The Lambda Literary Awards are indisputably the highest acclaim a GLBT writer can achieve.
For Melbourne author, academic and activist Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, a Lambda is now a reality – she was announced as the winner of the Bisexual Fiction category for her young adult novel Love You Two at the Lambda Literary Awards this June.
While Love You Two is a work of fiction, Pallotta-Chiarolli pointed out that it was inspired and informed in part by her research and community work from the past 15 years, work which she said explored ‘sexual and emotional health in relation to sexual diversity, family diversity and cultural diversity in Australia and the United States with adults and adolescents, parents and their children.’
The result was a book that explored the facets of love and its expression.
‘It is made up of lots of love stories that people have shared with me, lots of ways of loving healthily and safely, and lots of ways love is tested by individual flaws, human complexities, community expectations, and social regulations and prejudices,’ Pallotta-Chiarolli said in her acceptance speech.
‘I wanted to write a comforting, funny, challenging and realistic book for young people and the adults in their lives who love “differentlyâ€, whose families are misunderstood, misrepresented, and hidden, so that they could find themselves and know that what matters is how people love in consensual, negotiated, and non-abusive ways, not who they love.’
Love You Two is published through Random House Australia.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
