OMG!!!! Geoff Mains Writing Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEWINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR MAINS AND SLATER WRITING AWARDS(Columbus, OH) -- NLA: International, a leading organization for activists in the pansexual leather community, announced the winners of its recently created annual awards for excellence in SM/leather/fetish writing at its Annual General Meeting at Beyond Vanilla XVIII in Dallas, TX on 28 September 2008.The winner of the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award is Jack Rinella for ³Empathy,² which appeared in Leather Views (http://www.leatherviews.com/ ). Mr. Rinella received the most nominations for different articles, but "Empathy," which stresses the importance of empathy within an SM scene, a relationship, and larger society most impressed the judges.VonLivid's ³Lines of Colour in the Kinky Confines of Fetish,² which appeared in The Fetishistas ( http://www.thefetishistas.com/ ) received the honorable mention in this category. The article is a thoughtful discussion of race in the leather community in both a British and American context.The winner of the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award is Lee ³Bridgett² Harrington for Shibari You Can Use: Japanese Rope Bondage and Erotic Macramé (Mystic Productions Publishers). A thorough and detailed presentation of rope bondage techniques, the judges lauded its content and organization.The honorable mention went to Peter Masters for The Control Book (Jack Rinella Publishing), which describes how one establishes and maintains control in a full-time SM relationship.Nominations for the 2008 awards, which will include the new categories of short fiction and novel, will open soon.