Hilary Sloin accepts the ALA award

The Stonewall Book Awards are sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA). The awards have been presented since 1971, and we’re delighted that the winner of the 2014 Barbara Gittings Literature Award is Hilary Sloin for her first novel Art on Fire.

The award was presented on June 30 at the ALA Conference in Las Vegas. In her acceptance speech, she talked about the reality of publishing today — how a writer today “must get out there and hustle, press the flesh,” — and insists that “it is time for lesbian work, in particular, to break into the mainstream.”

To read the whole speech, click here.