarnawsky in 1973 and left the New York Group shortly thereafter.
Books
In 1974, Warren published her second novel, The Front Runner. Told from the point of view of a gay track coach, the story chronicled his struggle to get a talented openly gay runner on the U.S. Olympic team, and to quash his own growing love for his protégé. The controversial book was the first contemporary gay fiction to make The New York Times Best Seller list.
As a runner herself, Warren was in 1968 one of the first women to participate in the Boston Marathon. She was part of a group who achieved wider recognition in the U.S. for female marathon runners.
In 1976, Warren published her third novel, The Fancy Dancer.
In 1978, came Warren's fourth novel, The Beauty Queen.
As Warren was selling her literature online and also helping youth produce their work online, Warren became one of 20 plaintiffs in the landmark US Supreme Court case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 under her Wildcat Press publishing company. The case challenged the Communications Decency Act of 1996, and the court overturned it in a unanimous 1997 decision.
In the District Court case that preceded, Warren was asked by Judge Stewart Dalzell how she would be affected by a ruling that the Internet censorship law was constitutional. "What I'm concerned about is that certain people in this country will perceive the entire area of gay literature to be indecent or patently offensive," she told the judges.
In taking the case to the US Supreme Court, the ACLU's Motion to Affirm stated:
Between 1996 and 1999, Warren was appointed as a commissioner of education in the Los Angeles Unified School District, serving on the Gay & Lesbian Education Commission and later the Human Relations Education Commission.
In 2000, Warren was involved in another landmark court case, Ashcroft v. ACLU, which successfully challenged the Child Online Protection Act which attempted to prohibit communications deemed "harmful to minors."
In 2006, Warren hired veteran political consultant Neal Zaslavsky and announced her candidacy for City Council in West Hollywood, CA. Warren was unsuccessful in her run.
Warren was also a pioneer in becoming a self-publisher in 1994 through the formation of Wildcat Press. Wildcat Press continues to operate under the loving care of her estate which is managed by Greg Zanfardino. http://www.wildcatpress.com
In June 2019, Warren was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, while The Wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Bibliography
- A Tragedy of Bees (1960) — in Ukrainian
- Legends and Dreams (1964) — in Ukrainian
- Pink Cities (1969) — in Ukrainian
- The Last Centennial (1971) LOC#77-163583
- The Front Runner (1974)
- The Fancy Dancer (1976)
- The Beauty Queen (1978)
- One is the Sun (1991)
- Harlan's Race (1994)
- Billy's Boy (1997)
- The Wild Man (2001)
- Torero (2004)
- My West: Personal Writings on the American West (2011)
- Virgin Kisses (2022)