LGBTQ lit winners of The Lammys announced
If you’re looking for new LGBTQ books to read, you can’t go wrong with Lambda Literary’s list of winners of the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, or the Lammys.
Lambda Literary, the country’s leading organization pushing LGBTQ literature, announced last Monday the winners during their event, which had Roxane Gay and Edmund White among the honorees.
The ceremony marking 30 years of groundbreaking literature was hosted by Kate Clinton and was held at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
The Lammys: What’s it all about?
The Lambda Literary Awards were first established in 1989, honoring works of LGBTQ literature that were published in 1988.
The awards were instituted by the Lambda Literary Foundation to celebrate LGBTQ literature and themes, and specifically to honor LGBTQ books published in the US for the year current to the award.
As of present, there are 22 categories in the awards today. Likewise, aside from the primary literary awards, there are also special awards.
These include: The Pioneer Award (the lifetime achievement award), the Bridge Builder Award (for LGBTQ allies and advocates), and the Trustee Award (for writers who have significantly contributed to the betterment of the community).
For this year’s events, the awards brought out the stars of film, TV, theater, and journalism– aside from literature.
The presenters this year included: writers Alison Bechdel, Kate Bornstein, and Rebecca Solnit; actor Taylor Trensch; and poet Pamela Sneed.
The Lammys: Honoring the community
As mentioned before, Roxane Gay and Edmund White were recipients of the Trustee and Visionary Awards, respectively.
White, known for his works like The Married Man and Forgetting Elena, said while accepting the award: “Contained in the word novel is novelty and lesbian and gay writers have been lucky to write about this new world.”
On the other hand, Gay, who wrote An Untamed State and Difficult Women, said in her acceptance speech: “As a woman, as a black woman, as a queer woman, writing has offered me salvation and sanctuary.”
“I want queer writers to create the work that they want to put into the world, regardless if all of the work does or does not meet the expectations of those who read it,” she added.
Tony Valenzuela said on his ninth and final year as Lambda Literary Executive Director: “What I want to leave with you tonight, is that, despite our continued challenges, you have a community through Lambda Literary that has your back.”
“I feel deeply grateful to have spent the last nine years with the help of so many of you, to make Lambda Literary into a space where more of us will be seen and can thrive,” Valenzuela said.
The Lammys: The award winners of 2018
Here’s the complete list of the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners:
Lesbian Fiction
Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado, Graywolf Press
Gay Fiction
After the Blue Hour, John Rechy, Grove Press
Bisexual Fiction
The Gift, Barbara Browning, Coffee House Press
Bisexual Nonfiction
Hunger, Roxane Gay, HarperCollins
Transgender Fiction
Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, Bogi Takács (ed), Lethe Press
LGBTQ Nonfiction
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Haymarket Books
Transgender Nonfiction
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, C. Riley Snorton, University of Minnesota Press
Lesbian Poetry
Rock | Salt | Stone, Rosamond S. King, Nightboat Books
Gay Poetry
While Standing in Line for Death, CA Conrad, Wave Books
Transgender Poetry
recombinant, Ching-In Chen, Kelsey Street Press
Lesbian Mystery
Huntress, A.E. Radley, Heartsome Publishing
Gay Mystery
Night Drop, Marshall Thornton, Kenmore Books
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
The Fact of a Body, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Flatiron Books
Gay Memoir/Biography
Lives of Great Men: Living and Loving as an African Gay Man, Chike Frankie Edozien, Team Angelica Publishing
Lesbian Romance
Tailor-Made, Yolanda Wallace, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Romance
Love and Other Hot Beverages, Laurie Loft, Riptide Publishing
LGBTQ Erotica
His Seed, Steve Berman, Unzipped Books
LGBTQ Anthology
¡Cuéntamelo! Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants, Juliana Delgado Lopera, Aunt Lute Books
LGBTQ Children’s/Young Adult
Like Water, Rebecca Podos, Balzer + Bray
LGBTQ Drama
The Gulf, Audrey Cefaly, Samuel French
LGBTQ Graphic Novels
My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris, Fantagraphics Books
LGBTQ SF/F/Horror
Autonomous, Annalee Newitz, Tor Books
LGBTQ Studies
Punishing Disease: HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness, Trevor Hoppe, University of California Press
The winners were chosen from a list of finalists taken from nearly 1,000 submissions and over 300 publishers, both mainstream and from independent presses.