| Lambda Literary Award | |
|---|---|
 Lambda Literary Award Seal | |
| Location | New York City, United States |
| Presented by | Lambda Literary Foundation |
| First award | 1989; 36 years ago (1989) |
| Website | www |
Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly byLambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literature. The awards were instituted in 1989.
The program has grown from 14 awards in early years to 24 awards today. Early categories such asHIV/AIDS literature were dropped as the prominence of the AIDS crisis within the gay community waned,[1] and categories forbisexual andtransgender literature were added as the community became more inclusive.[1]
In addition to the primary literary awards, Lambda Literary also presents a number of special awards.
1 In both the bisexual and transgender categories, presentation may vary according to the number of eligible titles submitted in any given year. If the number of titles warrants, then separate awards are presented in either two (Fiction and Nonfiction, with the Fiction category inclusive of poetry titles) or three (Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry) categories, while if a smaller number of titles is deemed eligible, then a merged Literature shortlist is put forward. However, even when the category shortlists have been merged, judges still retain the right to identify a single winner in the unlisted category; for example, at the25th Lambda Literary Awards in 2013 the judges named both fiction and non-fiction winners in the Bisexual Literature category, and at the29th Lambda Literary Awards in 2017 the judges picked a title from the Bisexual Fiction shortlist as the winner in Bisexual Poetry despite the lack of an advance poetry shortlist.
Ellen Hart has won five awards in the Lesbian Mystery category, the most by any single author, and is one of only three writers to have won the award more than once (with three-time winnersKatherine V. Forrest andJ. M. Redmann). Similarly,Michael Nava has won five awards in the Gay Mystery category, the most by any single author, and is one of only four writers to have won the award more than once (with three-time winnerJohn Morgan Wilson, two-time winnerR. D. Zimmerman, and two-time winnerMarshall Thornton). Marshall Thornton is the only author in the gay mystery category to have won twice for two different series.
Alison Bechdel has won four awards in the Humor category, the most by any single author, and is one of five writers to have won the award more than once (withJoe Keenan,Michael Thomas Ford,David Sedaris, andDavid Rakoff). The Humor category has been discontinued.
Nicola Griffith andMelissa Scott have each won four awards in theScifi/Fantasy/Horror category, and are two of six writers to have won the SFFH award more than once (with Stephen Pagel,Jim Grimsley, andLee Thomas).
Sarah Waters has won three awards in theLesbian Fiction category, forTipping the Velvet (2000),Fingersmith (2002), andThe Night Watch in (2007), and is one of only three writers to have won the Lesbian Fiction award more than once (with two-time winnersDorothy Allison andAchy Obejas).
Mark Doty andAdrienne Rich have each won three awards in the Poetry category, and are two of seven poets to have won the award more than once (with two-time winnersJoan Larkin, Michael Klein,Marilyn Hacker,Audre Lorde, andJ. D. McClatchy)
Richard Labonté,Radclyffe, andTristan Taormino have each won two awards in the Erotica category, each winning once before the category was split into Gay and Lesbian subdivisions, and each winning their second after the category was split.
Karin Kallmaker andMichael Thomas Ford have each won two awards in the Romance category, each winning one before the category was split into Gay and Lesbian subdivisions – Kallmaker withMaybe Next Time and Ford withLast Summer, but in2004 – and each winning their second after the category was split – Ford withChanging Tides in2008 and Kallmaer withThe Kiss That Counted in2009.
Colm Tóibín is the only writer to have won two awards in theGay Fiction category forThe Master in2004 and forThe Empty Family in2011.
Paul Monette is the only writer to have won two awards in the Gay Non-Fiction category, forBorrowed Time in1989 and forBecoming a Man in1993.
Lillian Faderman is the only writer to have won awards in seven different categories, having received:
Several writers have won awards in more than one category in the same year for the same work (note that according to current guidelines a book may only be entered in one category):
Several writers have won awards in more than one category in the same year for different works:
Several other writers have won awards in more than one category in different years and for different works:
Several authors have won awards in three different categories:
Numerous Lambda Award-winning works have been adapted for film and television:
The Lambda Literary Awards are presented each year to honor works of literature published in the previous year; accordingly, the first awards ceremony may be described in different sources as either the 1989 awards (for the year of presentation) or the 1988 awards (for the year in which the nominated works were published).
In 1992, despite requests from thebisexual community for a more appropriate and inclusive category, the groundbreaking bisexual anthologyBi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out[2] byLoraine Hutchins andLani Kaʻahumanu was forced to compete, and lost, in the category "Lesbian Anthology".[3] Additionally, in 2005,Directed by Desire: Collected Poems,[4] a posthumous collection of thebisexualJamaican-American writerJune Jordan's work, competed (and won) in the category "Lesbian Poetry".[5]
Led byBiNet USA,[6] and assisted by other bisexual organizations including theAmerican Institute of Bisexuality,BiPOL, andBialogue, the bisexual community launched a multi-year struggle that eventually culminated in 2006 with the addition of a Bisexual category.[7]
In 2004, the bookThe Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism by the highly controversial researcherJ. Michael Bailey was announced as a finalist in the Transgender category of the 2003 Awards.
Transgender people immediately protested the nomination and gathered thousands of petition signatures in opposition within a few days. After the petition, the Foundation's judges examined the book more closely, decided that they considered ittransphobic and removed it from their list of finalists.[8] Within a year the executive director who had initially approved of the book's inclusion resigned.[9] Executive director Charles Flowers later stated that "the Bailey incident revealed flaws in our awards nomination process, which I have completely overhauled since becoming the foundation’s executive director in January 2006."[10]
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