Leadership Prize Bestowed on Paul Willis of Saints and Sinners

At the Triangle Awards ceremony on April 25, 2019, held at the New School in New York City, the Publishing Triangle presented its Leadership Award to Paul Willis. Created in 2002, this special award recognizes contributions to LGBTQ literature by those who are not primarily writers, such as editors, agents, librarians, and institutions.

Paul Willis established the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2003. Now in its sixteenth year, the festival has grown into an internationally recognized event that brings together a who’s who of LGBTQ publishers, writers, and readers from throughout the United States and beyond. Under Willis’s direction, the festival now includes annual contests in short story, poetry, and playwriting, as well as an emerging writer award.

In addition, he integrated Saints and Sinners with the larger Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, and serves as the executive director of both these festivals. Through Willis’s leadership, Saints and Sinners is not simply an LGBTQ literary conference but a true community.