2017 Lambda Literary Award Winners Revealed

On Monday, Lambda Literary, the nation’s leading organization advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) literature, announced the winners of the 29th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) at a ceremony hosted by Justin Vivian Bond at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The ceremony brought together attendees, sponsors and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and 29 years of the groundbreaking literary awards. Complete list of winners HERE.

Gay Memoir/Biography: 

"When We Rise," Cleve Jones, Hachette Books

29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Congrats to all of this year's Lammy nominees, recognizing excellence in LGBT writing. Visionary and Trustee Award honorees, the master of ceremonies and celebrity presenters will be announced in April. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony on June 12 in New York City.

Here's my favorite category:

Gay Memoir/Biography

"Books for Living," Will Schwalbe, Knopf
"Boy Erased," Garrard Conley, Riverhead Books
"Capsid: A Love Song," Joseph Osmundson, Indolent Books
"Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann," Frederic Spotts, Yale University Press
"Lust & Wonder," Augusten Burroughs, St. Martin’s Press
"One Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin," Michael Schreiber, Bruno Gmuender Books
"Proxies," Brian Blanchfield, Nightboat Books
"When We Rise," Cleve Jones, Hachette Books

See the full list HERE.

2016 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced

I wasn't able to make it to this year's ceremony, but wanted to send my regards to all of the winners and nominees. Complete list HERE.

28th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Congrats to all the nominees, especially fellow Magnus/Riverdale Avenue Books authors Debra Hyde and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan -- and fellow Selectric Artists client James Sie!

Highlights:

Lesbian Fiction

• Apocalypse Baby, Virginie Despentes, The Feminist Press
• Blue Talk and Love, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Riverdale Avenue Books
• The Cherokee Rose, Tiya Miles, John F. Blair
• The First Bad Man, Miranda July, Scribner
• Jam on the Vine: A Novel, LaShonda Katrice Barnett, Grove Press
• Like a Woman, Debra Busman, Dzanc Books
• Thérèse and Isabelle, Violette Leduc, The Feminist Press
• Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Gay Fiction

• Breathing Lessons, Andy Sinclair, Véhicule Press
• The Early Stories of Truman Capote, Truman Capote, Random House
• God in Pink, Hasan Namir, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Immaculate Blue, Paul Russell, Cleis Press
• JD: A Novel, Mark Merlis, Terrace Books
• A Poet of the Invisible World, Michael Golding, Macmillan/Picador
• The Rise and Fall of the Yellow House, John Whittier Treat, Big Table Publishing Company
• Still Life, Las Vegas, James Sie, St. Martin’s Press

LGBT Nonfiction

• Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics, Kay Whitlock and Michael Bronski, Beacon Press
• Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History, Corbett Joan O’Toole, Autonomous Press
• Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, Alice Dreger, Penguin Press
• The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, Lillian Faderman, Simon & Schuster
• Modern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to Kinship, Joshua Gamson, NYU Press
• Namibia’s Rainbow Project, Robert Lorway, Indiana University Press
• “No One Helped”: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy, Marcia M. Gallo, Cornell University Press
• What Color Is Your Hoodie? Essays on Black Gay Identity, Jarrett Neal, Chelsea Station Editions

Gay Memoir/Biography

• Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C. K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy, and Translator, Jean Findlay, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Exiled for Love: The Journey of an Iranian Queer Activist, Arsham Parsi and Marc Colbourne, Roseway Publishing
• The House in St. John’s Wood, Matthew Spender, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• James Merrill: Life and Art, Langdon Hammer, Alfred A. Knopf
• My Avant-Garde Education: A Memoir, Bernard Cooper, W.W. Norton & Company
• My Body Is Yours, Michael V. Smith, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Smash Cut, Brad Gooch, Harper
• Until My Heart Stops, Jameson Currier, Chelsea Station Editions

Lesbian Mystery

• The Grave Soul, Ellen Hart, Minotaur Books
• Illicit Artifacts, Stevie Mikayne, Bold Strokes Books
• Ordinary Mayhem, Victoria Brownworth, Bold Strokes Books
• No Good Reason, Cari Hunter, Bold Strokes Books
• The Red Files, Lee Winter, Ylva Publishing
• Relatively Rainey, R.E. Bradshaw, R.E. Bradshaw Books
• Tarnished Gold, Ann Aptaker, Bold Strokes Books
• The Tattered Heiress: Volume Two of the Charlotte Olmes Mystery Series, Debra Hyde, Riverdale Avenue Books

Full list of nominees HERE.

Lambda Literary Foundation Announces 2015 Winners

With John Waters, Liz Smith, Gloria Steinem and Rita Mae Brown on hand, among others, sounds like I picked the wrong year to miss the Lambda Literary Awards. Read a full report HERE.

