The Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award honors individuals and institutions—editors, agents, publicists, publishers, and periodicals—whose work strengthens the visibility, vitality, and reach of LGBTQ literature.
Renamed in 2022 for publicist and consultant Michele Karlsberg, an early Publishing Triangle co-chair and founder of Amethyst Press, the award recognizes her decades of advocacy on behalf of queer authors. Through Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management, she has championed writers including Kate Clinton, Assotto Saint, Emanuel Xavier, Katherine Forrest, Jewelle Gomez, Wayne Hoffman, Dorothy Allison, and Felice Picano.
Established in 2002 (and known for twenty years as the Publishing Triangle Leadership Award), the prize began offering a cash award in 2016. The winner receives $500.
Past winners are:
2025 — David Groff
2024 — Kris Kleindienst, Left Bank Books
2023 — Bureau of General Services – Queer Division
2022 — Trent Duffy
2021 — William Johnson
2020 — In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction, a documentary by Project Legacies
2019 — Paul Willis
2018 — Malaga Baldi
2017 — John Scognamiglio
2016 — Christopher Street magazine
2015 — (no award)
2014 — Sinister Wisdom magazine
2013 — Ira Silverberg
2012 — Frances Goldin
2011 — Gay and Lesbian Review
2010 — Michele Karlsberg
2009 — Carole DeSanti
2008 — Carol Seajay and Richard Labonte
2007 — Nancy Bereano
2006 — Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop
2005 — Lesbian Herstory Archives
2004 — Barbara Gittings
2003 — Jed Mattes
2002 — Michael Denneny