Current Alice B Medal Winners - The Alice B Awards

Alice B Awards

Biographical Information
2026 Alice B Medal Winners

New 2026 Winners!

Nancy Manahan (2026 Medal Winner) is the award-winning author and editor of several creative nonfiction works. She grew up in Minnesota. After two years at a Catholic women's college, she spent a year in a convent, an experience which led to co-editing with the late Rosemary Keefe Curb the groundbreaking 1985 anthology Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, published in seven languages and in eleven countries. A new edition of Lesbian Nuns was published by Bella Books in 2013, with a Tantor audiobook in 2026. Nancy holds a Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. in English, and spent most of her professional life teaching college English, women's studies, and film studies. When she wasn't teaching, she had a private practice in therapeutic massage and co-owned a carpet/upholstery cleaning company. A devoted Girl Scout, her collection, On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience, came out in 1997 (revised edition 2021). With her wife, novelist Becky Bohan, Nancy wrote the prize-winning 2007 book Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully: A Journey with Cancer and Beyond. She also co-edited At Sea on the Range: From Berkeley Radical to Arizona Homesteader, 1934-1948 about the journalist, Josephine Alexander. Nancy and Becky live in Florida where they continue to edit and write and love reading, dancing, and escaping Minnesota winters! Find out more about Nancy's work, including two documentary short films, at her website.

Rita Potter (2026 Medal Winner) is an award-winning and bestselling author of sixteen novels at the time of this award. Rita finds her inspiration from the quote, "The writer's job is to get their main character up a tree, and then throw rocks at them." She draws heavily on her background in social work to ensure her character's struggles are authentic, while still infusing her stories with hope. Rita's storytelling is eclectic and spans a wide range of topics and genres. Her latest books include What Really Matters, No Such Thing as Serendipity, and Seat 11C. She lives in Illinois, in the middle of a cornfield, with her wife and their very spoiled cat. To learn more about Rita's work, please visit her website.

Bev Prescott (2026 Medal Winner) is a retired environmental attorney with a background in science and study of the environment. She writes to explore and develop a better understanding of complex issues facing society, to show the world that lesbians navigate being human in our beautiful and messy world the same as anyone else, and that love always prevails. Topics she has written about include discrimination in the military, mental health, gun violence and climate change. Her published books include My Soldier Too, Step Into the Wind, Blowback, and 2°. To learn more about Bev's work, please visit her publisher's website.

Kim Pritekel (2026 Medal Winner) is the award-winning author of a large catalogue of books, standalones and series including the best-selling Wynter series and The Destiny series. She has tackled pretty much every genre while keeping a lesbian character and plot focus, from modern-day psychological thrillers such as The Gift to historical romance and palace intrigue in She Who Would be King and everything in between. She lives in Colorado and has dedicated her life to creating, be it on the page, the screen, or in songwriting. To find out more about Kim and her work, please visit her website.

Please Join The Committee in Congratulating These Fine Writers!