(Columbus, OH) -- National Leather Association—International (NLA-I), a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community, announced finalists for its annual writing awards for works published in 2011.
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.
A biography of Chicago leather legend Chuck Renslow is among the finalists for an award. Here are the nominations:
The finalists for the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award are:
Jack Fritscher, "Leather's Burning Man: The History of the Folsom Street Fair" (Bay Area Reporter)
Mollena Williams, "Tables Briefly Turned" (from her blog at: www.mollena.com/ )
The finalists for the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award are:
Tracy Baim and Owen Keehnen, Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow (Prairie Avenue Productions)
Gayle Rubin, Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader (Duke University Press)
Jim Stewart, Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco (Palm Drive)
The finalists for the Pauline Reage Novel Award are:
Lauren Gallagher, Reconstructing Meredith (Carnal Passions)
Jeff Mann, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal (Bear Bones Books)
Cherise Sinclair, To Command and Collar (Loose Id)
Cecilia Tan, The Prince's Boy: Volumes 1 & 2 (Circlet)
The finalists for the John Preston Short Fiction Award are:
Kissiah Aiken, "Transformative," which appeared in Nobilis Reed (ed.), "Coming Together in Flux" (CreateSpace)
Laura Antoniou, " The Man with the Phoenix Tattoo," which appeared in Tristan Taormino (ed.), Take Me There.
Jeff Mann, " Jeff and Sam: After the Concert," which appeared in Shane Allison (ed.), Brief Encounters: 69 Hot Gay Shorts.
M. Svairini, "Mouth," which appeared in Lauren P. Burka (ed.), Up for Grabs 2: Exploring More Worlds of Gender (Circlet)
Xan West, "It's My Job," which appeared in Richard Labonte (ed.), Hot Daddies: Gay Erotic Fiction (Cleis)
The finalists for the Samois Anthology Award are:
Rachel Kramer Bussel, Surrender: Erotic Tales of Female Pleasure and Submission (Cleis)
Rachel Kramer Bussel, Best Bondage Erotic 2012 (Cleis)
Alison Tyler, Slave to Love (Cleis)
The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association's Annual General Meeting, which will be held during Tribal Fire (May 4-6, 2012) in Oklahoma City, Okla. Contact the award committee chair, Steve Vakesh, for information about the awards at stevevakesh@gmail.com . For more information about Tribal Fire or the National Leather Association, see: www.tribalfireokc.com/ and www.nla-i.com .
