2009 Stonewall Book Award Winners announced at ALA’s 2009 Midwinter Meeting

DENVER – The American Library Association’s (ALA) Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table (GLBTRT) Stonewall Book Awards Committee has announced the 2009 awards for non-fiction and literature going to the best books with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered themes.

The Barbara Gittings Literature Award winner is “Light Fell” by Evan Fallenberg, pubished by Soho Press. Set in the context of Professor Joseph Licht’s 50th birthday party, this debut novel sensitively expresses and portrays the dilemma of an Israeli gay man who 20 years before left his wife and five young sons for the love of another man. Now Joseph is trying to reconcile this life-changing decision with his responsibility to his family, his spirituality and his God. With rich characterization and eloquent writing Fallenberg explores the inner lives of a family and the universal applicability of the social and religious issues they face.

The Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award winner is “Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861-2003” by William N. Eskridge Jr., published by Viking. This landmark volume explores a historically under represented area of GLBT legal and social scholarship. The destructive impact of sodomy laws is traced through their evolution and the consequences for the men and women who were impacted by their creation and enforcement. It makes a complex subject approachable for a general audience. This is the perfect marriage of scholarship and readability.

Winning titles and honor books are announced at ALA Midwinter Meetings and the awards are presented at the Stonewall Book Award brunch at Annual Conferences.

The members of the Stonewall Book Awards Committee include Elizabeth Briggs (Chair), Andrew F. Johnson, Eric W. Johnson, Lisa Johnston, Danielle Pollock, James Simonis, Dale McNeill and Robert B. Ridinger.

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