Alice B Readers Award

Alice B Medal
Alice B Medal Awarded Annually
Website	www.alicebawards.org

The Alice B Readers Award^[1] is given annually to living writers of lesbian fiction whose careers are distinguished by consistently well-written stories about lesbians. Named for Alice B. Toklas, the award is given once, only, in appreciation of career achievement. In addition to the medal, each recipient is given a lapel pin and a significant honorarium.

The Award was founded by Roberta "Sandy" Sandburg, who died of cancer at the age of 72 on June 16, 2009. Sandburg envisioned the Alice B Awards a decade or so ago, and in 2004 decided to make the awards a reality by committing funds from "an anonymous donor". A lifelong reader who was passionate about lesbian fiction, Sandburg wanted to thank and reward the authors who had given her so much joy, and she did so by establishing the Alice B fund and gathering a group of women who became the Alice B Readers Appreciation Committee.

In addition to Alice B Medals, until 2016 the Committee awarded Alice B Lavender Certificates to up-and-coming authors who do not yet have a body of work but who have published a remarkable work or two deserving of notice. Winners of the certificate received an honorarium of $50. After 2016, the Lavender Certificate was suspended. Due to the overwhelming number of debut writers, the committee was no longer able to read so many debut books.

By 2021, the Committee acknowledged that so many lesbian books were being published each year that they could no longer keep up and came to believe they were missing writers of great merit. In 2021, the committee began inviting readers, publishers, and authors to submit any book that they believe is a "Best Work of Fiction" by an author and representative of the author being named as deserving of a medal for lifetime achievement.^[2]