Former D.C. writer wins Stonewall Book Award

Former Blade writer Wayne Hoffman wins prestigious gay book award. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Wayne Hoffman, a former D.C. resident and Washington Blade writer, won a 2012 Stonewall Book Award, which are given by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association.

Hoffman’s “Sweet Like Sugar” won the Barbara Gittings Literature Award. The book explores the complicated and unexpected relationship between 20-something Benji Steiner and an elderly rabbi mourning the loss of his wife. The book is available on Amazon.

The Stonewall Book Awards are given annually to English-language LGBT-themed works of exceptional merit. The awards will be presented to the winning authors at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim in June.

“The awards and honor books reflects an amazing breadth and depth in writing and publishing materials for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender readers, allies, families, and friends,” said Stonewall Book Awards Committee Chair Lewis Day in a statement. “The creativity, curiosity, and courage of these works is profound, and we feel privileged to be in the midst of these writers and their characters and creations.”

The Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award went to “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” written by Jonathan Katz and David Ward, co-curators of the controversial 2010 Smithsonian exhibit of the same name. They shared that award with Michael Bronski’s “A Queer History of the United States.”