Sarah Schulman’s Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993 is the recipient of a special award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction. Schulman’s book, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, “examines the victories, strategic decisions, and defeats of the found chapter of ACT UP,” the panel of nonfiction judges said. “Schulman maintains a wide focus in telling how, in her words, ACT UP proved that ‘people from all walks of life, working together, can change the world.’ Resisting a popular cultural approach that has spotlighted a few gay white men in the movement as heroes, Let the Record Show proves that the unheralded contributions of women and people of color were vital to ACT UP’s successes.”
In accepting her award, Schulman noted that “from the beginning AIDS was misrepresented” in the mainstream media and that there has revisionism in historical accounts since the start of the epidemic. While thanking her longtime collaborator, Jim Hubbard, with whom she conducted 188 oral-history interviews of surviving members of ACT UP, she said, “I’m very grateful to the Publishing Triangle for this recognition.”
For Schulman’s full remarks, watch her video below or on YouTube.