The Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Award, established by Sigma Tau Delta members Dr. Kevin Stemmler and Dr. Larry Dennis, honors exceptional creative and critical works that represent or celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. This annual award addresses the historical marginalization of LGBTQ+ voices in academia, providing recognition for both creative and scholarly contributions. The award’s name incorporates an ampersand, inspired by GLAAD’s “&Together” campaign and the work of G&LR, symbolizing inclusivity and unity among diverse identities. This year’s winners were selected from over 120 eligible submissions for presentation at the annual Sigma Tau Delta/English Honor Society Convention. Submissions were evaluated by LGBTQ+ faculty judges in the Society. For more information, see English.org, “Awards”
As part of Lambda Literary’s partnership with Sigma Tau Delta, we are proud to celebrate the achievements of Stemmler/Dennis Award winners like Addison Delgado.
Book bans are an increasingly relevant issue in the United States, having spiked dramatically over the past decade. Book censorship is not a new issue; it is a practice deeply ingrained in the movement to censor the LGBTQ+ community. Book bans in schools are not only an attempt to censor queer novels, but also to erase the identities of queer individuals through the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in literature. The censorship of queer individuals traces all the way to the Isle of Lesbos and Sappho, the poet, and into the future to the 21st century, where the issue has been even further exaggerated. It is not only books themselves that have created sanctuaries for queer people, but also the spaces carved out by literary influence, such as literary salons. Literature has the unique power to bring people together, and this is especially influential when bringing queer people together to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. It is precisely the sanctuary that literature has created for queer people that makes it a target for censorship, which has been a pattern throughout queer history. From Sappho’s Isle of Lesbos and her poetry, books such as The Well of Loneliness, or the physical spaces such as literary salons like Natalie Clifford Barney’s, literature has carved out spaces that have time and again fallen under persecution for the sanctuary they have provided for the LGBTQ+ community. These spaces are increasingly under fire with book censorship in the 21st century, with book bans targeting diverse communities.
One of the earliest traces of queer literature begins with Sappho. Sappho is regarded as the first lesbian poet, though her sexuality is a highly debated topic. Her life remains mostly mysterious to scholars – there is no complete picture of the life and death of the Tenth Muse from Lesbos. Sappho wrote nine books of poetry consisting of about 10,000 lines in total, but only a handful of these lines remain in the fragments of her work. She is best known for her works of female love and desire, yet there are still heavy debates about whether Sappho was or was not a lesbian. However, no matter the debate around her identity, Sappho has had a heavy influence on queer literature, specifically that of queer women. She wrote explicit narratives of female desire between women, marking her as the first lesbian poet.
Her works have provided a space for communities of queer women to organize themselves around. Sappho’s name and origin are where the terms “lesbian” and “sapphic” are derived from, which have given queer women a space and label to identify with. Kristy Loehr states, “One thing we do know for sure is that Sappho’s name spawned sapphist, a term initially used to describe women who fancied other women. We also know that the word lesbian came from Sappho’s place of birth, the Isle of Lesbos, thus making Sappho the ‘OG’ lesbian of Lesbos” (22-23). This idea is also supported by Mariana Dias da Costa’s study, “The History of Lesbian Literature: An Exploration on the Evolution of the Genre,” in which she states that the term “sapphic” was derived from Sappho’s name; first, it was used to refer to the “original rhythmical pattern of her poems,” but then also started to be “another term for queer relationships between women” (643). The ambiguity of Sappho’s sexuality and desire is another result of the mysterious circumstances of her life. The fate of her works is equally ambiguous among scholars.
