National Leather Association: International, a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather community, announced the winners for excellence in literary works in SM/leather/fetish writing published in 2012 at its Annual General Meeting in Oklahoma City, OK on May 3-5, 2013 and held during Tribal Fire. The judges received a greater number of nominations this year than ever before and judging in most categories was quite difficult with such exemplary pieces of writing..

Winners of the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award are Lee Harrington and Mollena Williams for “Playing Well With Others: Your Field Guide to Discovering, Exploring and Navigating the Kink, Leather and BDSM Communities.” Honorable mention in this category goes to Tristan Taormino (ed.) for “The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge.”

In the John Preston Short Fiction category, the winner is Annie Cox for “Muriel” (Pink Flamingo Press). Honorable mention for short story goes to I.G. Frederick & Patrick for ““Aunt” Grace” (Smashwords Edition).

Winner of the Samois Anthology Award is Elizabeth Coldwell (ed.), “LIPSTICK LOVERS” (Xcite Books). The honorable mention goes to Wes Royal (ed.), for “Whatever Lola Wants (and Other Wicked Tales)” (FDC Publication).

Victorious in the Pauline Reage Novel category is L. M. Somerton for “The Portrait’ (Total-E-Bound). The judges were unable to concur on second place honors this year with 27 novels submitted for consideration. Honorable mentions therefore go to The Masters of Falcon’s Fantasies by Cassidy Browning & Reggie Alexander (Siren Publishing), Power Exchange by A. J. Rose (Voodoo Lily Press), Eve Portrait of Submission by Steve Maser (Pink Flamingo Publications), Beyond the Edge by Elizabeth Lister (MLR Press) and A Forbidden Love by Lee Dorsey (Pink Flamingo Publications).

The winner of the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award for the second year in a row is Mollena Williams, this time for “On Collars And Closure and Owning Myself” which appeared in her blog The Perverted Negress at http://www.mollena.com/. Ms. Williams also earned second place in this category for “Digging in the Dirt – The Lure of Taboo Role Play”, which appeared in Tristan Taormino’s (ed.) “The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge” (Cleis Press).

Nominations for literary works published in 2013 will open late this year.

I didn’t enter this year as I had nothing published in 2012 that would qualify, but congrats to the finalists.

From the NLA-I press release:

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2012 NLA-I WRITING AWARDS

(Columbus, OH) — National Leather Association: International (NLA-I), a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community, announced today the finalists for its annual writing awards. Named after activists and writers Geoff Mains, John Preston, Pauline Reage, Cynthia Slater, and the groundbreaking organization Samois, they are awarded annually to recognize excellence in writing and publishing about Leather, SM, bondage and fetishes.

The finalists for the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award are:

Civility Revisited by Kassie (Leatherati.com)

Rogue Leatherwomen by Leland Carina (Leatherati.com)

Stop, Drop and Role! Erotic Role Playing by Mollena Williams (The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge)

Digging in the Dirt – The Lure of Taboo Role Play by Mollena Williams (The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge)

On Collars And Closure and Owning Myself by Mollena Williams (The Perverted Negress)

The finalists for the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award are:

Twenty-Five Years of Living in Leather: The National Leather Association, 1986-2011 by Steve Stein (Adynaton Publishing)

The Ritual of Dominance & Submission: A Guide to High Protocol Dominance & Submission by David English

Playing Well With Others: Your Field Guide to Discovering, Exploring and Navigating the Kink, Leather and BDSM Communities by Lee Harrington and Mollena Williams (Greenery Press)

The Ultimate Guide to Kink by Tristan Taormino, ed. (Cleis Press)

Sexual Outsiders: Understanding BDSM Sexualities and Communities by David Ortmann, LCSW and Richard Sprott, PhD

The finalists for the Pauline Reage Novel Award are:

The Masters of Falcon’s Fantasies by Cassidy Browning & Reggie Alexander (Siren Publishing)

Power Exchange by A. J. Rose (Voodoo Lily Press)

The Portrait by L. M. Somerton (Total-E-Bound)

Eve Portrait of Submission by Steve Maser (Pink Flamingo Publications)
Beyond the Edge by Elizabeth Lister (MLR Press)

A Forbidden Love by Lee Dorsey (Pink Flamingo Publications)

The finalists for the Samois Anthology Award are:

Bound by lust: Romantic stories of submission and sensuality, ed. Shanna Germaine (Cleis Press)

Cheeky spanking stories, ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press)

Luscious: Stories of anal eroticism, ed. Alison Tyler (Cleis Press)

Whatever Lola Wants (and Other Wicked Tales), ed. Wes Royal (FDC Publication)

LIPSTICK LOVERS, ed. Elizabeth Coldwell (Xcite Books)

The finalists for the John Preston Short Story Award are:

THE GREENER GRASSES by M. Christian, from “STROKE THE FIRE: The Best ManLove Fiction of M. Christian” (Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions)

Christmas Comes to Otters’ Gap by Jeff Mann, from “The Dirty Diner” (Bold Strokes Books)

Wild Like Honey by Angel Propps, from “Dangerous Curves” (Ravenous Romance)

Muriel by Annie Cox (Pink Flamingo Press)

“Aunt” Grace by I.G. Frederick & Patrick (Smashwords Edition)

The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held during Tribal Fire on May 3-5, 2013 in Oklahoma City, OK. For more information on the AGM or Tribal Fire Please go to http://www.tribalfireokc.com/

For more information about the awards, please contact the award committee chair, pyxy, at nlai.

I just found out this morning.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

(Columbus, OH) — NLA-International, a leading organization for activists in the pansexual leather community, is now accepting nominations for its annual writing awards for excellence in SM/leather/fetish writing for books, articles, novels, and short fiction first published between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011. The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2012. The finalists will be announced in March. The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held during Tribal Fire (4-6 May 2012) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The five award categories are:

• Non-Fiction Book (Geoff Mains Award)
• Non-Fiction Article (Cynthia Slater Award)
• Novel (Pauline Reage Award)
• Short Fiction (John Preston Award)
• Anthology (Samois Award)

Eligibility for all awards (short fiction, novel, non-fiction book, non-fiction article, and anthology) requires first time publication in the 2011 calendar year.

If you or someone you know has published a book, article, or story dealing with any aspect of SM, leather,fetish, or kink sexuality please consider nominating it for one of the above awards. Authors and publishers are encouraged to nominate themselves by submitting copies of their work.

Nominated works should foster education and promote awareness and a positive image of the leather/SM/fetish community. They should entertain and educate, while building awareness and tolerance of the community and showcasing the talents of its members.

There are no submission fees, but the judges will require either three print copies of the nominated work or a digital copy (PDF). Nominations may be sent to the committee chair, Steve Vakesh, at: .

NLA-I has convened an award jury of nine readers, whose number include noted erotic writers and leading community activists. The judges are rotated regularly and their names withheld until after judging is complete to prevent lobbying by nominees. Last year they reviewed more than 100 submissions.

Now in their fifth year, the NLA-I’s writing awards have received widespread appreciation and support. A “leather first,” they have become the preeminent awards for SM, leather, and fetish writing. Past winners include Laura Antoniou, Gloria Brame, Jack Fritscher, Lee “Bridgett” Harrington, Anneke Jacob, Jeff Mann, Jack Rinella, davidstein, Cecilia Tan, Tristan Taormino, Claire Thompson, and Alyson Tyler.