And the Lammy winners are:

DR. BETTY BERZON EMERGING WRITER AWARD 

Anne Balay and Daisy Hernández

PIONEER AWARD

Rita Mae Brown

TRUSTEE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN LITERATURE

John Waters

LESBIAN FICTION

Yabo by Alexis De Veaux, RedBone Press

GAY FICTION

I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer, Hawthorne Books

BISEXUAL FICTION

Give It to Me by Ana Castillo, The Feminist Press

TRANSGENDER FICTION

A Safe Girl To Love by Casey Plett, Topside Press

LGBT DEBUT FICTION

The Walk-In Closet by Abdi Nazemian, Curtis Brown Unlimited

LGBT NONFICTION

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman, The New Press

BISEXUAL NONFICTION

Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

TRANSGENDER NONFICTION

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee, City Lights/Sister Spit

LESBIAN POETRY

Mysterious Acts by My People by Valerie Wetlaufer, Sibling Rivalry Press

GAY POETRY

[insert] boy by Danez Smith, YesYes Books

LESBIAN MYSTERY

The Old Deep and Dark by Ellen Hart, Minotaur Books

GAY MYSTERY

Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery by Katie Gilmartin, Cleis Press

LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smithby Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, with Barbara Smith, SUNY Press

GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY - 2 Winners

Gay memoir: The Prince of Los Cocuyos by Richard Blanco, HarperCollins/Ecco

Gay biography: Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr, W. W. Norton & Company

LESBIAN ROMANCE

The Farmer's Daughter by Robbi McCoy, Bella Books

GAY ROMANCE

Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War by Jeff Mann, Bear Bones Books

LESBIAN EROTICA

Lesbian Sex Bible by Diana Cage, Quiver Books

GAY EROTICA

The King by Tiffany Reisz, MIRA Books

LGBT ANTHOLOGY

Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History by Leila J. Rupp & Susan K. Freeman, University of Wisconsin Press

LGBT CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

LGBT DRAMA

Bootycandy by Robert O'Hara, Samuel French

LGBT GRAPHIC NOVELS

Second Avenue Caper by Joyce Brabner; Art by Mark Zingarelli, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

LGBT SF/F/HORROR

Bitter Waters by Chaz Brenchley, Lethe Press

LGBT STUDIES

The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within U.S. Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard, Edited by Justin A. Joyce and Dwight McBride, New York University Press

The 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Congrats to all the nominees. Winners will be announced June 1 at a ceremony in New York City. The full list and ticket info HERE.

2014 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced

In a ceremony held last night in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, the 26th annual Lambda Literary Awards were given out. Among the winners were Alison Bechdel, who received the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature; “Mundo Cruel: Stories,” by Luis Negron won for Gay General Fiction; “Happiness, Like Water,” by Chinelo Okparanta won for Lesbian General Fiction; and cultural critic Hilton Als received the LGBT Nonfiction award for “White Girls." Congrats to all the winners and nominees -- Tim and Donna! For a complete list of Lammy winners, click HERE.

No Selfie-Control

Just saw my memoir in a bookstore for the first time, over at Three Lives & Co. in the West Village. (That's me trying to be discreet, above, but inside I was DYING!!!!!) I don't care what anyone says, there's still no greater thrill for an author than to see his work on the shelf -- and with book sellers dropping like flies, it's a thrill I wasn't entirely sure I would ever get to experience. My book was published by the Magnus imprint of Riverdale Avenue Books, an indie house here in New York, which means it's not (virtually) guaranteed to be carried in every shop in the country like the latest from HarperCollins et al. So if you want to support your favorite local bookstore but do not see what you're looking for -- be it "Wasn't Tomorrow a Wonderful?" or some other work -- by all means ask them to stock it for you. It may end up costing a bit more than ordering off Amazon, but preserving these shops (in my opinion) is well worth our time and money. (And with a little luck, I might even be able to do a signing near you if you let me know which places are carrying my title and are interested in hosting.) Thanks, everyone, and keep those selfies coming -- I love 'em!!!!! 

And on a related note ...

Congratulations to fellow Magnus author Tim Teeman, whose juicy IN BED WITH GORE VIDAL was just nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the best gay memoir/biography category! And congrats to all the other nominees, which you can see HERE.

25th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Named

UPDATE: Read my recap on WSJ.com HERE.

Not Dry: Extra sweaty with Augusten Burroughs 

Had a nice time attending the 25th annual Lambda Literary Awards last night at the famed Great Hall at Cooper Union. Abraham Lincoln once spoke there, but I doubt he was nearly as funny as our evening's host, Kate Clinton, whose jokes were only topped by her priceless reactions. An eclectic group of presenters -- Edmund White, David France, Peter Staley, Jonathan Capehart, Randy Jones, Justin Vivian Bond, Frank Bruni, to name a few -- were on hand to give out the "Lammys," including special prizes for Augusten Burroughs, John Irving and Cherrie Moraga, who were recognized for their outstanding careers. And the legendary Janis Ian performed her landmark single "At Seventeen," which rings as true today as it did nearly 40 years ago. Congrats to all the winners and nominees. Full list HERE.

Augusten Burroughs (Excellence in Literature Award)

John Irving  (Bridge Builder Award)

Cherrie Moraga (Pioneer Award) 

Janis Ian's second song was about the confusion of being married in some places and "single" in others!

(Photos by David J. Martin)

And the Nominees Are ...

 The finalists for the 25th annual Lambda Literary Awards can be viewed HERE.