The persecution and censorship of Sappho’s work are highly debated. The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature, edited by E. L. McCallum and Mikko Tuhkanen, states that Sappho’s work “was lost or destroyed about the ninth century CE, during the early Christian era,” circling around the idea of her work being burned (1983). A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, edited by Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone, supports the idea that Sappho’s poetry was deliberately destroyed, stating that her poetry “was constantly recopied until nearly A.D. 1000, when a wrathful church destroyed whatever it could find” when “in 1073, her writings were publicly burned in Rome and Constantinople by order of Pope Gregory VIII” (30). Kirsty Loehr in A Short History of Queer Women also supports this, stating, “it has been suggested that, years later, early Christian Church authorities arranged for all Sappho’s work to be destroyed. Thankfully, some was salvaged, though to this day, it is regarded as one of the greatest losses to the literary canon” (19). Judy Grahn in her novel The Highest Apple:
Sapphic and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition also states Sappho’s work was “later claimed to have been burned by the Greek church during the Medieval Christian era” (45). The destruction of Sappho’s works is one of the earliest examples of censorship of LGBTQ+ literature, though it is different from how censorship looks today in the U.S. The sapphic nature of her work has provided a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community in that she has provided a space for queer women, especially in the form of how she has influenced sapphic poets throughout history.
One notable poet Sappho influenced is Natalie Clifford Barney. Barney hosted a Parisian literary salon, which was her own version of Sappho’s Lesbos. H.J.E. Champion, in their study, “Remembering Sappho: transatlantic ‘Lesbian Nations’ in the long nineteenth century,” discusses Barney’s literary salon, stating that the poet “established an openly queer community of women at a time when lesbian female desire” was becoming taboo, providing a refuge for queer women (22). This is another example of how literature has physically connected queer people through providing free spaces for them. Barney’s salon was shut down after her landlord evicted her from her home after reading “about the bevy of naked women romping around in the garden,” and she responded in turn by opening her Rue Jacob salon, which was a “new rendezvous among ladies who had taken a fancy to each other or wished to see each other again” (21). This salon gathered writers, artists, and other intellectuals and offered them freedom by bringing them together not only to celebrate creative work but also sexual diversity in the LGBTQ+ community.
The influence of Barney’s salon is seen in Radclyffe Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness, which also emphasizes the importance of spaces such as literary salons to the queer community. The Well of Loneliness was published in 1928, and it was “the first English language publication to discuss same-sex relationships in fiction” (da Costa 646). When the novel was first published, it faced heavy criticism and censorship in England, being banned from publication and sale. The censorship of The Well of Loneliness pushed it onto the global literary stage, and it was published in other countries until its ban was overturned in England. The novel was the “first of its era to push against the boundaries of censorship and in doing so made a name for itself that is still being credited today” (647). The Well of Loneliness is an early example of the modern idea of a “book ban,” combating the censorship of LGBTQ+ novels in its story.
The Well of Loneliness is also an example of how queer literature has provided safe spaces for queer individuals, and being persecuted for doing so. The novel is semi-autobiographical of its author, Radclyffe Hall, who “revisits aspects of her own past via Stephen,” the main character of the novel (Funke and Roche xix). The book itself has not only provided an outlet for the author to reminisce on their own experiences as queer person, but also for readers of the novel. The novel has given “life, purpose, and a sense of belonging to readers of all nationalities, classes, and ages” (xxxii-xxxiii). For example, Alison Behdel, an author and artist of multiple queer graphic novels, writes in her graphic novel Fun Home, “‘my realisation at nineteen that I was a lesbian came about in a manner consistent with my bookish upbringing (qtd. on Hall xxxiii). This panel is accompanied by an illustration that “depicts her hand taking a copy of The Well of Loneliness from a bookshelf” (qtd. on xxxiii). The Well of Loneliness takes place in a specific period of time, reflecting the views of homosexuality in England during the novel’s period, but it is still a story that “new generations of readers, of all sexualities and genders, will find themselves in” (xxxiii). This novel showcases the refuge queer people have found in the literature, both in it and other books, as well as the censorship it faced because of the safety it offers for LGBTQ+ members to find themselves in.
