Categories

Action/Adventure
​Anthology
BDSM
Children's/Young Adults
Drama
Erotica
​Fantasy
Fiction
​Historical
Memoir/Biography
Mystery
New author
Nonfiction
Paranormal/Occult
Romance
Science fiction/fantasy
Horror
Studies
Cover

DEFINITIONS:

Action-adventure:
Featuring characters involved in exciting and usually dangerous activities and adventure.  

​Anthology:
A published collection of poems or other writing by one or several authors.

BDSM:
Stories of people that practice bondage, discipline (or domination), submission (or sadism), or masochism in their sexual relationships.

​Children/Young adults:
Material written and produced for the information or entertainment of children and young adults up to age 18.
 
Drama:
A story involving conflict or contrast of character.
 
Erotica:
Stories intended to arouse sexual desire.

Fantasy:
Any book that involves magic, witches, sorcerers, elves, dragons, or other mythical or fantastical creatures. The plot usually could not happen in what we consider the “real world,” and the story generally takes place on another planet or in an alternate universe or dimension from our own.
​
Fiction:
Literature in the form of short stories and novels that describe imaginary events and people.
 
Historical:
Fictional stories set in the past, which will borrow characteristics from their time period and may include true events.
​
Memoir/Biography:
Memoirs are historical accounts or biographies written from personal knowledge or using special sources. Biographies are stories written about someone else’s life.

Mystery:
Mysteries are novels dealing with a puzzling crime, especially a murder, in which a detective or other professional solves a crime or series of crimes. 

New author:
A new author is someone that is new to lesbian literature and hasn’t published before. This would be their debut novel.
 
Nonfiction:
Nonfiction is writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people. It can include biographies and history.
 
Paranormal/Occult:
Paranormal is defined as: denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.  Occult is defined as: supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena.
​
Romance:
In traditional literary terms, romance is a narration of the extraordinary exploits of heroes, often in exotic or mysterious settings. The term romance has also been used for stories of mysterious adventures, not necessarily of heroes.
 
Science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to SF or sci-fi) is a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space flight, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

Horror:
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to, or has the capacity to, frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. Horror can feature supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, or vampires, or it can address more realistic psychological fears.  

Studies:
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies are the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and intersex people and cultures. For our purposes we are focusing on lesbian studies including bisexual, transgender, or intersex people and cultures.
 
Originally centered on LGBT history and literary theory, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in biology, sociology, anthropology, the history of science, philosophy, psychology, sexology, political science, ethics, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of queer people, or, in the case of our awards, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex people.
 
BOOK COVERS
Book covers will be judged based on the cover’s relationship to the story, it’s beauty, design, and significance.