Katie’s parents never told her “no” when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she’s not at work, she’s at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves.
Twitter: @kt_librarylady
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Award for LGBTQ+ Writers Nominates Anti-Trans Author
No, it’s not JK Rowling. But the Polari prizes, a set of UK awards celebrating LGBTQ+ literature, longlisted John Boyne for the main Polari prize, despite Boyne describing himself as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) and expressing public support for Rowling’s anti-trans opinions. As a result, ten nominated authors and two judges have withdrawn from the process, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry figures have signed an open letter calling for Boyne to be removed from the longlist. The Polari Prize has since announced that the 2025 awards have been “paused.” I’m not particularly familiar with the Polari prizes, but I do know that you can’t celebrate LGBTQ+ authors and literature without supporting trans authors, period, full stop.
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Anti-Trans Library Policy Rejected For a Third Time
Some positive (ish) news for trans books: Sumner County (TN) public libraries rejected a proposed collection policy for the third time that would have banned books on transgender topics. While that’s definitely a plus, expect more controversial policy proposals to come from this group of board members: Joanna Daniels, the board chair and overall piece of work said the anti-transgender policy is part of her larger mission to “get the libraries back in order — back into conservative viewpoints and clean them up.” She also said that the separation of church and state doesn’t exist.