27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced!

Author: Edit Team

June 2, 2015

27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced

Rita Mae Brown and John Waters Honored

Special Entr’acte Performances Given by Lauren Patten of the Smash Hit Broadway Musical, Fun Home and Musician Toshi Reagon

New York City-The winners of the 27th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) were announced on the night of June 1st in a gala ceremony hosted by comedienne Kate Clinton at The Great Hall at Cooper Union. It occurred on the heels of BookExpo America, the book publishing industry’s largest annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors, and readers. The Lambda ceremony brought together over 550 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and 27 years of the groundbreaking literary awards. Lauren Patten of the hit Broadway show Fun Home and performer Toshi Reagon graced the stage with special performances. The celebration continued in SOHO at the VIP After-Party hosted by Scholastic at the Scholastic Greenhouse & Terrace with celebrity DJ Sean McMahill spinning tunes.

The ceremony opened with an animated video by Melanie La Rosa and Johanna Campos. It cleverly symbolized the fundamental elements of the Lambda Literary Awards, as it depicted superheroes saving a town called “Gaytham” with literature. As master of ceremonies, Clinton once again stood up to the mic to bon mot her way through her fourth consecutive year as the self-described Julie McCoy, aka cruise director of the evening’s Loveboat of literary Lammy Awards. Those too young to catch the reference were encouraged “to Google it.”

Feminist legend Gloria Steinem introduced Rita Mae Brown, author of the classic, Rubyfruit Jungle, who received the Pioneer Award. Describing laughter as “an orgasm of the mind,” she praised Brown for always understanding joy and laughter. Brown described Steinem as “our North Star. If you can find her, you’ll never be lost.”

It wasn’t a love fest, but a joke fest when gossip columnist Liz Smith introduced filmmaker and author John Waters, who received Lambda’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature. Smith said, “Nowadays Andy Warhol,” speaking of the icon with whom Waters is often compared, “is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but John Waters is the real thing. John is truly sweet. Andy only appeared that way.” Waters’s entire speech was punctuated with a steady stream of one-liners. He dubbed the Lammy Awards as the Imperial margarine of queer royalty. And he dedicated the award to the original owners of the Provincetown Bookstore where he worked for a summer in his youth and where he received his true education.

In a sign of the transgender coming of age times in which we’re living, Casey Plett winner in the Transgender Fiction category for A Safe Girl to Love ended her rousing acceptance speech with, “The transgender community is taking over!” The Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Awards were presented to writers Anne Balay and Daisy Hernandez.

The special interlude performances each merited standing ovations. Musician Toshi Reagon accompanied herself on guitar as she sang “Freedom,” and “Kindness,” which she dedicated to the late author Octavia Butler. Lauren Patten, who plays the college-age version of Alison Bechdel on Broadway in the hit musical Fun Home (based on Bechdel’s graphic memoir and nominated for 12 Tony Awards) sang “Changing My Major” about the revelation of first love with another woman.

“Throughout tonight’s ceremony we were reminded of the impact that LGBT literature has on people’s lives,” said Tony Valenzuela, Lambda Literary Foundation Executive Director. “Congratulations to all the winners and honorees.”

As always, the stage sparkled with a glittering roster of presenters from the worlds of film, television, theatre, politics, religion and, of course, literature. Just some of the presenters who graced the stage were

BISEXUAL FICTION

• Best Bi Short Stories: Bisexual Fiction, Sheela Lambert, editor, Gressive Press, an imprint of Circlet Press
• Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin, Ron J. Suresha, Lethe Press
• Finder of Lost Objects, Susie Hara, Ithuriel’s Spear
• Give It to Me, Ana Castillo, The Feminist Press [Winner]
• She of the Mountains, Vivek Shraya, Arsenal Pulp Press

BISEXUAL NONFICTION

• Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Charles M. Blow, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [Winner]
• Not My Father’s Son, Alan Cumming, HarperCollins Publishers/Dey Street Books
• Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men, Robyn Ochs & H. Sharif Williams, editors, Bisexual Resource Center

GAY EROTICA

• The Bears of Winter, Jerry Wheeler, Bear Bones Books
• Incubus Tales, Hushicho, Circlet Press
• The King, Tiffany Reisz, MIRA Books [Winner]
• Leather Spirit Stallion, Raven Kaldera, Circlet Press
• The Thief Taker, William Holden, Bold Strokes Books

