Lawrence Schimel is an award-winning author and anthologist writing in both Spanish and English who has published over 90 books in a wide array of genres, including poetry, science fiction, Jewish topics, LGBTQ topics, non-fiction, erotica, children’s books, graphic novels, short stories and more.

Among his most notable titles are PoMoSEXUALS: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY (with Carol Queen; Cleis), winner of a Lambda Literary Award; SWITCH HITTERS: LESBIANS WRITE GAY MALE EROTICA AND GAY MEN WRITE LESBIAN EROTICA (with Carol Queen; Cleis), winner of the Siegessäule Best Book of the Year Award; FIRST PERSON QUEER (with Richard Labonté; Arsenal Pulp), winner of a Lambda Literary Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award; FOUND TRIBE: JEWISH COMING OUT STORIES (Sherman Asher), a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and the ForeWord Book of the Year Award; THE FUTURE IS QUEER (with Richard Labonté; Arsenal Pulp), winner of the Spectrum Award; BEST DATE EVER: TRUE STORIES THAT CELEBRATE GAY RELATIONSHIPS (Alyson); and TWO HEARTS DESIRE: GAY COUPLES ON THEIR LOVE (with Michael Lassell; St. Martin's Press).

Writing in Spanish, he is the author of numerous children's titles, many of which deal with themes of diversity and have selected for honors, such as ¿LEES UN LIBRO CONMIGO? (Panamericana) which was chosen by the International Board of Books for Youth for Outstand Books For Young People with disabilities 2007 or NO HAY NADA COMO EL ORIGINAL which was chosen for the White Ravens 2005 by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.

His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous publications–the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Saturday Evening Post, the Boston Phoenix, the Tampa Tribune, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Physics Today, etc.–as well as in more than 200 anthologies, including: The Random House Book of Science Fiction Stories, Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul 2, The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: the Book of Dreams, and The Random House Treasury of Light Verse.

His work has been published in Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Ukranian translations. He writes in both English and Spanish.

He served two terms as co-chair of the Publishing Triangle, the U.S. Association of lesbians and gay men in publishing, responsible for National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, BookAIDS, an annual awards series, and numerous other programs and events. For five years, he served as the Spain Regional Advisor of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and illustrators.

He has spoken or given workshops at many conferences, such as the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, the Melbourne Age Writer’s Festival, and the Mediterranean Poetry Festival, and at numerous universities, including Princeton University, Yale University, Brown University, Wayne State University, Rutgers University, the University of Cádiz, and the University of La Coruña, and among others.

Lawrence offers talks in both Spanish and English and is able to adapt his presentations to the needs of the department(s) interested in inviting him. Some of the most popular subjects he's asked to speak on include: diversity (sexuality, race, disability, etc.) in children's books, diversity (sexuality, race, disability, etc.) in science fiction, the overlaps of gay and Jewish identity, writing in a secondary language, translation issues, gendered language, writing workshops, workshops about the publishing industry, Q&A sessions, etc.