Lee Lynch (author)

Lee Lynch (born September 9, 1945) is an American author writing primarily on lesbian themes, specifically noted for authentic characterizing of butch and femme characters in fiction.

She is the recipient of a Golden Crown Literary Society Trail Blazer award for lifetime achievement, as well as being the namesake for the Golden Crown Literary Society's Lee Lynch Classics Award.

Lynch was born in Manhattan, New York on September 9, 1945.

Throughout school, she was bullied for being different.

She began to realize her lesbian sexuality around age 15.

Lynch says that her protest against societal norms were individual acts, such as kissing her girlfriend in public, or dressing in men's clothing as much as possible.

At the time, acts such as these meant she was basically considered a juvenile delinquent by New York law.

In the 1960s, Lynch became aware of The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States, and began contributing lesbian fiction and non-fiction to The Ladder.

Lynch published her first piece of writing in The Ladder in the late 1960s.

From there, she became a frequent contributor, as it was the only lesbian publication at the time.

Her adept way of characterizing butch and femme characters in her writing set the standard for many novelists writing since the 1970s.

Lynch has stated that her birth family has never read her work.

In the 1980s, Lynch was in a relationship with another lesbian artist, Tee Corinne.

In 1983, Lynch published her first novel, Toothpick House, with Naiad Press.

She went on to publish 10 more novels with Naiad, between the years 1984-1994.

She has also published essays, and her stories have appeared in a number of anthologies.

She has written reviews and feature articles for The Lambda Book Report and many other publications.

The inaugural book awarded with the very first trophy was Lynch's 1985 tour de force, The Swashbuckler.

Lynch's syndicated column, "The Amazon Trail", has been running in papers across the country since 1986.

Beginning in 2006, Lynch published 11 more lesbian novels with Bold Strokes Books, a New York queer publishing house.

Lynch cites Isabel Miller, Willa Cather, and Jane Rule as some of her writing inspirations.

Many younger lesbian writers such as Lori L. Lake, Karin Kallmaker, and Rachel Spangler have cited her influence, especially regarding the importance of authenticity in lesbian literature.

In 2006, Lynch was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival's Hall of Fame in New Orleans.

Lynch's novel Sweet Creek was a finalist for a Golden Crown Literary Society Award and was named one of the top ten fiction books of the year by the Q Syndicate.

In 2009, Lynch moved from the Oregon Coast to Florida where she earned a living as a researcher.

In 2009 Lynch was awarded the Golden Crown Literary Society Trail Blazer award for lifetime achievement, in recognition of the contributions she has made to the field of lesbian literature.

In 2010, she married Elaine Mulligan in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The couple lives in the Pacific Northwest.

In addition, her novel Beggar of Love won the 2010 Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award.

Amusingly enough, she also won the James Duggins Mid-Career Prize in 2010, after more than forty-five years of writing.

In 2012, the Golden Crown Literary Society issued a new award for classic, "timeless" fiction and named it The Lee Lynch Classics Award.

She has since retired and returned to Oregon in 2013, enabling her to work full-time on writing pursuits.