Alice B. Toklas,
a Guiding Inspiration
Organization:
The Alice B Awards
Committee is a mostly anonymous group of avid
lesbian readers living in four different states
in the US. The award is made possible by money
supplied by an anonymous donor. The donor
and the committee share a common goal: to
reward and thank writers of lesbian fiction
for their contribution to the lesbian community,
culture, and identity. We like to think our
Medal winners are our “All Time, All-Star”
writers.
History:
The Alice B Awards Committee was established
originally to encourage submissions of quality
manuscripts to a small press and to reward
the writers of well-written books. That press
went out of business, and subsequently, in
2004, the goal of the group was altered from
awarding a prize for a single book to awarding
a medal for “Lifetime Achievement.”
Winners under the initial guidelines were:
Gerri Hill, Nancy Sanra, Aya Walksfar, and
Radclyffe. Radclyffe’s award was for
that year’s “body of work,”
and she was the only one not involved with
the original publisher. Starting in 2004,
the official Alice B Medal system was put
in place and has continued annually ever since.
Submission
of Worthy Books: For the first
17 years of the Alice B Awards, the voracious
readers of the Alice B committee have purchased
books, shared them with each other, and advised
one another of authors who have achieved excellence
in writing for and about lesbians. In 2021,
it became apparent to the committee that we
had no way of keeping up with the wonderful
- but enormous! - publication of books. In
2004, we were able to buy every book of fiction
and most of the nonfiction written by, for,
and about lesbians; for the last five years,
this has proved impossible, and we believe
we are missing writers of great merit.
Therefore,
we invite readers, publishers, and authors
to submit any book that they believe is a
"Best Work of Fiction" by an author
and representative of the author being named
as deserving of a medal for lifetime achievement.
(See Contact page for details.)
