Oregon Book Award Winner, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Heads to New York City for Lambda Literary Award

PORTLAND, Ore. - May 25, 2016 - PRLog -- Quick on the heels of winning the Oregon Book Award for creative nonfiction for her memoir, Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, Kate Carroll de Gutes is heading to New York City for the Lambda Literary Award Ceremony where she is a finalist for a Lammy in the category of Lesbian Memoir/Autobiography.

The Lambda Literary Award, which celebrates the achievement of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writers and their books, is meaningful to a writer who used to receive the Lambda Book Review mailed to her house in a brown paper wrapper because of its "incendiary" content.  The Review was crucial, though-especially because in 1989, when the Review first began publishing, it was difficult to find work by LGBTQ writers in mainstream bookstores.  Lambda kept de Gutes connected to a world of other queer writers, to her lesbian history, and to her literary future.

"To be a finalist for such a prestigious award, an award I've been tracking for almost 30 years now, is an almost indescribable honor.  This year there were 933 submission, many of them from mainstream houses.  That tells you the strides we've made as a community-mainstream houses publish our books and submit them for awards-and it demonstrates the ongoing vibrancy and growth of the LGBTQ literary culture," says de Gutes.

Domingo Martinez, the creative nonfiction judge for the Oregon Book Award had this to say about de Gutes' work, "From its opening pages, the book grabs you by the collar and doesn't let up with its magical combinations of story and language, wit and tenderness, truths personal and universal.  This is masterful writing with sentences that linger on the mind for days after, images and stories that unfold the sweet bitterness of loves lost and loves to come in a reflection of true humanity."

Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear was the final book selected for the Judith Kitchen Select series for Ovenbird Books.  Judith Kitchen, founder of Ovenbird Books, the legendary State Street Press, and poetry reviewer for The Georgia Review, died just two days after finishing her edit of the manuscript.

About the author: Kate Carroll de Gutes is a wry observer and writer with an MFA in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.  Her work appears in a wide variety of literary journals and national publications.  Learn more at katecarrolldegutes.com (http://www.katecarrolldegutes.com/) or follow her on Twitter @kcdegutes.

Judith Kitchen's Ovenbird Books is an independent press dedicated to the publication of experimental literary nonfiction. Ovenbird Books are distributed throughout the US by Ingram and are available at fine booksellers everywhere, including from Ovenbird Books at ovenbirdbooks.org.