Lee Lynch, whose monthly column The
Amazon Trail appears in On Top Magazine, will be honored
next month with the James Duggins Mid-Career Author Award at the 8th
Annual Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans.
The award recognizes LGBT mid-career
novelists of extraordinary talent and service to the LGBT community.
Lynch started her writing career in the
1960's at The Ladder, the only lesbian publication at the
time, and has gone on to write over 14 books. Her most recent, Sweet
Creek, a bittersweet love story that became a 2007 Golden Crown
Literary Society Award finalist, and Beggar of Love were
published by Bold Strokes Books.
But it is her monthly column The
Amazon Trail, which she has faithfully penned since 1986 and
turned into a book of the same name, that has graced our pageviews.
The January 14, 2009 debut of the
column marked Lynch's first foray online. She called it a “natural
transition” for her column.
Lynch's column is a sweet and poignant
look at the author's life. She'll dabble in politics, but mostly she
keeps to the mundane.
Such as a recent column that took a
look at possible haircuts for dykes: “This hair stylist, who
showed up at a potluck that drew dykes from miles along the
coastline, was femme, but she understood butch. She dressed however
her mood inspired her, from plain and simple to punk to retro to
killer-femme. She was funny and out even when she worked in shared
spaces. When she opened her own salon the interior design was just
like her: eccentric, eclectic, a little goofy and all woman. The neon
peace sign in the window was particularly pleasing.”
And she often talks about life with her
sweetheart.