The Publishing Triangle was founded in 1988–89 to bring LGBTQ people in book publishing together for networking, solidarity, and to advance a rapidly growing queer literary culture. Michael Denneny (St. Martin’s Press), David Groff (Crown Publishers), and Robert Riger (Book-of-the-Month Club) convened the earliest meetings. Even as bylaws were being drafted, the group presented its first honor in 1989: the inaugural Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, given to Edmund White. Supporting and celebrating LGBTQ writers soon became central to the Triangle’s mission.
The first steering committee took office in 1990, co-chaired by Michele Karlsberg and Denneny, with Carole De Santi as secretary and Trent Duffy as treasurer, alongside a broad slate of editors, agents, authors, marketers, and booksellers. While professional networking remained essential, the group also began creating programs to increase visibility for queer books and to challenge barriers within the industry and society. These initiatives included:
• Public forums on publishing and LGBTQ cultural issues, including a 1990 event supporting the NEA Four.
• An LGBTQ lending library, led by Stan Leventhal and Brian Phillips, which later became part of New York’s LGBTQ Community Center.
• National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, spearheaded by Michele Karlsberg, promoting queer literature in bookstores nationwide each June.
• BookAIDS, which distributed donated paperbacks to HIV/AIDS clinics and LGBTQ community centers.
Beginning in 1997, the Triangle expanded its awards program, adding nonfiction prizes for Judy Grahn and Randy Shilts. Its annual ceremony also partnered with the Ferro–Grumley Literary Foundation and the Robert Chesley Foundation. A notable late-1990s project was commissioning a list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels, which sparked wide discussion and resulted in a second reader-generated list.
Under chair Charles Flowers, the Triangle introduced two poetry awards in 2001 (Audre Lorde and Thom Gunn), followed by the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction in 2006 and the award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature in 2016. All awards carry significant cash prizes funded by donors and supporters.
More than thirty years later, the Publishing Triangle continues to evolve, bringing together those who write, edit, publish, sell, and champion LGBTQ books at its awards ceremony, holiday events, and through ongoing programs and online engagement.