By Robyn Ochs
The Third Annual Bisexual Book Awards were held on Saturday, May 30 in New York City, with Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men winning in four categories. The collection won for Best Anthology and Best Nonfiction; Robyn Ochs and H. Sharif Williams accepted the Writer of the Year Award; and the Bisexual Resource Center (BRC), based in Boston, MA, shared the award for Publisher of the Year with Cleis Press, another Boston-based publisher.
Other winners:
Bisexual Fiction: In Case of Emergency by Courtney Moreno; Bisexual Romance: One Kiss with a Rock Star by Shari Slade and Amber Lin; Bisexual Erotic Fiction/Erotica: Capricious: A Texan Tale of Love and Magic by Julie Cox; Bisexual Speculative Fiction: Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis; Bisexual Memoir/ Biography: A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernández; Bisexual Teen/Young Adult Fiction: Frenemy of the People by Nora Olsen; Bisexual Mystery: Murder on the Mountain by Jamie Fessenden.
Over at the Lambda Literary Awards, Charles M. Blow’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones took Bisexual Nonfiction; and Ana Castillo’s Give it to Me took Bisexual Fiction.
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Robyn Ochs & Marcia Diehl Recognized by City of Cambridge
On June 13, Cambridge’s LGBT Commission gave awards to BBWN co-founders Marcia Deihl (posthumously) and Robyn Ochs at Cambridge’s annual LGBT Pride Brunch for “outstanding commitment to the LGBT community.” Robyn stated, “It meant a lot to me that Marcia and I were recognized. My award was presented by Rev. Leslie Phillips, who I first met through BBWN around 30 years ago. She said that as a trans-identified lesbian she had been searching for community, and I had made her feel welcome in the bi women’s community. Her words moved me.” Robyn then spoke briefly about Marcia and about the founding meetings of the Cambridge Lavender Alliance and the debates about whether it should be a “gay and lesbian” or a “gay, lesbian and bisexual” group. (This was before T had made its way into the acronym.) At the end, the vote was strongly in favor of using inclusive language. Here is a picture of Rev. Phillips and Robyn hugging on the stage in Council Chambers.
Photo: Priscilla Lee
Oh, and marriage equality throughout the United States. And Ireland. Also, effectively, Mexico.
Featured image: Here’s a great picture of Ellyn Ruthstrom and Woody Glenn, who were pride marshalls in this year’s Boston Pride Parade. Photo: Rosalee Toubes