GAY GENERAL FICTION

• All I Love and Know, Judith Frank, HarperCollins/William Morrow
• Barracuda, Christos Tsiolkas, Hogarth
• Bitter Eden: A Novel, Tatamkhulu Afrika, Macmillan/Picador USA
• The City of Palaces, Michael Nava, University of Wisconsin Press
• I Loved You More, Tom Spanbauer, Hawthorne Books [Winner]
• Little Reef and Other Stories, Michael Carroll, Terrace Books, an imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press
• Next to Nothing: Stories, Keith Banner, Lethe Press
• Souljah, John R Gordon, Angelica Entertainments Ltd/Team Angelica Publishing

GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY  [Two Winners] :

• Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival, Sean Strub, Scribner
• Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance, Brent Phillips, University Press of Kentucky
• Closets, Combat and Coming Out:  Coming Of Age As A Gay Man In The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Army, Rob Smith, Blue Beacon Books by Regal Crest
• Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris, Edmund White, Bloomsbury
• Letter to Jimmy, Alain Mabanckou, translated by Sara Meli Ansari, Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press
• The Prince of Los Cocuyos, Richard Blanco, HarperCollins/Ecco [Winner]
• Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, John Lahr, W. W. Norton & Company [Winner]
• Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, Philip Gefter, W. W. Norton & Company/Liveright

GAY MYSTERY

• Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery, Katie Gilmartin, Cleis Press [Winner]
• Boystown 6: From the Ashes, Marshall Thornton, MLR
• Calvin’s Head, David Swatling, Bold Strokes Books
• DeadFall, David Lennon, BlueSpike Publishing
• Fair Game, Josh Lanyon, Carina Press
• A Gathering Storm, Jameson Currier, Chelsea Station Editions
• Moon Over Tangier, Janice Law, Open Road Media
• The Next, Rafe Haze, Wilde City Press

GAY POETRY      

• [insert] boy, Danez Smith, YesYes Books [Winner]
• Clean, David J. Daniels, Four Way Books
• Don’t Go Back To Sleep, Timothy Liu, Saturnalia Books
• ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness, CAConrad, Wave Books
• The New Testament, Jericho Brown, Copper Canyon Press
• Prelude to Bruise, Saeed Jones, Coffee House Press
• This Life Now, Michael Broder, A Midsummer Night’s Press
• This Way to the Sugar, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Write Bloody Publishing

GAY ROMANCE

• The Companion, Lloyd A. Meeker, Dreamspinner Press
• Everything’s Coming Up Roses: Four Tales of M/M Romance, Barry Lowe, Lydian Press
• Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction, Timothy Lambert and R.D. Cochrane, Cleis Press
• Like They Always Been Free, Georgina Li, Queer Young Cowboys
• Message of Love, Jim Provenzano, Myrmidude Press/CreateSpace
• The Passion of Sergius & Bacchus, A Novel of Truth, David Reddish, DoorQ Publishing
• Pulling Leather, L.C. Chase, Riptide Publishing
• Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, Jeff Mann, Bear Bones Books [Winner]

 LESBIAN EROTICA

• All You Can Eat. A Buffet of Lesbian Erotica and Romance, Andi Marquette and R.G. Emanuelle, Ylva Publishing
• Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire, Cheyenne Blue, Ladylit Publishing
• Lesbian Sex Bible, Diana Cage, Quiver Books [Winner]

LESBIAN GENERAL FICTION

• Adult Onset, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Tin House Books
• Last Words From Montmartre, Qiu Miaojin, Translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich, New York Review Books
• Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, Francine Prose, Harper Collins/Harper
• Miracle Girls, MB Caschetta, Engine Books
• New York 1, Tel Aviv 0, Shelly Oria, FSG Originals / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• The Palace Blues, Brandy T. Wilson, Spinsters Ink
• The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters, Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House
• Yabo, Alexis De Veaux, RedBone Press [Winner]

LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

• Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, with Barbara Smith, SUNY Press [Winner]
• Cease – a memoir of love, loss and desire, Lynette Loeppky, Oolichan Books
• Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger, Kelly Cogswell, The University of Minnesota Press
• The End of Eve, Ariel Gore, Hawthorne Books
• Under This Beautiful Dome: A Senator, A Journalist, and the Politics of Gay Love in America, Terry Mutchler, Seal Press

