Alyson Books

• Parent — Regent Media • Founded — 1980 • Founder — Sasha Alyson • Country — United States • Headquarters — New York City • Publications — Books • Url — http: www.alyson.com/

Founded in Boston in 1980 by Sasha Alyson, Alyson Publications was one of the oldest and largest presses with a focus on gay and lesbian, and eventually LGBTQ, literature. The press engaged in a wide variety of genres. Michael Nava compared Alyson Publications's scope to that of its contemporary, Naiad Press. However, Naiad focused predominantly on lesbian literature, while Nava cited Alyson Publications as the main publisher of gay men's literature at the time. In 1986 Alyson published one of the first anthologies of Black gay men's writing: In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joseph Beam. Alyson was also the first publisher of prominent Black gay writers like Larry Duplechan, Steven Corbin, and James Earl Hardy. Nava's The Little Death, published by Alyson, became the press's first book to receive a review in The New York Times. In 1988, it created the 96-page anthology You Can Do Something About AIDS, soliciting essays from Whoppi Goldberg, Elizabeth Taylor, C. Everett Koop, and others. Alyson Publications shared over a million copies of the book for free in U.S. bookstores.

In 1990, Alyson Publications began to sell LGBT-themed children's books, entitled Alyson Wonderland. They published some of the first queer children's books, beginning with Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite and Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman. Both books received intense media attention and controversy. They were listed on the American Library Association's list of the top ten most-banned books in the U.S. for years. In 1992, Alyson broadcast his plan to sell the company so that he could spend more time on AIDS activism. In 1994, he passed off management to Alistair Williamson. That same year, Alyson Publications and Sasha Alyson received the New England Booksellers Association's Publisher of the Year award. The press was acquired by Liberation Publications in 1995. Liberation Publications already published the LGBTQ magazines The Advocate and Out, and they added a new imprint to Alyson Publications: Advocate Books.

During the late 1990s and 2000s, Alyson Publications released a number of books focusing on LGBTQ experiences in U.S. higher education institutions. In 2000, Alyson Publications released Out & About Campus: Personal Accounts By Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered College Students, edited by Kim Howard and Annie Stevens. This was notable for being one of the first anthologies to share LGBTQ college student experiences, rather than those of faculty and staff. In 2001, they published Secret Sisters: Stories of Being Lesbian in a College Sorority, extending the themes of their earlier Out on Fraternity Row. Both books were edited by Shane L. Windmeyer and Pamela W. Freeman. In 2006, Alyson Publications collaborated with The Advocate to create a guide to colleges centering on their support and resourcing for LGBTQ students and studies. The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students recruited 5,000 students and 500 faculty and staff to conduct interviews on over 100 U.S. higher education institutions. The first such guide, The Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students’ Guide to Colleges, Universities, and Graduate Schools, was published in 1994 by New York University Press. Alyson Publications's guide differed in the means of obtaining data for its ratings, by heavily recruiting interview subjects online. Alyson Publications was again sold to Regent Entertainment Media, Inc. in 2008, and in November, as Alyson Books, named Don Weise its publisher. He has written of his commitment to Alyson's traditional areas of specialisation, but has stated that he is keen also to embrace "more serious nonfiction—particularly in the areas of current affairs, politics, self-help, and autobiography—as well as literary fiction and works by today's most respected LGBT authors." In 2010, Publishers Weekly announced that Alyson Books would switch to digital (e-book) publishing only, with plans to convert backlist titles in this fashion. Don Weise left Alyson at that time. As of 2019, the URL for the Alyson Books website produces a "DNS resolution error" message.