| Hello My Dearests, I am thrilled and honored to be the new Executive Director at Lambda Literary! Since 1987, Lambda Literary has nurtured and advocated for LGBTQIA+ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives. | Emerging Writer's Retreat | | Lambda Literary Awards "The Lammys!" | | Lambda Literary Review | | Learn with Lambda | | LGBTQ Writers in the Schools | Through our programs we harness the past and build the future of LGBTQIA+ writing, communities, stories, songs, imaginations, carefully researched facts, actual lives. Help us go further. I have a big vision for Lambda Literary. I look forward to sharing that in even greater detail in the coming weeks and months. I look even more forward to working together to make it happen! In the next year, I hope to meet with our communities, across the country, face to face. The input, support, and investment of our communities in ourselves, our work, and the dedication to service that Lambda Literary represents is critical. Lambda Literary is at the cusp of flower. I am here to ask your help so that we can really blossom! On behalf of the most kick-a** staff in the game, of a Board of Directors who has met my JOY with joy at every step I am taking this opportunity to reach out to my own particular love networks. My assumption of leadership at Lambda Literary coincides with my fifty-something'th birthday—what a gift! To return the gift of trust that has been placed with my by our communities, I have a passionate and personal goal of raising at least $50-something-thousand for Lambda Literary. To kick-off my inaugural fundraising campaign, I am hosting a 50-Somethingth Birthday Party. I am grateful to Pangea NYC for their support of this event, including the donation of complimentary hors d'oeurves throughout the first hour of the evening and to poet and performer Ronaldo V. Wilson -- don't miss him! -- for donating time and talent. Join us! Reservations are Required because space is limited. For my very first fundraiser, I lovingly ask everyone to consider digging deep to support the work of Lambda Literary, and the LGBTQ+ literary arts communities we all love. No registered attendants will be turned away based upon their ability to give, so I hope you'll consider adding an additional gift of $50 to cover the attendance of a party-goer with more limited means. I have begun conversations around this campaign and am deeply moved by the support I've received so far from friends and family. I couldn't be more proud of our team at Lambda Literary. I am honored to lead and support a staff of queer writers who whose work is to lead and support queer writers in their work. How lucky we are to have us working for each other, together, in this passionate effort to make even a bit of our world a bit of a better place. We all benefit from every single piece of it, from every line of poetry, from every scene in a play, from every moving song lyric, from every story that didn't quite earn mainstream recognition, and yet continues to change so many people's lives. We're lucky. And I truly believe we're about to just get luckier. But I need your help. I also hope to ensure that your generosity leaves you feeling just as fortunate. What gifts we are to each other. Thank you, Samiya | 
