Lammy Thoughts
I was lucky enough to be able to attend the 2014 Lambda Literary Awards in New York City. And let me tell you, it was surreal. Here are some highlights.
Amazing people I saw/met
Last time, I was the only one at the Lammys in a saree. This time, I spotted someone in a beautiful red saree and it turned out to be a fellow Sri Lankan Tamil writer whose book The Stars Change was a finalist for the LGBT SciFi/Fantasy/Horror category.
We’d been Facebook friends for a while, but we finally met in person! And took a great picture. Sassafras is the author of Roving Pack, won the Emerging Writers Award last year, and presented the LGBT Anthology category at this year’s Lammys.
I’ve read his work since college, and it was amazing to meet him in person. He also won the Gay Poetry award for Unpeopled Eden.
Ok, so technically this was before the awards, but it was great to meet my agent in person for the first time. Behold the agent-writer selfie.
I got to see some amazing faces again
Many of my peeps from the Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Retreat showed up at the Lammys: Gibrán Güido, Stephen Ira, Tommy Pico, Matthew Philip, Eric Kossina, and Marcie Bianco.
And the best speech goes to…
Kate Bornstein delivered an amazing speech in acceptance of the Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award, stressing the importance of including the identities that are lost and made invisible in the fight for LGBT equality.
Watch the whole beautiful speech:
http://youtu.be/vtskUUCkqvY?t=8m5s
#ABookSavedMyLife
The Lammys this year started with a composite video of the #ABookSavedMyLife crowdsource campaign. Check it out.