LESBIAN MYSTERY

• The Acquittal, Anne Laughlin, Bold Strokes Books
• Done to Death, Charles Atkins, Severn House Publishers
• The Old Deep and Dark-A Jane Lawless Mystery, Ellen Hart, Minotaur Books [Winner]
• Slash and Burn, Valerie Bronwen, Bold Strokes Books
• UnCatholic Conduct, Stevie Mikayne, Bold Strokes Books

LESBIAN POETRY

• Haiti Glass, Lenelle Moïse, City Lights/Sister Spit
• Janey’s Arcadia, Rachel Zolf, Coach House Books
• Last Psalm at Sea Level, Meg Day, Barrow Street Press
• Like a Beggar, Ellen Bass, Copper Canyon Press
• MxT, Sina Queyras, Coach House Books
• Mysterious Acts by My People, Valerie Wetlaufer, Sibling Rivalry Press [Winner]
• Only Ride, Megan Volpert, Sibling Rivalry Press
• Termination Dust, Susanna Mishler, Red Hen Press/Boreal

LESBIAN ROMANCE

• Christmas Crush, Kate McLachlan, Regal Crest
• The Farmer’s Daughter, Robbi McCoy, Bella Books [Winner]
• The Heat of Angels, Lisa Girolami, Bold Strokes Books
• Jolt, Kris Bryant, Bold Strokes Books
• Nightingale, Andrea Bramhall, Bold Strokes Books
• Seneca Falls, Jesse J. Thoma, Bold Strokes Books
• Tangled Roots, Marianne K. Martin, Bywater Books
• That Certain Something, Clare Ashton, Breezy Tree Press

LGBT ANTHOLOGY

• Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call, Charles Stephens and Steven G. Fullwood, Vintage Entity Press
• A Family by Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships, Bruce Gillespie, TouchWood Editions
• Outer Voices Inner Lives, Mark McNease and Stephen Dolainski, editors, MadeMark Publishing
• The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South, Douglas Ray, editor, Sibling Rivalry Press
• Understanding and Teaching US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History, Leila J. Rupp & Susan K. Freeman, University of Wisconsin Press [Winner]

LGBT CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT 

• Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, Susan Kuklin, Candlewick Press
• Double Exposure, Bridget Birdsall, Sky Pony Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing
• Five, Six, Seven, Nate!, Tim Federle, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers [Winner]
• Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before, Karelia Stetz-Waters, Ooligan Press
• Lies We Tell Ourselves, Robin Talley, Harlequin Teen
• Pukawiss the Outcast, Jay Jordan Hawke, Dreamspinner Press/Harmony Ink Press
• This is Not a Love Story, Suki Fleet, Dreamspinner Press/Harmony Ink Press
• When Everything Feels like the Movies, Raziel Reid, Arsenal Pulp Press

LGBT DEBUT

• Death in Venice, California, Vinton Rafe McCabe, The Permanent Press
• Kill Marguerite and Other Stories, Megan Milks, Emergency Press
• A Map of Everything, Elizabeth Earley, Jaded Ibis Press
• The Music Teacher, Bob Sennett, Lethe Press
• Nochita, Dia Felix, City Lights/Sister Spit
• Part the Hawser, Limn the Sea, Dan Lopez, Chelsea Station Editions
• Unaccompanied Minors, Alden Jones, New American Press
• The Walk-In Closet, Abdi Nazemian, Curtis Brown Unlimited [Winner]

LGBT DRAMA

• The Beast of Times, Adelina Anthony, Kórima Press
• Bootycandy, Robert O’Hara, Samuel French [Winner]
• A Kid Like Jake, Daniel Pearle, Dramatists Play Service
• The Whale, Samuel D. Hunter, Samuel French
• Wolves, Steve Yockey, Samuel French

LGBT GRAPHIC NOVELS

• 100 Crushes, Elisha Lim, Koyama Press
• Band Vs. Band Comix Volume 1, Kathleen Jacques, Paper Heart Comix
• Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag, A.K. Summers, Soft Skull, an imprint of Counterpoint
• Second Avenue Caper, Joyce Brabner; Art by Mark Zingarelli, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux [Winner]
• Snackies, Nick Sumida, Youth in Decline

