Awards

[susanstinson]

I lost! I cried and cried. I took it hard.

I kept crying (off and on) for days. I was deeply consoled by magnificent friends, spectacularly generous and attentive strangers, ordinary human kindness, and -- wowsa -- talented entertainers and great Broadway plays. Also, I got many, many compliments on my outfits.

My friends Judy Frank (Crybaby Butch) and Alison Smith (Name All the Animals) won -- yay! and so did Greg and Ian of Suspect Thoughts Press. I came home with more great stories than I know what to do with (or have time to write), and hope to tell more, but for now:

• Somebody introduce me to Lea Delaria, please! We'd like each other. I'm sure of it. She was a GREAT emcee, and she only realized at 2 pm that afternoon that the ceremony was on Thursday instead of Saturday...


• Jessica Lange is brilliant as the mother in The Glass Menagerie. Her skin changed color with the emotions of the play -- I was seriously feeling it with her. I hadn't ever seen this play, but there was a line at the end that I remembered so wrenchingly and clearly from reading it in high school, after the brother leaves his desperate family, when his fragile sister, Laura, who he loves and doesn't save, is still kneeling on the stage in candlelight, and he, as the long distant narrator, says, "I tried to leave you, Laura, but it turns out that I was more loyal than I intended." Breaks your heart!


• The Spelling Bee, a musical with songs by the brilliant William Finn and a wonderful, funny book by my friend Alison's friend Rachel Sheinkin was so so so so so good! Fat people, fairies, nerds and weirdos of all description should absolutely see it. And all these desperate, funny, strange kids who really, really, really want to win a spelling bee made me sob throughout. Oh, my good, the fat boy with the collapsed nasal passage who has to spell out the words with his foot! He was up for a Tony, and I hope he won! It was cathartic! It was perfect! My friends who treated me to both of these plays (and much else) absolutely transformed the ways I dealt with how much having my book lose turned out to hurt.
  

If I won, I wanted to thank middle-aged lesbians, home economists, men who like dresses, and fat girls (some of various categories by name). Then, I wanted to say this:

I'd like to thank all of the writers in the room and in my life for all of the gorgeous, persistent, foolish, profound work. I know it's not easy, but these books, these stories, give regular shocks of much needed life to a numb but still aching world.

I didn't get to say it to them, but I'll say it to you. Thanks, gang.



WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR
17TH ANNUAL LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS
AT NEW YORK GALA CEREMONY


June 3, 2005, New York, NY - The recipients of the 17th Annual LambdaLiterary Awards were announced last night at a gala ceremony in New York City emceed by comedian and Broadway actress Lea Delaria during the BookExpo America convention. The awards celebrate achievements in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) literature for books published in 2004.

A $1,000 prize made possible by the Board of Trustees of the Lambda Literary Foundation, which organizes the Awards, was awarded to the recipient of awards in each of two new categories: The Trustees Award for Gay Men's Debut Fiction Award was given to actor, model, producer and writer Blair Mastbaum, for his novel Clay's Way (Alyson). The Lesbian Debut Fiction Award was given to Judith Frank, who drew on her experience as an adult literacy tutor to write her first novel Cry Baby Butch (Firebrand). A $500 prize was awarded to Bella Books for The Independent LGBT Press Award.

The Gay Men's Fiction Award was given to Booker Prize finalist Colm Tibn for The Master (Scribner), a fictionalized study of the interior life of novelist Henry James, and The Lesbian Fiction Award was given to Village Voice writer and novelist Stacey D'Erasmo for A Seahorse Year (Houghton Mifflin), which follows a San Francisco family coping with a 16-year-old son's mental illness. Winners in the above categories, and eighteen others, received a crystal trophy.

Comedian and Broadway actress Lea Delaria recounted the widely covered story of her last public appearance, a May 14 benefit for the AIDS Assistance Program in Palm Springs, in which organizers shut off her microphone and dragged her off stage for her Bush-Bashing jokes. The audience of The Lambda Literary Awards, several of whom showed up sporting "Impeach Bush" buttons, gave Delaria quite the opposite reception, by bursting into rousing applause and laughter throughout the night.

In her acceptance speech for The Bridge Builder Award, Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler said that "creating better understanding between gays and straights is less about building bridges and more about excavating the crud between us."

