September 25, 2009 - The Board of Lambda Literary Foundation, under the leadership of Christopher Rice, spent much of last year discussing how our literature has evolved, and the actual mission of the Foundation given the perilous place we find ourselves in with our drastically changed market conditions.  We also took into consideration the despair of our own writers when a heterosexual writer, who has written a fine book about us, wins a Lambda Award, when one or more of our own LGBT writers may have as a Finalist a book that may be the only chance in a career at a Lambda Literary Award.

We discussed two essential questions: who we are, what we are here to accomplish.  We discussed every single word of this, our Mission statement: The Lambda Literary Foundation is dedicated to raising the status of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people throughout society by rewarding and promoting excellence among LGBT writers who use their work to explore LGBT lives.

Lambda Literary Foundation is a service organization for our writers.  Our LGBT family of writers.  We celebrate those who support our writers, those in all the allied areas of our literature: our readers, publishers, booksellers, publicists, agents, etc.  We celebrate straight allies of every kind and always have throughout our history, with the Bridge Builder Award, Small Press Award, Publishers Service Award, Editor's Choice Award, among other awards and acknowledgments, and we'll continue to do so.

Today we continue to be excluded in heterosexual society as we have been historically.  Our books are taken from the shelves of libraries all over the country and even from the website of Amazon.com this year.  It is more difficult to be an LGBT writer now than it has been in many decades, more difficult to make any income from our written words, much less a living.  Publishers have closed, stores have closed, the markets seem to be shrinking with each passing day.  It seems more urgent than ever that LLF be as active and supportive a service organization as we possibly can be for our own writers, and that's what we're working on, with a Board that could not be more passionate in our commitment.  We will soon have a new, far more comprehensive website connecting all segments of our publishing world, and we're determined to restore our Writers Retreat for emerging writers, the single most important initiative we've undertaken next to the Lambda Literary Awards.

As to what defines LGBT?  That is not up to anyone at Lambda Literary Foundation to decide.  The writers and publishers are the ones who will be doing the self-identifying.  Sexuality today is fluid and we welcome and cherish this freedom.  We take the nomination of any book at face value: if the book is nominated as LGBT, then the author is self-identifying as part of our LGBT family of writers, and that is all that is required.  There are many permutations of LGBT and they're all welcome as that LGBT term we've all adopted makes clear. 

We hope this will clarify our policy and answer some of your questions and concerns.  We welcome your comments.

Contact: Tony Valenzuela, info@lambdaliterary.org

Lambda Literary Awards Guidelines

These guidelines focus on determining a book's eligibility for the Lambda Literary Awards, the process of submitting a book for consideration by the judges, the parameters of the categories, and an approximate timeline for the awards cycle.

Each year, the Award Guidelines Committee of the Board of Trustees receives feedback from authors, publishers, and others in the literary community and informed with this feedback, the Committee assesses and revises the Guidelines with the goal of making the Lambda Literary Awards the most prestigious, competitive, and comprehensive awards offered to LGBT books and authors. This year's guidelines have been updated to reflect our mission:

The Lambda Literary Foundation (LLF) seeks to elevate the status of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people throughout society by rewarding and promoting excellence among LGBT writers who use their work to explore LGBT lives.

As such, it should be noted that the Lambda Literary Awards are based principally on the LGBT content, the gender orientation/identity of the author, and the literary merit of the work.

Complete guidelines and a submission form are available online. Questions may be directed to awards@lambdaliterary.org.

TIMELINE
· Submission period for books begins October 1 and ends December 1, 2009.

· A shortlist of five finalists for each category will be announced no later than March 15, 2010.

· Winners will be announced at the 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony. The date, time and location of the event will be announced by October 15, 2009.

ELIGIBILITY
· In determining whether a book should be submitted for consideration, it should be noted that the Lambda Literary Awards are based principally on the LGBT content, the gender orientation/identity of the author and the literary merit of the work.

· The book must be published and distributed (i.e. available in bookstores or online) in the United States during 2009.

· Self-published books are eligible.

· Reprints of previously published paperback, hardcover or electronic books are not eligible. Second (or later) editions of a book are not eligible for consideration. A book that has been republished by a different publisher after its initial publication is not eligible.

· The book must be published in English. Translations from other languages into English are accepted, as long as the U.S. publication occurs during 2009.

· Books available in eBook format alone are not eligible.

SUBMISSION PROCESS
· Books submitted for consideration will be accepted between October 1 and December 1, 2009.

· A book can be submitted only by its author or by its publisher. Care should be taken to submit a book in the category most appropriate. Books may be disqualified if basic criteria in a category are not met.

