''Name All the Animals'' is a 2004 memoir by Alison Smith, detailing the aftermath of the death of her eighteen-year-old brother. While attending Our Lady of Mercy High School, a Catholic high school, Smith developed an

eating disorder An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating d ...

, lost her faith in God and realized that she was a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

, all after her brother's death. The book has received significant acclaim. It was named one of '' People Magazine''’s ten best books of 2004 and won the

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

Discover Award for Non-Fiction, the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Autobiography/Memoir and the 2005

Judy Grahn Award The Judy Grahn Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of non-fiction of relevance to the lesbian community. First presented in 1997, the award was named in memory of American poet and cultural theorist J ...

Editions

*Hardcover: *Paperback:

External links

Official SiteChicago Public Radio show featuring a spoken excerpt
2004 non-fiction books LGBT literature in the United States American memoirs Lambda Literary Award-winning works LGBT autobiographies 2000s LGBT literature Lesbian non-fiction books {{LGBT-book-stub