Will Your Book Be Considered For The 2013 Lambda Literary Awards? You have one month to submit it!

The Lammys are The Lambda Literary Foundation's annual awards to recognize the best LGBT literature from the past year.

Two dueling opinion pieces at advocate.com have recently debated the Lammy Awards.  On the one hand, writer, editor and publisher of Lethe Press Steve Berman talked about problems with the awards and how the selection process works.  And on the other, Tony Valenzuela (the Lambda Literary Foundation's executive director) countered with his take on the process' integrity and the continuing importance of the Lammy awards.

It's worth noting that Steve Berman has Lethe titles submitted so far in six Lammy categories for the 2013 awards, which confirms what isn't up for debate: 

The Lammy Awards are significant and increasingly important as publishing changes and we all try to find the best LGBT books out there.

Check out the Lammy guidelines and submission details here at Lambda Literary's website.

Note:  December 1, 2012 is the deadline to have your 2012 book considered!  (And if your book is being released in December, they have a way to accommodate that.)

Here's the list as of last week of the books submitted in the LGBT Children’s/Young Adult category:

Andy Squared, Jennifer Lavoie, Bold Strokes Books

Between You & Me, Marisa Calin, Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Boys of Summer, Steve Berman, ed., Bold Strokes Books

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, Lianne Simon, Faie Miss Press

Fangs and Stilettos, Anthony DiFiore, inGroup Press

In Stone: A Grotesque Faerie Tale, Jeremy Jordan King, Bold Strokes Books

Kiss the Morning Star, Elissa Janine Hoole, Amazon Children’s Publishing

me@you.com, KE Payne, Bold Strokes Books

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, emily m. danforth, Balzer + Bray

Northern Lights, James Matthew Green, Create Space

October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard, Lesléa Newman, Candlewick Press

OMGqueer, eds. Radclyffe and Katherine E. Lynch, PhD., Bold Strokes Books

Personal Effects, E.M. Kokie, Candlewick Press

The Prospect, Jason Glaser, Darby Creek

Sara, Greg Herren, Bold Strokes Books

Secret of Othello: A Fisher Key Adventure, Sam Cameron, Bold Strokes Books

Silhouette of a Sparrow, Molly Beth Griffin, Milkweed Editions

Starting from Here, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Amazon Children’s Publishing

Street Dreams, Tama Wise, Bold Strokes Books

Timothy, Greg Herren, Bold Strokes Books

Way to Go, Tom Ryan, Orca Book Publishers

The You Know Who Girls: Freshman Year, Annameekee Hesik, Bold Strokes Books

Sounds like a great reading list!

Namaste,
Lee

The Lambda Literary Foundation Changes Their Lammy Award Guidelines to both include Allied writers and highlight GLBTQ writers as Well

It's been an ongoing debate, whether the Lambda Literary Foundation should celebrate, with their annual Lammy Awards, books or authors.

See, two years ago LLF changed their guidelines, saying that only books with great GLBTQ characters written by GLBTQ authors would be eligible.

They wanted to promote GLBTQ writers, and while I think that's a laudable goal, I (and others) felt that the eligibility change was a dis-service to all our allies who write wonderful books with GLBTQ characters and themes. (And many of their past Lammy Winners, like Ellen Wittlinger, author of "Hard Love," are heterosexual Allies to our queer community.)

So it was announced yesterday that LLF has struck a new position moving forward, a compromise which I think answers both needs: celebrate the best GLBTQ books each year, no matter WHO wrote them (or who the authors fall in love with) while adding three new award categories to specifically celebrate GLBTQ authors!

Here's their new policy, taken from yesterday's press release:

LGBT authors will be recognized with three awards marking stages of a writer's career: the Betty Berzon Debut Fiction Award (to one gay man and one lesbian), the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize (to one male-identified and one female-identified author), and the Pioneer Award (to one male-identified and one female-identified individual or group)

Awards for the remaining Lambda Literary Award categories will be based on literary merit and significant content relevant to LGBT lives. These awards will be open to all authors regardless of their sexual identity

All book award judges will be self-identified LGBT

Bravo, Lambda Literary Foundation!

***ADDENDUM***

I think Angie's comment below is very right-on. I, too, hope that LLF re-considers the structure of its three categories of awards for LGBTQ authors to include ALL LGBTQ authors!

Thanks, Angie!

***

Namaste,
Lee

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover - Because That's Where You'll Find Out Who Wrote It - And Who They're Sleeping With! The Lammies, The Cybils, & Me

Awards, Awards, Awards.