· To submit a book for consideration, please send a completed submission form and the administrative fee of $30 (payable to Lambda Literary Foundation) to:

Lammy Submissions
Lambda Literary Foundation
5482 Wilshire Blvd, #1595
Los Angeles, CA 90036

*This adminstrative fee automatically grants you a one-year membership to Lambda Literary Foundation at the "Reader" level.

Upon receipt of your submission, you will receive information about the rest of the submission process and instructions for where and when to ship your books.

· Fax a copy of the submission form to Richard Labonte, at 604-608-5463.

· For books being published in late 2009 (especially December), bound galleys or bound manuscripts are accepted in lieu of finished copies of the book. Please note: electronic versions of books (PDFs) are not accepted.

2009 CATEGORIES (22)

· Lambda Literary Awards are presented in twenty-two (22) categories (see below). If you have any questions about which category would be most appropriate for a book, please email us at awards@lambdaliterary.org.

· A book can be submitted in only one category, with two exceptions. Bisexual and Trans books may be submitted in their respective categories, as well as a second LGBT category. This exception is intended to bring more visibility to the most under-published segments of our LGBT community.

· If a category receives fewer than ten (10) submissions, the category will not be active in this awards cycle. The submitted books will be reassigned to another category if appropriate, and the administrative fee will be refunded if the book cannot compete in another category.

· The awards committee reserves the right to split a category along sexual orientation or gender if the number of submissions received in a category warrant such a distinction.

· If the Bisexual category receives ten (10) submissions of fiction and ten (10) submissions nonfiction, the category will be separated into Bisexual Fiction and Bisexual Nonfiction.

· If the Trans category receives ten (10) submissions of fiction and ten (10) submissions of nonfiction, the category will be separated into Trans Fiction and Trans Nonfiction.

LESBIAN and GAY CATEGORIES (14)

LESBIAN: Books eligible for this category are those that feature a lesbian main character.

GAY: Books eligible for this category are those that depict a gay main character.

Betty Berzon Prize for Gay Debut Fiction
Betty Berzon Prize for Lesbian Debut Fiction
Novels, novellas, or short story collections by authors who have not previously published a book of fiction. Anthologies are not eligible. Authors who have appeared in anthologies are eligible, as long as they have not published a volume identified as theirs alone.

Gay Erotica
Lesbian Erotica
Anthologies, novels, memoirs, short story collections whose content is principally of an erotic nature.

Gay General Fiction
Lesbian General Fiction
Novels, novellas, and short story collections. May include historical novels, graphic novels, cross-genre works of fiction, and other styles of fiction. Anthologies are not eligible.

Gay Memoir/Biography
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
Posthumously published authors or those with co-authors are also eligible. Anthologies are not eligible.

Gay Mystery
Lesbian Mystery
Novels, novellas, and short story collections that adhere to the criteria of a "mystery," as defined by the Mystery Writers of America: "A mystery is considered to be any novel in which a crime, or a series of crimes, are an integral part of the story." Anthologies are not eligible.

Gay Poetry
Lesbian Poetry
Single volumes, selected and collected poems, and anthologies are eligible. Chapbooks are not eligible.

Gay Romance
Lesbian Romance
Novels, novellas, and short story collections that adhere to the criteria of a "romance." As defined by the Romance Writers of America: "A romance is defined as a work of fiction with two critical elements: a central love relationship and a positive ending stating or implying a commitment between the two characters." Anthologies are not eligible.

LGBT CATEGORIES (6)
These categories are non-gender specific. All LGBT individuals are eligible.

LGBT Anthology
Collections of fiction, poetry, and/or nonfiction are eligible.

LGBT Children's/Young Adult
Fiction, nonfiction, picture books, poetry, and anthologies-whose intended audience are young readers-are all eligible.

LGBT Drama
Plays that have been published in book/script form. Collections of plays and anthologies of plays are eligible.

LGBT Nonfiction
Books and subjects for the general reader, e.g. histories, politics, community organizations, humor, parenting, religion, spirituality, relationships, psychology, travel, etc.

LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
Novels, novellas, short story collections, and anthologies are eligible.

LGBT Studies
Scholarly work oriented toward academia, libraries, cultural professionals, and the more academic reader.

ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES (2)

Bisexual
Fiction and nonfiction: novels, short story collections, anthologies, poetry, memoirs, cultural studies, public policy, law, history, spirituality, gender studies, etc.

Trans
Fiction and nonfiction: novels, short story collections, anthologies, poetry, memoirs, cultural studies, public policy, law, history, spirituality, gender studies, etc.

A PDF of the Submission form is available online. Questions may be directed to awards@lambdaliterary.org.

To pay the administrative fee ($30) by credit card, please use the form below.

NOTE: Place a "1" in the box for one fee/book, a "2" in the box if you are submitting two books (one fee each). Remember, this adminstrative fee automatically grants you a one-year membership to Lambda Literary Foundation at the "Reader" level. Thank you!