WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 19, 2026) – Today, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists announced that Jim Provenzano, Arts & Nightlife Editor for the Bay Area Reporter, is the 2026 recipient of the Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage. The award will be presented at NLGJA’s annual national convention in San Francisco, September 10 to 13.
“Jim Provenzano’s writing brings insight and heart to stories that too often go untold, from his groundbreaking coverage of LGBTQ+ athletics to the creative work that has defined his career,” said NLGJA Executive Director Adam Pawlus. “His decades of reporting reflect exactly what the Lisa Ben Award was created to celebrate. We are honored to recognize his exceptional body of work.”
The Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage honors a journalist whose body of work is distinguished by insight and impact through engaging features on LGBTQ+ individuals, the LGBTQ+ community or LGBTQ+ issues. The award is named for the pseudonym Edythe Eyde used for her pioneering publication Vice Versa, which she hand-delivered because laws banned mailing material about lesbians. In the 1950s, she wrote under the pen name Lisa Ben for The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine.
Jim Provenzano is the Arts & Nightlife Editor for the Bay Area Reporter, where he has worked since 1992 as a staff writer, editor, photographer and cartoonist, and wrote the award-winning syndicated column Sports Complex from 1996 to 2006. He co-created the B.A.R.’s nightlife pocket magazine, BARtab, from 2010 to 2014. He began his journalism career at OutWeek magazine in New York City, first as an administrative assistant and writer, then as editor of its spinoff magazine, Hunt, and freelanced for The Advocate, Frontiers and other publications. He is the author of seven novels, four of which are also audiobooks, including the Lambda Literary Award winning “Every Time I Think of You” and its sequel, “Message of Love,” a Lammy finalist; his first novel, “PINS,” was adapted into a commissioned stage production. He has also published novellas and a short story collection. He holds a BFA in Dance from Ohio State University and an MA in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. A journalist in LGBTQ media for more than three decades, he was the guest curator of the GLBT Historical Society’s “Sporting Life,” the world’s first LGBTQ athletics exhibit, from 2005 to 2006. He was born in New York City, raised in Ohio, and lives in San Francisco.
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