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Biographical
Information
About the 2008 Alice B Medal Winners
Ann Bannon
(2008 Medal Winner)
has been called "The Queen of Lesbian Pulp
Fiction" for her landmark Beebo Brinker Chronicles, a
series of five original paperback novels published by Gold
Medal Books about young lesbians in pre-Stonewall Greenwich
Village from 1957-1962. For an entire generation of readers,
these stories provided the first representation in literature
of women loving women. Bannon and others helped to end the
isolation and ignorance that had kept thousands of lesbians
in virtual prisons, and pave the way for the new generation
of lesbian writers who were to follow. With their colorful
covers, their coded blurbs ("twilight," "strange,"
"shadows," "secret," "odd,"
"evil," and "warped"), and their lively,
passionate heroines, Bannon's books were quickly snatched
from drugstore shelves. From the shy, smoldering Laura to
the buccaneering young butch, Beebo herself, the series attracted
a devoted following of women hungry to find themselves and
their sexuality validated. Back in the repressive Fifties
and Sixties, it was literally a lifesaver for many readers.
And now "The Beebo Brinker Chronicles" is a New
York play presentation! Written by Kate Moira Ryan and Linda
Chapman, it is following its initial success in Fall 2007
with a new off-Broadway run starting in February 2008. No
one is more delighted than Ann herself at the durability and
appeal of these stories from long ago. That they should have
inspired such an affectionate and witty rendering in the new
millennium is more than any author dare hope for, and Ann
is grateful to everyone who made it possible. You can find
out more about Ann's work at her website.
Kim Baldwin
(2008 Medal Winner)
is the author of five novels published by Bold
Strokes Books: Hunter's Pursuit, a 2005 Golden Crown
Literary Award finalist;Whitewater Rendezvous, a 2007
Golden Crown Literary Award finalist; Force of Nature;
and the 2007 releases Flight Risk and Focus of Desire.Her
sixth novel, co-authored with Xenia Alexiou, is the first
book in the Elite Operatives Series, the intrigue/romance
Lethal Affairs (July, 2008). Kim has also contributed
stories to four books in the BSB Erotic Interlude Series:
Stolen Moments, Lessons in Love, Extreme Passions, and
Road Games. A network news journalist for twenty years
before she begain writing fiction, she lives in a cabin in
the north woods of Michigan and takes to the road with her
laptop and camera whenever possible. You can find out more
about Kim's work at her website.
Cate Culpepper (2008 Medal
Winner) is
the author of the Tristaine Series (The Clinic, Battle
for Tristaine, Tristaine Rises, and Queens of Tristaine)
about a modern-day Amazon clan and published by Bold Strokes
Books. The second book in the series, Battle for Tristaine,
won a 2004 Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Speculative
Fiction. A Tristainian short story will appear in a 2008 romance
anthology from Bold Strokes. Cate is now working on a new
novel, Fireside, about the staff and residents of a
domestic violence shelter. She resides in the Pacific Northwest
where she supervises a transitional housing program for homeless
young gay adults. You can find out more about Cate's work
at her website.
Lauren Wright Douglas (2008
Medal Winner) is
the author of seven books in the Caitlin Reece mystery series
(A Tiger's Heart, The Always Anonymous Beast, Goblin Market,
Chasing the Shadow, The Daughters of Artemis, A Rage of Maidens,
and Ninth Life); two books in the Alison O'Neil
series (Death At Lavender Bay, Swimming Cat Cove);
a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, In The Blood; and
a romance, Osten's Bay (written under the pen name
of Zenobia N. Vole). Lauren was born in 1947 to a military
family in Canada. She spent most of her adolescence in Europe
before returning to Ottawa to attend University. Following
that she taught high school English for several years before
taking up writing. She spends her time nowadays helping animal
welfare groups with grant-writing and fundraising. At the
moment she is not writing any fiction, but hopes to return
to it in the future. She does not maintain a website for reader
contact at this time.
Jennifer L. Jordan (2008
Medal Winner) is
the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Kristin
Ashe Mystery Series published by Spinsters Ink (A Safe
Place to Sleep, Existing Solutions, Commitment to Die, Unbearable
Losses, Disorderly Attachments, and Selective Memory).
Her seventh in the series, If No One is Looking, will
be released in fall 2008. Self-employed since the age of twenty-one
as a marketing consultant, Jennifer has taught thousands of
women how to start and run their own small businesses. She
is an avid snowboarder and Nordic skier who divides her time
between Denver and Winter Park, Colorado. You can read excerpts
from each of her lesbian mysteries and find out more about
Jennifer's work at her website.
