Lambda Literary Foundation Award - Group Post

The purpose of the Lambda Literary Foundation Award (LLFA) is to "celebrate LGBT literature and provide resources for writers, readers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians - the whole literary community." From www.lambdaliterary.org/index.html

The selection criteria is as follows:
~Books are about LGBT categories
~Author does not have to be LGBT themselves, as long as their piece of literature includes something about LGBT. Perhaps even one character.
~There are 21 different categories that book nominations fall under
~Only the author or a publisher can nominate a book.

The selection committee includes the writers themselves, booksellers, librarians, teachers, book reviewers, journalists, and/or members of the literary community. It is also stated that editors and publishers or members of the Board of Trustees may serve as a judge.

The LLFA relies on support from the literary community to connect LGBT writers and readers. Personal donations and organizations also help to fund the award.

Our group could only find 4 young adult books that had won the award. However, not all of the books' main themes were LGBT. In "Eight Seconds" by Jean Ferris, the story is not at all about LGBT, it is about bull riders and the rodeo. However, it won the award because one of the characters is gay. The other young adult books we found were "Between Mom and Jo" by Julie Anne Peters, "Express of the World" by Sara Ryan, and "The Full Spectrum" edited by David Levithan and Billy Merrell. "The Full Spectrum" is a compilation of short stories that are about LGBT.

Finally, the book "Boy Meets Boy" by David Levithan is also a winner of the LLFA!