 | |
| Founded | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Lori L. Lake |
| Successor | Jodi & Peggy Zeramby |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Portland, Oregon |
| Publication types | novels, short story collections, anthologies, poetry |
| Nonfiction topics | lesbian crime fiction, romance, speculative/sci-fi/fantasy fiction |
| Fiction genres | Lesbian fiction |
| Official website | www |
Launch Point Press is a small press publisher [1] of lesbian literature based in Portland, Oregon. [2]
Launch Point Press (LPP) is a lesbian-oriented press with the goal of publishing quality works by newer authors just “launching” their careers or by experienced authors “re-launching” their work. LPP is on the list of women's presses "dedicated either wholly or to a significant degree to publishing material written for, by, or about women. Many of them started during the 'second wave' of feminism."
Since the publication of its first title in 2017, the primary focus of LPP has been on lesbian fiction: lesbian romance, lesbian crime fiction, and lesbian speculative fiction/sci-fi/fantasy novels. [3] A typical production year includes 8 - 10 trade paperback releases.
Effective January 1, 2023, the founder of the press, Lori L. Lake, sold it to new owners Jodi and Peggy Zeramby. [4] Lake is staying on as an author and consultant to the new owners.
LPP authors have won multiple Golden Crown Literary Society “Goldie” Awards, [5] Rainbow Awards, [6] and have been finalists for many honors including the Lambda Literary Award, [7] the Goldies, [8] and local honors in their individual states and communities.
Radclyffe is an American author of lesbian romance, paranormal romance, erotica, and mystery. She has authored multiple short stories, written fan fiction, and edited numerous anthologies. Radclyffe is a member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame and has won numerous literary awards, including the RWA/GDRWA Booksellers' Best award, the RWA/Orange County Book Buyers Best award, the RWA/New England Bean Pot award, the RWA/VCRW Laurel Wreath award, the RWA/FTHRW Lories award, the RWA/HODRW Aspen Gold award, the RWA Prism award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. She is a 2003/04 recipient of The Alice B Readers Award for her body of work as well as a member of the Golden Crown Literary Society, Pink Ink, and the Romance Writers of America. In 2014, the Lambda Literary Foundation awarded Barot with the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist award acknowledging her as an established author with a strong following and the promise of future high-quality work. In 2015 she was a featured author in the award-winning documentary film about the romance writing and reading community, Love Between the Covers, from Blueberry Hill Productions. In 2019 she was named a Trailblazer in Romance by the Romance Writers of America, for her works of LGBTQ+ fiction. In 2021, she was named one of The Advocate's Women of the Year.
Katherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."
Bella Books is a small press publisher of lesbian literature based in Tallahassee, Florida.
Lori L. Lake is an American writer of fiction, mainly about lesbian protagonists. She is also an editor, writing instructor, and former publisher.
Karin Kallmaker is an American author of lesbian fiction whose works also include those originally written under the name Laura Adams. Her writings span lesbian romance, lesbian erotica, and lesbian science-fiction/fantasy. Dubbed the Queen of Lesbian Romance, she publishes exclusively in the lesbian market as a matter of personal choice.
Lee Lynch is an American author writing primarily on lesbian themes, specifically noted for authentic characterizing of butch and femme characters in fiction. She is the recipient of a Golden Crown Literary Society Trail Blazer award for lifetime achievement, as well as being the namesake for the Golden Crown Literary Society's Lee Lynch Classics Award.
Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) is an American nonprofit organization established in 2004 for those with an interest in Sapphic literature. Since 2005, GCLS has at its annual conference presented Golden Crown Literary Awards (Goldies) to authors and editors in various categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and anthologies/collections, as well as for cover design and audiobook narration.
Penny Mickelbury is an African-American playwright, short story writer, mystery series writer, and historical novelist who worked as a print and television journalist for ten years before concentrating on fiction writing. After leaving journalism, she taught fiction and script writing in Los Angeles and saw two of her plays produced there. She began writing detective novels with Keeping Secrets, published by Naiad Press in 1994, in the first of a series featuring Gianna Maglione, a lesbian chief of a hate-crimes unit based in Washington, D.C., and her lover 'Mimi Patterson', a journalist. Her second series of four books features Carole Ann Gibson, a Washington, D.C., attorney, who is widowed in the first book and subsequently runs an investigation agency with Jake Graham, the detective who investigated her husband's death. Her third series features Phil Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican private investigator on the Lower Easter Side of New York City. Mickelbury has also written short story collections and historical novels highlighting the Black experience in America.
Jessie Chandler is an American author of mystery and humorous caper fiction, most of which is about lesbian protagonists. Her work includes the Shay O'Hanlon Caper Series, many short stories, and other novels. Chandler has presented talks about the craft of writing, serves as a mentor to many up-and-coming writers, and is a contributing member of The Golden Crown Literary Society, Sisters in Crime, and serves on the board of Mystery Writers of America.
Carol Anshaw is an American novelist and short story writer. Publishing Triangle named her debut novel, Aquamarine, one of "The Triangle's 100 Best" gay and lesbian novels of the 1990s. Four of her books have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and Lucky in the Corner won the 2003 Ferro-Grumley Award.
Regal Crest Enterprises (RCE), established 1999, is a small press publisher of lesbian literature. As of January 1, 2021, RCE became an imprint of Flashpoint Publications and is based in Ohio.
Jeanne Córdova was an American trailblazer of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and proud butch.
Riverdale Avenue Books, located in Riverdale, Bronx, New York, is a publisher of e-books, print books on demand and audiobooks founded in 2012 by Lori Perkins. Riverdale is a member of the American Association of Publishers and publishes between 50 and 75 books a year.
Headmistress Press is a small press based in Sequim, Washington. Founded in 2013, the press specializes in poetry by lesbian poets. Notable poets who have published collections with Headmistress include Janice Gould, Joy Ladin, Constance Merritt, and Lesléa Newman.
Marriage of a Thousand Lies is a novel by Sri Lankan-American author SJ Sindu, published by Soho Press in 2017. It tells the story of Lucky and Kris, two gay South Asian-Americans whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka, who marry to stay in the closet.
Jae is a German author of lesbian fiction. Her work is published in English as well as in German.
Georgia Beers is an American writer of lesbian romance. Her novel Fresh Tracks won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Romance.
Jess Wells is an American author of modern realism, historical fiction and magical realism. She blogs on under-represented women in history. Wells participated in the foundational years of lesbian and feminist publishing during the time of second-wave feminism in the 1980s and 1990s.
KG MacGregor is an American writer of lesbian fiction. She has authored over two dozen lesbian romance novels, collecting a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Romance and nine Goldie Awards from the Golden Crown Literary Society, including the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. MacGregor served six years on the Board of Trustees of the Lambda Literary Foundation, including two years as board president.
Lynn Ames is an American writer whose works feature female protagonists, past and present. She has authored sixteen novels spanning a variety of genres, including historical fiction, thrillers, and LGBTQ+ romance, and a biography of softball player and bowler Dot Wilkinson. Ames has collected six Goldie Awards from the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) and was keynote speaker at the 2023 GCLS annual conference. Her contemporary romance novel, All That Lies Within, won the GCLS Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award in 2013 and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist for Lesbian Romance.