Val McDermid (2008 Medal
Winner), recently
described in the British national press as a "bloodthirsty
lesbian," was born and raised in a mining community in
Fife, Scotland. She went on to confound her teachers by winning
a place at Oxford University to read English. After graduating,
she became an award-winning journalist, working mostly in
national newspapers. She ended up as Northern Bureau Chief
of a national Sunday tabloid. Her first novel, Report for
Murder was published in 1987 and introduced lesbian journalist
Lindsay Gordon. She has written a further five Lindsay Gordon
novels, the latest of which, Hostage to Murder, was
published in the US by Bywater Books in 2005. She has also
published six novels featuring PI Kate Brannigan, five novels
featuring profiler Tony Hill and police officer Carol Jordan,
four standalone novels, a non-fiction book about real women
PIs in the US and the UK (A Suitable Job for a Woman,
Poisoned Pen Press) and a collection of short stories (Stranded,
Amble Press) She also contributes regularly to BBC radio and
various newspapers and magazines. Her books have been translated
into 37 languages and she is the top-selling British author
in Germany (apart from JK Rowling…). She has won many
awards including the Gold Dagger, the Los Angeles Times Book
Award, the Anthony, the Icon of Scotland, the Theakston's
Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the Portico Prize for
Fiction, the French Grand Prix des Romans d'Aventure and most
recently, the Stonewall Writer of the Year. (Stonewall is
the UK's key GLBT campaigning organisation). Several of her
books have been New York Times Notable Books of the Year and
she is a Literary Saint in the Saints & Sinners Hall of
Fame. Her Tony Hill novels have been adapted for the internationally
successful TV series, "Wire in the Blood," now in
its sixth season. Work is about to begin on a TV adaptation
of her standalone novel, A Place of Execution. Val
divides her time between city life in Manchester and village
life on the breathtakingly beautiful Northumberland coast.
She shares her life with her son and her wife. Yes, they can
get married in the UK! You can find out more about Val's work
at her website.
Joanna Russ (2008 Medal
Winner) is
the author of numerous works of science fiction, fantasy,
and literary criticism. Though best known for the satirical
utopian novel, The Female Man (1975), many of her early
published works were short horror fiction, and her short fiction
has been anthologized in scores of collections. She was first
noticed in the science fiction world upon publication of the
novel Picnic On Paradise (1968). Generally regarded
as one of the leading 20th Century feminist science fiction
scholars and writers, she has also written significant nonfiction
works such as the essay collection Magic Mommas, Trembling
Sisters, Puritans & Perverts: Essays on Sex & Pornography,
the book-length study of modern feminism, What Are We Fighting
For?: Sex, Race, Class, and the Future of Feminism, and
the (unfortunately) still-relevant sarcastic guidebook, How
To Suppress Women's Writing, which explains how women
and minorities are prevented from producing written works.
A playwright, essayist, and short story writer, she has won
the Locus Poll Award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and the
SF Chronicle Award. She has been nominated multiple times
for Hugo and Nebula Awards and won the 1972 Nebula for her
short story "When It Changed" and the 1983 Hugo
for her novella "Souls." Her latest book is The
Country You have Never Seen: Essays and Reviews (2007).
She does not maintain a website for reader contact at this
time.
Therese Szymanski (2008
Medal Winner) is
an award-winning playwright whose works have been shortlisted
for Lammies, Goldies, a Spectrum, and made the 2004 Publishing
Triangle list of notable lesbian books. She's written eight
Brett Higgins Motor City Thrillers (When the Dancing Stops,
When the Dead Speak, When Some Body Disappears, When Evil
Changes Face, When the Corpse Lies, When First We Practice,
When Good Girls Go Bad, and When It's All Relative)
and the latest book in the First Chronicles of Shawn Donnelly,
It's All Smoke & Mirrors (2007). She has edited
the erotic anthologies Back to Basics, Call of the Dark,
and Wild Nights, and co-edited Fantasy: Untrue
Stories of Lesbian Passion and A Perfect Valentine
with Barbara Johnson. In addition to a few dozen published
short stories and essays, she has novellas in Once Upon
a Dyke; Stake Through the Heart; Bell, Book and Dyke; and
Tall in the Saddle. She's a seasoned writer with two decades'
experience writing for nonprofit, advertising, marketing,
and journalistic purposes. A second-generation American, she
comes from Detroit and currently lives in D.C. You can find
out more about Therese's work at her website.
Biographical
Information
For Past Alice B Medal Winners
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