Feminist author Barbara Smith speaks on receipt of her Publishing Professional Award at the Lammys ‘for a lifetime of work that has profoundly shaped our collective understanding of the interconnections between race, class, and gender.’ Image: Lambda Literary
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Special Awards to Chee, Gessen, Smith
In a ceremony Monday evening (June 3) at New York City’s Skirball Center, the Lambda Literary Awards are, as the organizers’ descriptive content says, “judged principally on literary merit and content relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer lives.”
This year’s event—in a program now with a track record of more than three decades—drew from record numbers of submissions into 24 categories from more than 300 publishers. Panels of some 60 specialists in literature and the industry made the selections.
In addition to book awards, special honors were presented in three cases:
- To Alexander Chee, who received Lambda’s Trustee Award for “immeasurable contributions to culture as a novelist, essayist, activist, and teacher”
- To Masha Gessen, who was given the Visionary Award for “work advancing public awareness around the globe of the threat of totalitarianism”
- To Barbara Smith, presented with the Publishing Professional Award “for a lifetime of work that has profoundly shaped our collective understanding of the interconnections between race, class, and gender”
Sponsors of this year’s 31st annual round of the Lammys included the Big Five publishing houses as well as prominent national and international bookselling and non-book retail brands including,
- At the platinum level, The Gap
- At the gold level, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Scholastic, Keltel One Vodka, and Stone Soup Community Press
- At the silver level, Barnes & Noble, HBO, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and MetroPlus Health
- At the bronze level, Bold Stroke Books and Bywater Books
- “Champion Underwriters” are Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency and KG MacGregor
A complete listing of finalists for the awards is here.
At the 2019 Lammys. Image: Lambda Literary
2019 Lambda Literary Award Winners
Lesbian Fiction
The Tiger Flu, Larissa Lai, Arsenal Pulp Press
Gay Fiction
Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead, Arsenal Pulp Press
Bisexual Fiction
Disoriental, Négar Djavadi, Translated by Tina Kover, Europa Editions
Bisexual Nonfiction
Out of Step: A Memoir, Anthony Moll, Mad Creek Books / The Ohio State University Press
Transgender Fiction
Little Fish, Casey Plett, Arsenal Pulp Press
LGBTQ Nonfiction
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, Imani Perry, Beacon Press
Transgender Nonfiction
Histories of the Transgender Child, Julian Gill-Peterson, University of Minnesota Press
Lesbian Poetry
Each Tree Could Hold a Noose or a House, Ru Puro, New Issues Poetry & Prose
Gay Poetry
Indecency, Justin Phillip Reed, Coffee House Press
Bisexual Poetry
We Play a Game, Duy Doan, Yale University Press
Transgender Poetry
lo terciario / the tertiary, Raquel Salas Rivera, Timeless, Infinite Light
Lesbian Mystery
A Study in Honor: A Novel, Claire O’Dell, HarperCollins / HarperVoyager
Gay Mystery
Late Fees: A Pinx Video Mystery, Marshall Thornton, Kenmore Books
Lesbian Memoir and/or Biography
Chronology, Zahra Patterson, Ugly Duckling Presse
Gay Memoir and/or Biography
No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America, Darnell L.
Moore, Bold Type Books
Lesbian Romance
Beowulf For Cretins: A Love Story, Ann McMan, Bywater Books
Gay Romance
Crashing Upwards, SC Wynne, self-published
LGBTQ Erotica
Miles & Honesty in SCFSX!, Blue Delliquanti & Kazimir Lee, self-published
LGBTQ Anthology—Fiction
As You Like It: The Gerald Kraak Anthology Volume II, The Other Foundation, Jacana Media
LGBTQ Anthology—Nonfiction
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, Roxane Gay, HarperCollins / Harper Perennial
LGBTQ Children’s/Young Adult
Hurricane Child, Kacen Callender, Scholastic / Scholastic Press
LGBTQ Drama
Draw the Circle, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Dramatists Play Service
LGBTQ Graphic Novels
The Lie and How We Told It, Tommi Parrish, Fantagraphics Books
LGBTQ Science Fiction and Horror
The Breath of the Sun, Isaac R. Fellman, Aqueduct
LGBTQ Studies
Toxic Silence: Race, Black Gender Identity, and Addressing the Violence Against Black Transgender Women in Houston, William T. Hoston, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers
For more on the awards and the program, you can follow hashtag #Lammys . Information about the September 21 to 28 Lambda LitFest program in Los Angeles is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing and book awards is here.