Do you like good books by queer writers? Of course you do, you're reading this blog. Alrighty then: the Lambda Literary Foundation wants your help to support those good books--and the people who write them. At LLF we're all working like dogs (happy dogs, it's true) to ensure the foundation moves into the next decade strong and sleek and ready to rock. Money, of course, is our most immediate need.
Here's a letter from Lambda Literary Foundation's Executive Director Tony Valenzuela.
Like virtually all nonprofits, Lambda Literary had its setbacks throughout 2009. The economy dictated postponement of the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices; our new website was delayed; and we experienced a shift in leadership.
Despite all this, I have some great news to share.
- Thanks to your help, a new era of LambdaLiterary.org is finally coming on stream - truly! Come January, a web producer/editor will begin to put the finishing touches on our sleeker and robust new website and will manage LLF's greatly enhanced web presence. With your continuing help, the updated LambdaLiterary.org, the future nexus of the LGBT litscape, will finally be realized early next year!
- The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices will return! With your support, Lambda Literary will resume its nurturing of our literary future--our finest emerging talents--by enabling them to be taught and mentored by the giants of LGBT literature. Check back in the coming months for further announcements regarding dates, location, applications and faculty.
- We will continue our longstanding programs - the Lambda Literary Awards and the Lambda Book Report - both celebrating over 20 years of service to the LGBT literary community by reviewing and honoring the best of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature.
- During the year, Lambda Literary welcomed three dynamic new Board members, Scott Cranin of TLA Video, the multiple Lammy-winning author Nicola Griffith, and Alyson publisher Don Weise. With this advent of fresh leadership and the spit-in-hands tenacity I have for advocacy in the LGBT literary and activist communities, I promise you that Lambda Literary will thrive in 2010!
As we say goodbye to 2009, a year of terrible hardship for many who are still struggling to find work and pay bills, a year when Lambda Rising Bookstore in Washington DC -the place where it all began for the Lambda Literary Foundation - announced it would close its doors after 35 years, Lambda Literary owes its existence to supporters who gave to us in this time of economic crisis, sometimes more than ever before. Some of our remarkable supporters kept their memberships going in the face of uncertainty, or even joined us for the first time. Lambda Literary has weathered the Great Recession even as we take in the sobering news that not all our venerable institutions will do the same. We continue to need your financial support and will put your every dollar to good use to strengthen our LGBT literary landscape.
To close out this difficult year and keep our operations going, will you help us raise a very needed $10,000 by December 31 with a year-end tax-deductible donation? Whether you are a reader, a writer, a publisher, a publicist, a bookstore owner, an agent, or an editor - any kind of book lover - please support Lambda Literary Foundation, the nation's leading nonprofit organization advocating for and celebrating LGBT literature since 1989!
Make a donation right now at LambdaLiterary.org. Your donation of $25, $100 or more - whatever you can afford -will help us continue our work of preserving, promoting and celebrating LGBT literature.
We've come through this difficult time together. Let's continue together.
Warmest regards during this holiday season,
Tony Valenzuela
Executive Director
So if you're giving to one charity this year, make it LLF. Ten dollars, twenty, a thousand--it's all good. And buy a book or two as well. Buy them new. And, please, pass this along to anyone who likes good books by queer writers.