The Well of Loneliness’s representation of the queer community is not limited to Stephen, the main character. Valérie Seymour, whom Stephen meets in Paris, is a sapphic salon hostess, reminiscent of Natalie Clifford Barney and her Rue Jacob salon. Seymour is described as a woman whose “love affairs would fill quite three volumes,” and that “great men had loved, great writers had written about her,” and “one had died,” but “Valérie was not attracted to men” (Hall 239). Valérie’s salon is a sanctuary for intellectuals and queer individuals; when Stephen is brought there by Jonathon Crockett, a queer playwright, Stephen thinks to herself, “‘This is all being said because of me. Brockett wants to let me see that he knows what I am, and he wants to let Valérie Seymour know too–I suppose this is making me welcome,’” and that, in the salon, there “was no need for pretences” (241). The LGBTQ+ community, or the community of inverts in Paris, have all flocked to this salon, and Stephen feels compelled to stay by the community she has found, though it will be a while until she returns to Valérie’s salon in the novel. Valérie’s salon, similar to Natalie Clifford Barney’s, was a refuge for queer individuals to identify and act freely as members of the queer community.
The refuge that queer literature has provided LGBTQ+ individuals with is increasingly under threat in the United States. PEN America’s latest report on book bans from 2024-2025 highlights the extremity of this issue, stating that “Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country” (Baêta et al.). The report spans from July 2024 through June 2025, focusing on the extensive movement within the U.S. to censor books. PEN America reported 6,870 instances of book bans, resulting in “22,810 cases of book bans across 45 states and 451 public school districts” since July 2021 (Baêta et al.). Book bans in the U.S. frequently target LGBTQ+ novels, limiting access to those books and their representation of the queer experience. It is precisely the representation in LGBTQ+ literature that creates safe spaces for the queer community. The censorship of LGBTQ+ novels sends the message to those represented in those novels that their identities are not normal or not worth being represented. Book bans keep continuously increasing throughout the years. Book bans have become “a way of erasing stories, identities, experiences, and peoples and reshaping understandings of the past” (Baêta et al.). Through censoring stories, book bans and censorship have become a way to erase the safe spaces that novels provide for queer individuals.
The earliest instances of censorship of the exploding issue of book bans today illustrate how the safe spaces provided for queer individuals have continuously been targeted and censored. From the physical destruction of Sappho’s works to the removal of books from school libraries, censorship takes many different forms. The issue has become highly exaggerated and normalized within the United States, threatening LGBTQ+ communities in the country.
Censorship must be combatted by continuing to create and support queer literature, because queer literature provides refuge for the LGBTQ+ community during the turbulent times the community is currently experiencing due to censorship.
ADDISON DELGADO is a current undergraduate student at Florida State University (FSU) studying to earn her BA in English-Literature, Media, and Culture, and in Media/Communication. After graduating, she plans to pursue graduate studies and become an English professor, with a focus on diverse and LGBTQ+ literature. Outside of classes, she is a journalist and poet. Besides writing, Addison also loves to read. Her favorite authors are Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf, and V.E. Schwab.
Works Cited
Andreadis, Harriette. “The Sappho Tradition.” The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian
Literature, edited by E. L. McCallum and Mikko Tuhkanen, Cambridge University Press, 17 Nov. 2024, pp. 1982-2010.
Baêta, Sabrina, et al. “The Normalization of Book Banning.” Edited by Kasey Meehan and Jonathan Friedman, PEN America, 1 Oct. 2025, pen.org/report/the-normalization-of-book-banning/.
Barnstone, Aliki, and Willis Barnstone, editors. A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now: Selections from the World Over. Schocken, 28 Apr. 1992.
Champion, H.J.E.. “Remembering Sappho: transatlantic ‘Lesbian Nations’ in the long nineteenth century.” Women’s History Review, vol. 31, no. 1, 16 Jul. 2021, pp. 8-27, Taylor & Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2021.1954332
da Costa, Mariana D. “The History of Lesbian Literature: An Exploration on the Evolution of the Genre.” Publishing Research Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, 20 Oct. 2022, pp. 642-652.
ProQuest, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-022-09917-x.
Funke, Jana, and Hannah Roche. “Introduction.” The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall, Oxford University Press, 10 Sep. 2024, pp. xi-xxxiii.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. Oxford University Press, 10 Sep. 2024. Loehr, Kirsty. A Short History of Queer Women. Oneworld Publications, 8 Nov. 2022.