So, why all the hoopla and controversy about awards?

Well, think about it - there are SO many books published every year (172,000 - just in the U.S.A. last year) that getting noticed - and read - is a challenge. Less than 25,000 of those books sell more than 5,000 copies. (Stats from here.)

So Awards, and reviews in the major journals/newspapers/blogs become really important.

Hence, the rise of the Cybils, a book blogger literary award for Children's and Young Adult books. And I'm really excited to be part of this third year of the Cybils Awards as an Judge!

But there are other awards that have a long history, and recently the Lamdba Literary Awards changed the way theirs works.

See, The Lamdba Literary Awards (the Lammies) used to be for BOOKS that were GLBTQ in content.

Now, they're saying that the AUTHORS have to self-identify as part of the Gay Community for their GLBTQ books to qualify.

That's a HUGE change - and one that would eliminate a lot of wonderful books that might otherwise not find their audiences.

I'm thinking of Ellen Wittlinger, author of one of the few transgender teen novels, "Parrotfish," (a finalist for the 2008 Lambda Literary Awards) and also of "Love and Lies: Marisol's Story" (a finalist for the 2009 Lambda Literary Awards) and "Hard Love" (Which WON the Lambda Literary Award in 2000.)

Ellen is a straight woman, but she is an Ally and Advocate who has done SO much for our community. She writes brave books about Gay characters, she does her homework and her books make an impact - for the good - on Gay Teens.

To tell her, and authors like her, that she can't be considered for any future awards because she herself isn't a lesbian, or bi, or transgender, or questioning - to tell her that her books can no longer qualify because she fell in love with a man (gasp!) is so contrary to what we should be doing as a community.

Instead of encouraging our ALLIES and everyone else to celebrate our lives and yes, create stories that celebrate and incorporate being Gay, Lambda's shift feels like a slap in the face to those same people who are trying to move the world - our world - in a better direction.

Now, I'm a gay man. And I do love the idea of an organization saying "Hey, we're here to help GAY authors get noticed." I think that's awesome. I could use getting noticed. And there are certainly publishing contests for minority authors (Like The Lee and Low "New Voices Award" Contest), and while I might be wistful about not being able to submit to those contests, I appreciate that they're trying to do a bit of affirmative action, to give underrepresented writers from their communities a shot.

But to take an established awards program (this year was the 21st annual event) and switch its focus to be not about the books' orientation but about the authors' orientation, too, feels like the wrong way to go about it.

I would have suggested Lambda create a new category of awards, something like "Best Debut Gay Author" and "Best Debut Lesbian Author," etc... That would shout-out and create a new buzz for authors who are GLBTQ, without shutting out Allied authors from the overall awards.

And as I'm now going to be a JUDGE for the Cybils, I've been thinking about this a lot. I have friends who have had their YA books released in the time period that qualifies them. And I'm going to have to be very careful to be as author-blind as I can be - to really judge the books on the books themselves, and not let any information about WHO the author is influence my "reading" of those books, as best as I can.

A sculpture of Lady Justice from 1543,
on display in Berne, Switzerland.

I think this is why Lady Justice is blindfolded - we all joke that she's blind and it means she (Justice) has no compassion - but I think the original intent may have been that when you judge something, you weigh it with a sense of impartiality.

And I think that books should be judged that way, too.

So, I would hope that the Lambda Literary Foundation re-considers what qualifies a book to be considered for their awards. I think it should be the BOOK itself - rather than who the author falls in love with.

I hope as well that Lambda creates a new awards category to recognize budding GLBTQ authors - I think that would be great.

And I also hope that as a judge for the Cybils, I and my fellow judges will be able to put aside the information of who wrote what, and simply read and judge each book on its own merits.

Because there are so many books out there - and some really deserve to be noticed!

I'm curious. What do YOU think about the Change in Lambda's rules?

Namaste,
Lee



You can read more about the Lambda Literary Foundation's guidelines change here.

And The Winner of The Lambda Literary Foundation's "Lammy" Award for the Best LGBT Childrens/Young Adult Book published in 2008 goes to...

21st LAMBDA LITERARY
AWARD WINNERS
BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2008


LGBT CHILDRENS/YOUNG ADULT

- Out of the Pocket, Bill Konigsberg, Dutton

Congratulations, Bill!


Find out more about "Out of the Pocket" here! And Check out the Lambda Literary Foundation's website here!