2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Author: LeKesha Lewis

March 15, 2022

Today, we are thrilled to announce the finalists of the 34th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (a.k.a. the “Lammys”)!

Created over thirty years ago to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world, the Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature. Since the inception of the Lammys in 1989, more than 3,500 books have been named finalist or winner, an imprimatur that bookstores, libraries, and individuals use to stock their shelves.

This award cycle was the most competitive yet, with the highest ever submission volume in Lammy Award history. “We are particularly inspired by such amazing numbers in the LGBTQ Young Adult and Children’s/Middle Grade categories,” the Awards Manager says. “The modern movement to ban access to LGBTQ books for young people is horrendous, but we hope the publishing industry continues backing these remarkable works in volume to meet that resistance.” 

Exemplifying how queer literature is far from monolithic, the Lammys celebrate books across 24 categories, and feature works by writers from large and small presses, as well as debut and self-published authors. 

Finalists and winners will be celebrated in an immersive virtual award ceremony on Saturday, June 11th, hosted by drag queen and visual artist Sasha Velour. Event registration starts at $50 USD, and includes a gift bag of digital offerings from our friends and sponsors, as well as access to an afternoon of readings and talks with our finalists prior to the evening’s ceremony. Proceeds benefit Lambda Literary’s educational programs for LGBTQ young people and emerging writers. Tickets to the virtual event are available here.

This year’s finalists were first announced exclusively by the Associated Press.  

Please join us in celebrating the following authors and their literary accomplishments.

BISEXUAL FICTION:

• Blue-Skinned Gods // SJ Sindu, Soho Press
• Milk Fed: A Novel // Melissa Broder, Scribner
• Monster in the Middle // Tiphanie Yanique, Riverhead Books
• We Play Ourselves // Jen Silverman, Random House
• We Want What We Want // Alix Ohlin, House Anansi Press

BISEXUAL NONFICTION:

• Borealis // Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Coffee House Press
• Dark Tourist: Essays // Hasanthika Sirisena, Mad Creek Books
• Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much // Jen Winston, Atria Books
• The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease // Daisy Hernández, Tin House
• The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces // Courtney Cook, Tin House

BISEXUAL POETRY:

• Gumbo Ya Ya // Aurielle Marie, University of Pittsburgh Press
• Imagine Us, The Swarm // Muriel Leung, Nightboat Books
• Master Suffering // CM Burroughs, Tupelo Press
• The Best Prey // Paige Quiñones, Pleiades Press
• The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void // Jackie Wang, Nightboat Books

GAY FICTION:

• 100 Boyfriends // Brontez Purnell, MCD x FSG Originals
• Brickmakers: A Novel // Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott, Graywolf Press
• Gordo // Jaime Cortez, Grove Atlantic
• My Good Son // Yang Huang, University of New Orleans Press
• Rainbow Milk // Paul Mendez, PRH/Doubleday

GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY:

• Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir // Rajiv Mohabir, Restless Books
• Hola Papi // John Paul Brammer, Simon & Schuster
• Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life in Activism // Peter Staley, Chicago Review Press
• Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir // Brian Broome, Mariner Books
• Writing with Caca / Escribir con Caca // Luis Felipe Fabre, translated by JD Pluecker, Green Lantern Press

GAY POETRY:

• Besiege Me // Nicholas Wong, Noemi Press
• Creep Love // Michael Walsh, Autumn House Press
• Punks: New & Selected Poems // John Keene, The Song Cave
• Shoreditch // Miguel Murphy, Barrow Street Press
• Tenderness // Derrick Austin, BOA Editions

GAY ROMANCE:

• Best of the Wrong Reasons // Sander Santiago, Bold Strokes Books
• Dublin Bay // John Patrick, NineStar Press
• Excellent Sons: A Love Story in Three Acts // Larry Benjamin, Beaten Track Publishing
• Floridian Nights // Lance Ringel, Distant Mirror Press
• The Other Man // Farhad J. Dadyburjor, Lake Union

LESBIAN FICTION:

• How to Wrestle a Girl // Venita Blackburn, MCD x FSG Originals
• Matrix // Lauren Groff, Riverhead Books
• Skye Falling // Mia McKenzie, Random House
• The Five Wounds // Kirstin Valdez Quade, W. W. Norton & Company
• With Teeth // Kristen Arnett, Riverhead Books

LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY:

• The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture // Grace Perry, Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin
• The Audacity of a Kiss: Love, Art, and Liberation // Leslie Cohen, Rutgers University Press
• The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams // Jonathan Ned Katz, Chicago Review Press
• The One You Want to Marry (And Other Identities I’ve Had): A Memoir // Sophie Santos, TOPPLE Books
• Why Labelle Matters // Adele Bertei, University of Texas Press

LESBIAN POETRY:

• All the Rage // Rosamond S. King, Nightboat Books
• Last Days // Tamiko Beyer, Alice James Books
• The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak // Grace Lau, Guernica Editions
• The Renunciations: Poems // Donika Kelly, Graywolf Press
• Who’s Your Daddy // Arisa White, Augury Books

LESBIAN ROMANCE:

• Chemistry Lessons // Jae, Ylva Publishing
• Go Around // E. J Noyes, Bella Books
• In the Long Run // Haley Cass, Self-Published
• Red Tide at Heron Bay // Gerri Hill, Bella Books
• The Headmistress // Milena McKay, Self-Published

LGBTQ ANTHOLOGY:

• Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis // Edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought // Edited by Briona Simone Jones, The New Press
• Q & A: Voices from Queer Asian North America // Martin F. Manalansan IV, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo, Temple University Press
• Queer Nightlife // Edited by Kemi Adeyemi, Kareem Khubchandani, and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, The University of Michigan Press
• The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays // Editors: Leanna Keyes, Lindsey Mantoan, and Angela Farr Schiller; Playwrights: Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Ty Defoe, MJ Kaufman, Raphaël Amahl Khouri, j. Chavez, Sharifa Yasmin, and Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Bloomsbury Publishing

LGBTQ CHILDREN’S/MIDDLE GRADE:

• Calvin // JR and Vanessa Ford, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
• Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea // Ashley Herring Blake, Little, Brown BYR (Books for Young Readers)
• Love, Violet // Charlotte Sullivan Wild, illustrated by Charlene Chua, Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR (Books for Young Readers)
• Stitch by Stitch: Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt // Rob Sanders, APA Magination Press
• The Fabulous Zed Watson! // Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

LGBTQ COMICS:

• Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms // Crystal Frasier and Val Wise, lettering by Oscar O. Jupiter, Oni Press
• Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer & Trans Resistance // Syan Rose, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Shadow Life // Written by Hiromi Goto; illustrated by Ann Xu, First Second
• Stone Fruit // Lee Lai, Fantagraphics Books
• Thirsty Mermaids // Kat Leyh, Simon & Schuster/Gallery 13

LGBTQ DRAMA:

• Love Like Light // Daniel Alexander Jones, 53rd State Press
• mama [rose.] // storäe michele
• Mrs. Harrison // R. Eric Thomas, TRW Plays
• Pillow Talk // Kheven LaGrone, Theatre Rhinoceros
• Thrive, or What You Will {an epic} // L M Feldman, American Shakespeare Center

LGBTQ EROTICA:

• Ambrosia: Trans Masc and Non Binary Erotic Comics Anthology // Edited by Tab Kimpton and Jade Sarson, Discord Comics
• Big Joe // Samuel R. Delany, Inpatient Press
• Nectar: Trans Femme and Non Binary Erotic Comics Anthology // Edited by Tab Kimpton and Harry-Anne Bentley, Discord Comics
• Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism: Smutty Stories // MJ Lyons, Microcosm Publishing
• The Lodger, That Summer // Levi Huxton, Self-Published

LGBTQ MYSTERY:

• Bath Haus // P.J. Vernon, PRH/Doubleday
• Finding the Vein // Jennifer Hanlon Wilde, Ooligan Press
• Lies With Man // Michael Nava, Amble Press
• Murder Under Her Skin // Stephen Spotswood, PRH/Doubleday
• The Savage Kind // John Copenhaver, Pegasus Books

LGBTQ NONFICTION:

• Dear Senthuran // Akwaeke Emezi, Riverhead Books
• Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures // Adam Zmith, Repeater Books
• Girlhood // Melissa Febos, Bloomsbury Publishing
• Let the Record Show // Sarah Schulman, Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux
• Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water // Kazim Ali, Milkweed Editions

LGBTQ SPECULATIVE FICTION:

• A Desolation Called Peace // Arkady Martine, Tor Books
• Breeder // Honni van Rijswijk, Blackstone Publishing
• No Gods, No Monsters // Cadwell Turnbull, Blackstone Publishing
• Phototaxis // Olivia Tapiero, translated by Kit Schluter, Nightboat Books
• The Tensorate Series // Neon Yang, Tordotcom Publishing

LGBTQ STUDIES:

• Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory and Erotophobia // Gila Ashtor, Fordham University Press
• Racial Erotics: Gay Men of Color, Sexual Racism, and the Politics of Desire // C. Winter Han, University of Washington Press
• The Shape of Sex // Leah DeVun, Columbia University Press 
• Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific // Howard Chiang, Columbia University Press
• Vice Patrol: Cops, Courts, and the Struggle over Urban Gay Life before Stonewall // Anna Lvovsky, University of Chicago Press

LGBTQ YOUNG ADULT:

• Hani And Ishu’s Guide To Fake Dating // Adiba Jaigirdar, Page Street Kids
• The City Beautiful // Aden Polydoros, Harlequin Trade Publishing/Inkyard
• The Heartbreak Bakery // A. R. Capetta, Candlewick Press
• The Passing Playbook // Isaac Fitzsimons, Dial Books for Young Readers
• What We Devour // Linsey Miller, Sourcebooks Fire

TRANSGENDER FICTION:

• A Natural History of Transition // Callum Angus, Metonymy Press
• Detransition, Baby // Torrey Peters, One World
• Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body // Megan Milks, Feminist Press
• She Who Became the Sun // Shelley Parker-Chan, Tor Books
• Summer Fun // Jeanne Thornton, Soho Press

TRANSGENDER NONFICTION:

• Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness // Da’Shaun Harrison, North Atlantic Books
• Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies // Francisco Galarte, University of Texas Press
• Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures // Ivan Coyote, McClelland & Stewart
• Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography // Edited by Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt, Amsterdam University Press
• Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments // Lucie Fielding, Routledge

TRANSGENDER POETRY:

• Crossbones on My Life // Mason J, Nomadic Press
• Salamat sa Intersectionality // Dani Putney, Okay Donkey Press
• Transverse // Lindsay Choi, Futurepoem Books
• Villainy // Andrea Abi-Karam, Nightboat Books
• x/ex/exis // Raquel Salas Rivera, The University of Arizona Press