A chilling account of the deadliest fire New Orleans has ever seen, and, until the Orlando Pulse shootings, the largest mass-killing of LGBT people in American History.  The Up Stairs Lounge Arson was named Book of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities--the first LGBT-themed book to receive this honor.  It was also a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Nonfiction.  This book describes the brief history of the Up Stairs Lounge, looks at people who went there, and shows how, when they were killed, the city of New Orleans turned its back on the dead.  In the absence of any demonstrable concern from civic and church officials, a group of gay activists from around the country came to New Orleans and provided the leadership that was sorely lacking.  The story of the Up Stairs Lounge, then, becomes the story of the blossoming of gay activism in the post-Stonewall era.