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State Notable Book Award in Hot Water

BY AJ TRAGER

LANSING – In over 20 years of operation, the Notable Book Award, an annual award given out by the Library of Michigan for works focusing on strong Michigan themes or written by Michigan authors, has never presented an award to an out LGBT Michigan author.
The Notable Book Award is a program of the Library of Michigan and got its start in 1991 when it was called Read Michigan. According to the program's website, the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries took over the award in 2002; two years later it changed its name to the Notable Book Award and then in 2009 the Library of Michigan moved to the Michigan Department of Education, bringing the award with it.
Lev Raphael, an LGBT Michigan author who has published 25 books over the course of his career, recently wrote an op-ed about the award which was featured in BTL. In it he condemns the award as being discriminatory against LGBT authors and LGBT content.
Even though the Library of Michigan publicizes the awards as being "reflective of Michigan's diverse ethnic, historical, literary and cultural experience," Raphael believes it has a "major blind spot" as it relates to diversity.
"…Since 1991 there hasn't been a single book with major LGBT content published by a Michigan press or written by a Michigan author worthy of recognition," Raphael writes. "Think about it: No notable LGBT books by talented queer authors in Michigan in almost 25 years worthy of recognition by the judges of this program."
The program is highly competitive. Every year 20 books are selected out of 150-400 submitted titles for the award. No cash award is granted for making the list; however, authors that find themselves among the selected few often find that the publicity leads to hundreds, possibly thousands, of copies sold.
Randy Riley, a state librarian who has been with the Library of Michigan for 26 years, has been involved with the Notable Book Award for 14 years. He says that books that are granted the award are chosen because the work features the state's rich cultural, historical and literary heritage. A team of 13 committee members from a range of backgrounds including booksellers, book reviewers, journalists, librarians, historians, archaeologists and more decide which titles will be given the award.
"In the past there have been gay authors that have been on the list. I don't make a big point announcing that and outing who is gay on our list. I think that is up to the authors themselves. I don't know them to that level where that is even part of the criteria when we are rolling out who is on the list," Riley told BTL.
Riley remembered one book in particular that was submitted and had a gay-theme: Dean Kuipers' 2006 book titled "Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke."
"The gripping story of two marijuana advocates gunned down by the FBI after a five-day standoff," the first line in the Amazon synopsis reads. The book follows the relationship of Tom Crosslin and his partner, Rollie Rohm, opening up an inclusive campground in southwest Michigan.
So, while Riley admits that books written by LGBT authors or books with LGBT content have been submitted and even quietly granted the award, there seems to be a lack of LGBT representation.

Selection Process

Due to a lack of extraneous funding, the book award committee only reviews books that are submitted to them. For many self published authors, printing upwards of 20 copies of their manuscript can get costly if there's no guarantee that they'll be reimbursed with either money or publicity. Riley admits that it is a possible hurdle for authors without a publisher.
The committee doesn't have a formula for which books they choose as it relates to various genres. Books for the 2016 Notable Book Award include titles such as: "Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit" by Mark Rosenthal, "Great Girls in Michigan History" by Patricia Majher and "The Stone Circle Poems: The Collected Poems of Terry Wooten" by Terry Wooten, just to name a few. While Frida Kahlo, an out bisexual, and her partner Diego Rivera were famous for their polyamorous relationship, Rosenthal's book focuses almost exclusively on their time in Detroit and the controversy over Rivera's 27 fresco murals in the Detroit Institute of Arts where critics viewed Rivera's depiction of traditional images of the holy family as parody rather than homage, Wikipedia states.
"How is it that people get to know a community?" asked Keith Orr, owner of Common Language, the LGBT bookstore located in Ann Arbor. "One thing is to know a particular person. For gay marriage they used to say that the biggest factor for support is if they know somebody who is gay. We get to learn cultures through their works. If African-American works show up at the DIA, that makes a difference to the African-American community in Detroit when a major institution recognizes the cultural heritage and significance. We have a unique culture as LGBT citizens. To recognize that culture and recognize the depth of that culture could certainly have an effect not only for that author but also for readers who perhaps didn't know they were looking for something."

Finding an Audience

While the Notable Book Award has very little to do with what he purchases for the bookstore, Orr said that a nomination of that magnitude would certainly have an impact on LGBT publicity in the state.
"Books will find their audience, but things like awards or notable reviews can help that book find its audience," said Orr. "It (the award) speaks a lot to how the LGBT community is treated in Michigan."
Orr provided BTL with a short list of LGBT authors living in the state who could be considered for the award: Salvatore Sapienza, who writes books on spirituality; Wade Rouse, a New York Times best selling author; Marianne Martin, a lesbian author and writer/co-owner of Bywater Books; Carol Popovich, who writes lesbian romance novels; and Lev Raphael.
"Lev Raphael is someone who could garner that type of award based on the quality of the writing and the impact nationally and internationally," Orr said.
"In my 13 years of doing this I have one regret, and that was not selecting 'Middlesex' (by Jeffrey Eugenides)," Riley said.
"Middlesex" sold over three million copies in 2011 and was loosely based on aspects of Eugenides' life and observations of his Greek heritage. The main character for the novel is intersex and the work received praise from the intersex community, according to Olivia Banner, who peer reviewed the academic journal Signs that said "reviews of the novel in medical journals judge it favorably for what it reveals about the interior lives of the intersexed."
Award recipients will be honored at "Night for Notables," an event held April 2 in Lansing, to showcase the state's rich literary history and, through their compelling stories, the diverse experiences of life in the Great Lakes state.
Over the next year winners of the award will tour libraries across the state and give presentations about their work and their process. Not all libraries participate in the author workshops.
Anyone wishing to submit a book for the 2017 award can send a message to the committee at [email protected]. The committee will start discussing 2017 nominations in June. Those submitting titles are encouraged to do so sooner rather than later.
To read more about the Notable Book Award and the committee, go to http://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan/0,2351,7-160-54574_39583-61920–,00.html.

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