The news you’ve been waiting for: after four months of reading, deliberating, and consulting, 87 dedicated (and eye-weary) judges, assessing 462 LGBT-interest titles nominated by almost 200 publishers and authors, have selected 112 finalists in 23 categories.
“This has been a record year for queer books,” said the 2009 Lambda Awards Administrator, Richard Labonté, who has been associated with the Lammys since their inception in 1989 as a judge and consultant. “The number of titles nominated and the number of publishers represented is in both cases about 10 per cent higher than last year.”
And, for the first time, the single catchall Bisexual category – after reaching a threshold of 10 nominated titles in both fiction and nonfiction – has matured into two distinct categories, Bisexual Fiction and Bisexual Nonfiction.
“In a year of challenge and change for writers and publishers – and for the Foundation – the hundreds of books submitted for nomination illustrate the continuing dynamism of our literature,” said Lambda Foundation Board President Katherine V. Forrest. “This year’s Lambda Literary Award Finalists and the quality of their work speak eloquently to the richness and range of our literature.”
Reflecting the impact of self-publishing and publish-on-demand technology, more titles from non-traditional sources than ever were nominated, and several were selected as finalists, said Labonté. In addition, the Lammy contenders for 2009 continue the tradition of celebrating the best of both our community’s specifically queer presses, and books from academic and more mainstream publishers.
Winners will be announced at the 22nd Annual Awards, May 27 in New York at the School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street. For tickets and information click here.
“To our finalists, I’m proud of your extraordinary talent and hard work,” said Lambda Executive Director Tony Valenzuela. “I hope to see you all at the Awards. And to all the readers out there wondering what LGBT books to buy next, take a look at this stellar list of nominees – or check out the new reviews that are being posted on the revised and expanded lambdaliterary.org web site – and go shopping. Support our authors and publishers: they are to be congratulated.”
Lambda Literary Awards Finalists
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Why are there categories for science fiction, erotica, romance, poetry, etc, but not HUMOR? Abe Lincoln once said:
With the fearful strain that is on me night and day,
if I did not laugh I should die.
The LGBTQ community has learned to balance tears with laughter. I’m disappointed the Lamba Awards ignore this important category.
Is anyone else tired of the roving categories at the Lambdas? Every year, it seems, they get shuffled, dropped or rearranged. It’s beginning to look like the selection folks take a look at the years books and then create the categories. There can be quality in consistency.
Personally, I’d like to see two changes in the awards.
1. Recognize all the wonderful women authors who are and have been writing m/m fiction.
2. Allow e-book submissions. Digital books aren’t going to disappear, and most of my fan mail comes from people with digital readers.
I would like to see a category for graphic novels as well.
There should be an Omnisexual category.
I would like to see a screeplay category added to the awards, definately to include women screenwriters. Any chance of that happening?