Stonewall Book Award
| Stonewall Book Award | |
|---|---|
Stonewall Book Award seal | |
| Awarded for | "exceptional merit relating to the LGBTQIA+ experience" |
| Description | annual award for English-language LGBTQIA+ literature, primarily published in the U.S. |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) |
| Formerly called | Gay Book Award; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Book Award |
| First award | 1971 |
| Website | ala and two "homepages" |
The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the LGBTQIA+ experience" in English-language books, primarily focusing on those published in the U.S. As of 2026, the award categories are the Barbara Gittings Literature Award, Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award, and Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Award. They are sponsored by the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA).
The Stonewall Book Award began as the Gay Book Award in 1971, when the Rainbow Round Table was a grassroots group called the Task Force on Gay Liberation. The program has been an official American Library Association award since 1986. Barbara Gittings and Israel Fishman were founding members of the Task Force on Gay Liberation, with Fishman serving as the group's first coordinator, and Gittings making their first bibliography of gay-positive literature. Mike Morgan and Larry Romans were partners and longtime supporters of the awards.
Finalists for each category of the Stonewall Book Award have been publicly designated since 1990, and termed "Honor Books" from 2001. As of 2026, separate panels of librarians judge books for the awards: they select the winning book for each category and choose which honor books to name from the semi-finalists. The winners are announced in January and each receives a plaque and $1000 cash prize during the ALA Annual Conference in June or July. Winners are expected to attend and to give acceptance speeches.
The Stonewall Book Award is one of a number of LGBTQ literary awards. Other prominent awards include the Lambda Literary Awards, Publishing Triangle Awards, and Gaylactic Spectrum Awards.