Stonewall Book Award Winners Announced

By Matthew P. Ciszek

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table (GLBTRT) recently announced the winners of the 2009 Stonewall Book Award during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. The Stonewall Book Award is the first and most enduring award for GLBT books and was first awarded by the GLBTRT in 1971. The award honors books for exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience.

The Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award are presented to English language works published in the year prior to the announcement date. Recommendations for nomination for the Book Awards may be made by any individual not affiliated with the author or publisher of the book being nominated. This year’s winners are:

Stonewall Book Awards - Barbara Gittings Literature Award: Evan Fallenberg, "Light Fell" (Soho Press)

Stonewall Book Awards - Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award: William N. Eskridge, Jr., "Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America, 1861-2003" (Viking)

Additionally, the Stonewall Book Award Committee presents a list of honor books in each category. This year’s honor books are:

The Stonewall honor books in literature

“The Conversion” by Joseph Olshan (St. Martin's Press)

“A Perfect Waiter: A Novel” by Alain Claude Sulzer (Bloomsbury)

“The Sealed Letter” by Emma Donoghue (Harcourt)

The Stonewall honor books in non-fiction

“Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad” by Bob Morris (Harper)

“Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster” by Joanne Ellen Passet (Da Capo Press)

“Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South” by E. Patrick Johnson (University of North Carolina Press)

“Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever” by Joel Derfner (Broadway Books)

The GLBTRT also created an additional award category at Midwinter to honor GLBT children’s and young adult books. The Stonewall Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Books will be presented for the first time at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference to coincide with the GLBTRT’s 40th anniversary celebration.

More information about the GLBTRT and its activities, including the Stonewall Book Award, can be found at the round table’s
website.