The Merit of Awards

I learned so much from doing the jigsaw assignment for different literary awards, and the assignment provoked some serious thought for me. I researched the Lambda Literary Award. Upon visiting the website, I never found any rationale or history of the award. I think that this takes away from the award's value. I would have liked to learn more about what the committee is looking for when they select books to receive the different awards.

Our discussion in class was very interesting. I personally feel that different awards are important for separating "good" and "bad" literature. I know that some people think that having several different awards takes away from the merit of receiving an award, but I disagree. I think that it is important for committees who are very involved with certain groups select quality literature based on standards that are important to them. It gives people who want to create a diverse literature collection a starting point for selecting books about a particular group of people. If someone wanted to get a book about the GLBT community for example, they could pick from a list of Lambda Literary Award winners instead of selecting a random book that might portray information about the GLBT community in a way that is unfavorable or incorrect.

Overall, I think that awards are important for highlighting excellence in literature for many groups, and for selecting quality literature by and about several different groups of people.