I agree! But, believe me, strangely, there was not a lot of support for a transition memoir either. I initially got an amazing and lucrative contract with a mainstream publisher in ‘94, wrote the book over the next two years, and then — had the whole thing dumped at the last minute when my editor left the publisher for her own reasons, and they substituted a rather clueless contract editor who attempted, to no avail, to “dumb down” my prose and vanilla my story. He got fired, and the contract imploded. Seal rescued me years and years later. So, this was no easy journey, even with a transition memoir. And, till very recently, there were very few transition memoirs about FTMs, and more importantly, written BY the actual FTM instead of ghost-written.

Well, now that I have the “transition” memoir out of my system however, I intend to write other types of prose… And, of course, I’ve always been a poet.

But, believe me, it ain’t a picnic if you’re a transperson in publishing, no matter what you’re writing!

That has to do with the category in which the publisher decides to submit the book. It’s $20 per category, plus four books, and the publisher can submit in as many categories as they want. For example, “Luna” was in both “Children’s/Young Adult” and “Transgender/GenderQueer” categories the year it was nominated.
(I specifically asked Greg this when I saw “Supervillainz” was going up against two major anthologies. Yes, he could have submitted it to more but he didn’t think the cost would be worth it.)

Also, as a followup, Peggy’s video is apparently being featured in both NYC and Boston now:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/events/index.html

but overall I have to agree with the 2 of you and wish that there was more support for trans authors and encouragement to write things other than transition memoirs (no offense Max).

In any case, I hope that the situation is rectified as much as it can be, and it does look as though that will occur. Still, this is very strange and symptomatic of underlying tensions and unresolved contradictions, some of which you describe or allude to.

As to this comment:
if enough bi people or trans people could rally around to make some bi or trans writers as successful as Michelle Tea or Edmund White, the publishing industry would take notice.

I agree, but I’m not holding my breath for (at least) trans support. Transpeople are often the hardest on our own, and the places I have gotten the most out and out hostility (for even daring to write a book about being a transman) are from the transmale world. I was actually accused of writing the book to get money out of the pockets of poor transmen who could barely afford surgery! Transmen eat their own, they have a chance. Of course, there are also the great, supportive guys who write me to thank me for writing the same book. So, it goes both ways, but certainly, it is not easy out there.

Also, couldn’t transgender rights and the transgender reader be nominated under LGBT studies? Couldn’t supervillanz compete against other gay and lesbian fiction books?

There’s also the whole bailey controversy a year or so back as well.

The whole selection process seems strange.

1) There are really way fewer bi/trans people than there are gays or lesbians
2) There are a lot of bi/trans people, but most of them are closeted and/or apathetic, or else they don\’t particularly want to read books.

I suspect both explanations have a grain of truth. Certainly most bi/trans people I\’ve met are way less likely to want to form communities around literary shit than most dykes. But bottom line, if enough bi people or trans people could rally around to make some bi or trans writers as successful as Michelle Tea or Edmund White, the publishing industry would take notice. That could lead, eventually, to a glut of books for bisexual dog owners. Then, and only then, you would see more Lammie categories.

So yeah, I don\’t think it\’s the Lambda Literary Foundation\’s fault. It\’s ours.