When New York Times bestselling Eleanor Roosevelt-biographer Blanche Weisen Cooke accepted the Pioneer Award, she told a story to make the point that two butches can't dance, but Lea Delaria proved her wrong by waltzing with her onstage.

Among the award presenters were Style TV drag talk show host Brini Maxwell presenting the Humor Award, and porn star turned poet Aiden Shaw presenting the Erotica Award, as well as Broadway writer and performer Charles Busch, who when presenting the memoirs category joked that among his favorite memoirs were those by Suzanne Sommers and Mary Lou Henner.

The Lambda Literary Awards recognize and honor the best in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature. From hundreds of books nominated by their publishers and other authorized agents, five nominees were selected in each of 20 categories. Panels of judges in each category, chosen to represent the diversity of the LGBT literary community, determined the final winner from the finalists.

The Lambda Literary Awards are produced by the non-profit Lambda Literary Foundation (http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=32552994&u=296710)
Photos will be posted on Lambda Literary Foundation website soon.

Award Recipients:

The Trustees Award for Debut Gay Men's Fiction
Clay's Way by Blair Mastbaum, Alyson

The Trustees Award for Debut Lesbian Fiction

Crybaby Butch by Judith Frank, Firebrand

Gay Men's Fiction

The Master by Colm Tibn, Scribner

Lesbian Fiction

A Seahorse Year by Stacey D'Erasmo, Houghton Mifflin

Lesbian Poetry

Sweet to Burn by Beverly Burch, Gival Press

Gay Men's Poetry

Written in Water by Luis Cernuda, City Lights Publishers

Lesbian mystery

Hancock Park by Katherine V. Forrest, Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin Group USA

Gay Men's Mystery

Flight of Aquavit by Anthony Bidulka, Insomniac Press

Fiction Anthology

Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction selected by Edmund White, edited by Donald Weise, Carroll & Graff

Nonfiction Anthology

I Do/I Don't: Queers on Marriage edited by Greg Wharton and Ian Philips, Suspect Thoughts Press

Memoir

Name All the Animals by Alison Smith, Scribner

Biography

Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux, W.W. Norton

Children's / Young Adult

So Hard to Say by Alex Sanchez, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Erotica

Best Gay Erotica 2005 edited by Richard Labonte, Cleis Press

Humor

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, Little, Brown

Romance

Almost Like Being in Love by Steven Kluger, HarperCollins

Scifi/fan/horror

The Ordinary by Jim Grimsley, Tor Books

Spirituality

Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same-Sex Love by Will Roscoe, Suspect Thoughts Press

Drama / Theater

I am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Visual Arts/Photography

At Ease: Navy Men of World War II by Evan Bachner, Harry Abrams

LGBT Studies

For the Love of Women: Gender, Identity and Same-Sex Relations in a Greek Provincial Town by Elisabeth Kirtsoglou, Routledge

Transgender

The Gender Frontier by Mariette Pathy Allen, Kehrer Verlag
The 2004 Lambda Literary Awards were sponsored by:
CLAGS
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
The Haworth Press / Harrington Park Press
The American Booksellers Association
Bella Books
TLABooks.com
Kensington
Insight Out Books
Mercedes-Benz
The Pilgrim Press
The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
One in Ten
Brother, Help Thyself
Gival Press
DREAMWalker Group
The Publishing Triangle
Books to Watch Out For



Jim Marks, Executive Director
Lambda Literary Foundation
PO Box 73910
Washington, DC 20056
202-682-0952

Programs of the Lambda Literary Foundation include:
The Lambda Book Report, The Lambda Literary Awards, The James White Review and the Lambda Literary Festival
http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=32552994&u=296711

Comments

[wauwau.livejournal.com]

ohmygoodness. Thank you so much for saying you were upset too. I knew I wasn't going to win and kept thinking the whole thing was just going to be fun somehow. But I cried too! sheesh.

But now I feel validated. thank you!!!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I know! I started crying as soon as Jennifer Levin, the presenter, started talking, before she announced the lesbian fiction category. If I had won, I would have been crying onstage! I also had a mint in my mouth, which my friend helpfully suggested that I chew up, when I took it out and started waving it around as I cried. Even before the name was announced.

But, as my friends said, if I were still crying in eight weeks, we'd need to have a little talk, but, at the time it happens, well it hurt.