Please excuse any duplication. This announcement has been cross-posted to several discussion lists. ALA ANNOUNCES 1993 GAY/LESBIAN BOOK AWARD WINNERS The American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Awards Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 1993 Gay/Lesbian Book Awards. The awards are given annually to two books of exceptional merit examining lesbian and/or gay experience and published in the year prior to when the award is granted. The Gay and Lesbian Task Force Book Awards are the nation's oldest and long-lived, having been established by ALA in 1971. The two award winning books were selected by a group of twelve academic and public librarians from libraries throughout the United States. This year the eleven "finalist" titles considered for the awards were selected from a list of 45 nominated titles, which in turn were drawn from a listing of over five hundred titles, fiction and non-fiction, that were identified as having gay or lesbian content. In the Literature category, the 1993 award goes to Essex Hemphill for CEREMONIES: PROSE AND POETRY (Plume) whose passionate voice -- tender, angry, argumentative, and persuasive -- articulates his experiences as an African-American gay man, an individual in and in between community. He explores the confounding and often painful events of our time: AIDS, homophobia, racial bigotry and alienation from oneself -- in a restless search for wholeness and connection. It is a powerful and welcome work. MAKING HISTORY: THE STRUGGLE FOR GAY AND LESBIAN EQUAL RIGHTS, 1945-1990 (New York, HarperCollins) has been selected as the 1993 winner of the Nonfiction Award. Eric Marcus, the editor in MAKING HISTORY, has assembled oral histories from fifty-three Americans involved in community history-making. Mr. Marcus lets his subjects talk about their lives and times and the particular circumstances that drew each to find a public vehicle to express his or her identity. MAKING HISTORY adds to a growing body of excellent histories uncovering and embellishing on contemporary lesbian and gay social, political and cultural history. Both books were selected from a list of eleven finalists. Runners up of the awards, all worthy of recognition as some of the best books of 1992, include: LITERATURE: ALMOST HISTORY. Christopher Bram. Donald I Fine. THE EASY WAY OUT. Stephen McCauley. Simon & Schuster VITAL TIES. Karen Kringle. Spinsters Ink WRITTEN ON THE BODY. Jeannette Winterson. Jonathan Cape NONFICTION: BECOMING A MAN: Half a Life Story. Paul Monette. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. EARTH HOUSE. Jeanne DuPrau. New Chapter Press. A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY: Gay Men Write About Their Families. John Preston, ed. Dutton MOTHER CLAP'S MOLLY HOUSE: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700-1820. Rictor Norton. Gay Men's Press POSITIVELY GAY: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life. Betty Berzon. Celestial Arts. The book awards will be presented in June during an awards ceremony at the American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans. With the selection of the 1993 award winners, the committee now turns it's attention to reading titles for the 1994 awards. The committee welcomes and encourages nominations from the general public, excluding only those persons affiliated with book publishing firms. Nominations for English-language books published in 1993 can be submitted through December 31, 1993. Nominations should include a brief statement -- no longer than one-half a page -- as to why the title is being recommended. Nominations may be sent by regular mail to Ellen Greenblatt, Chair-elect, Central Technical Services, Lockwood Library Building, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-2200, or Susan Hoffman, out-going Chair, 180 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. [E-mail nominations may be sent to Ellen Greenblatt at ULCREG@UBVM (BITNET) or ULCREG@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (Internet)] ***************************************************************** Ellen Greenblatt BITNET: ULCREG@UBVM Catalog Editor Internet: ULCREG@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Central Technical Services Lockwood Library Building State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260-2200 Phone: (716) 645-2787 FAX: (716) 645-5955 ***************************************************************** %%% overflow headers %%% To: sappho , ILGA , GayNet , "soc.motss" , "alt.politics.homosexuality" , "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual People of Color" , sistah , Lesbigay Scholars List , Queer Nation , Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Librarians Network , ALA Feminist Task Force Discussion List %%% end overflow headers %%%