Lesbian plot-lines and story-lines generally fall under “cheesy” or “tragic”, but Ruth Gogoll of HuffPost Gay Voices has had enough, and has been running the el!es Lesbian Literary Awards for six years now.  She says:

I came up with the idea of a “lesbian literary award” to highlight all the wonderful lesbian romances out there. Two women getting involved and falling in love – even though there are a lot of problems to overcome – and then, a happy ending. Sex and Romance and Love and Tension and everything the lesbian heart desires.

Excuse me while I breath a fresh sigh of relief, happy in the revelation that another woman is sick of the ill-fated stories we’re bombarded with.

The idea for the Lesbian Literary Awards came to Ruth after her novel Taxi To Paris was rejected by German lesbian publishers for being too sketchy. They though it would paint her in a bad light. Perhaps someone forgot to look up the definition of “fiction”?

Taxi To Paris tells the story of a prostitute who falls in love with a woman, but has to decide whether she’s brave enough to face her feelings or stick to selling her body for money, while her love interest struggles to cope with what her job entails. Sounds like Germany made a bad decision.

Ruth Gogoll was not deterred by this minor set-back and went on to publish Taxi To Paris herself and set up her own lesbian publishing house, édition el!es. She says the publishing house is:

now open for all books written by or about lesbians, whatever the premise, as long as they’re love stories with happy endings

And so an idea sprouted from her wonderful mind and took the form of the Lesbian Literary Award.

Unpublished writers have the same chance at winning the award as published writers do. Instead of a panel of know-it-alls only accepting work that has been published during the year in the run up to awards, writers can submit their works right now, and the readers will choose which story they would like published.

The winner is not the only one to get a publishing deal from édition el!es, however. They also publish the second and third author to get the biggest votes and a few more.

It’s a great idea and a fantastic way to promote the writing of more believable stories and overall a better standard of lesbian writing. Anyone can submit as long as their work is between 60,000-75,000 words by the deadline of 31st March 2012, including a small biography, synopsis, and a short piece on how the story ends.

• For more information on the 6th Lesbian Literary Award go to: édition el!es

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