LGBT NONFICTION

• An American Queer: The Amazon Trail, Lee Lynch, Bold Strokes Books
• Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS, Martin Duberman, The New Press [Winner]
• The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, Julie Sondra Decker, Skyhorse Publishing/Carrel Books
• Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS, Rebecca J. Anderson, McFarland
• Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor, Hilton Als, Ann Temkin, Claudia Carson, Robert Gober, Paulina Pobocha, Christian Scheidemann, The Museum of Modern Art
• Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange, How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos, Robert Hofler, It Books/HarperCollins
• The Transgender Archives: Foundations for the Future, Aaron H Devor, University of Victoria Libraries
• The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973, Clayton Delery-Edwards, McFarland

LGBT SF/F/HORROR

• Afterparty, Daryl Gregory, Tor Books
• Bitter Waters, Chaz Brenchley, Lethe Press [Winner]
• Butcher’s Road, Lee Thomas, Lethe Press
• Child of a Hidden Sea, A. M. Dellamonica, Tor Books
• Full Fathom Five, Max Gladstone, Tor Books
• FutureDyke, Lea Daley, Bella Books
• Skin Deep Magic, Craig Laurance Gidney, Rebel Satori Press

LGBT STUDIES

• After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba, Noelle M. Stout, Duke University Press
• Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America, Rachel Hope Cleves, Oxford University Press
• Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture, Vincent Woodard, Ed. Justin A. Joyce and Dwight McBride, New York University Press [Winner]
• Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela, Marcia Ochoa, Duke University Press
• The Queerness of Native American Literature, Lisa Tatonetti, The University of Minnesota Press
• Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings, Juana Maria Rodriguez, New York University Press
• The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, Susan S. Lanser, University of Chicago Press
• Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene, Bobby Benedicto, University of Minnesota Press

TRANSGENDER FICTION

• Everything Must Go, La JohnJoseph, ITNA PRESS
• For Today I Am a Boy, Kim Fu, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab, Shani Mootoo, Doubleday Canada
• Revolutionary: A Novel, Alex Myers, Simon and Schuster
• A Safe Girl To Love, Casey Plett, Topside Press [Winner]

Transgender Non-Fiction

• Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man, Thomas Page McBee, City Lights/Sister Spit [Winner]
• Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More, Janet Mock, Atria Books
• Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community, Laura Erickson-Schroth, Oxford University Press

 

PHOTOS OF THE 27TH ANNUAL LAMBDA

CLICK HERE

More photos will be uploaded throughout the week 

(Photographer: Brian Sargent)

 

Lambda Literary Awards Individual Underwriters

Timothy Evanson · Robert Ferrante & Tony Valenzuela · Katherine V. Forrest & Josephine Hercus
Tom Healy & Fred P. Hochberg · Larry Kramer & David Webster
Judith Markowitz & Susan Franz · David McConnell · Jay Moore · Kay Percy
Eddie Sarfaty & Court Stroud · Dr. Laura Shawver & Tracy Macuga · Charlotte Sheedy
S. Chris Shirley · Pamela Sloss · Stephen Soucy & Tom Becktold

2015 New York City Host Committee Members   

Jerome Murphy & Amy Scholder, Co-Chairs
Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Ceremony Director · Jason Wells, Publicity Chair

 John Bateman · Kevin Brannon · Jamie Brickhouse · Michael Carroll
Paul Dierkes · Dick Donahue · Michael Fauver · Paul Florez
Roman Freeser · David Gale · Antonio Gonzalez · David Groff
William Johnson · Michele Karlsberg · Elizabeth Koke
Melanie LaRosa · Mario Lopez-Cordero · Bill Miller
Dan Manjovi · Nick Nicholson · Angelo Nikolopoulos
Julia Pastore · Lori Perkins · Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Patrick Ryan · Eddie Sarfaty · Karen Schechner · S. Chris Shirley
Rachel Simon · Bob Smith · Jason Wells

Gift Bag Contributors

Lambda Literary Board of Trustees

President’s Circle Sponsors [gallery_bank type=”images” format=”masonry” title=”false” desc=”false” responsive=”true” display=”all” sort_by=”random” special_effect=”none” animation_effect=”bounce” album_title=”false” album_id=”2″]

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