Lambda Literary is pleased to announce Dr. Zelda Lockhart and K.M. Soehnlein as the winners of the 2024 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.
Dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins, this prize honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come. This award is made possible by the James Duggins, PhD Fund for Outstanding Mid-Career LGBTQ Novelists, a fund of the Horizons Foundation, and includes a cash prize of $5,000.
About Dr. Zelda Lockhart
Dr. ZELDA LOCKHART holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies, an MA in Literature, and a certificate in writing, directing and editing from the NY Film Academy. Her work as an author and expressive arts consultant and educator centers on the power of story to connect us across barriers and to heal our generations. Her books include HarperCollins 2023 release Trinity (a novel) translated and released by HarperCollins France 2024 as Entends ma voix. Her other works include The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life’s Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir, or Poetry. Her other novels are Fifth Born which was a Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and a Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award finalist, Cold Running Creek a Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor Fiction award winner, and Fifth Born II: The Hundredth Turtle a 2011 Lambda Literary Award finalist.
Lockhart is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through Our Stories & Nature. She is a dynamic speaker and educator who travels the US and abroad utilizing story and nature to inspire individuals to heal, maintain healthy relationships, lead effectively, and work productively and gracefully in community.
On Lockhart’s work, a judge remarked:
Zelda Lockheart’s novels, over more than twenty years, have combined emotional immediacy with temporal sweep, and political purpose with spiritual depth. Tracing the intergenerational struggles of Black and Native American women (and sometimes men), primarily in the Southern States (but also in other places) she articulates not only the individual emotional lives of her protagonists, but also a large-scale (re)vision of American history, and of what it means to survive (in) America. Through her work with LaVenson press and her Story Garden Studios she has also worked tirelessly to aid and promote other Black women writers. Her latest novel, Trinity, shows her going from strength to strength: it is truly a book by a writer at mid-career, in full command of her themes and methods, ready to depart to further challenges.
About K.M. Soehnlein
K. M. Soehnlein* is the author of four novels: Army of Lovers, a medalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards for LGBTQ+ Fiction and a finalist for the Foreward Indies Award in LGBTQ+ Fiction; The World of Normal Boys, winner of the Lambda Award for Gay Fiction; You Can Say You Knew Me When; and Robin and Ruby. His short stories and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, and his journalism has appeared in Out, The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, 7×7, and Queerty. He is the recipient of the Henfield Prize for short fiction; the SFFILM–Rainin Grant in Screenwriting; and three fellowships from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He received an MFA from San Francisco State University and teaches at the University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program.
Raised in New Jersey, Soehnlein lived in New York City at the height of the AIDS crisis, participating in direct action with ACT UP and cofounding Queer Nation, all of which informs his most recent novel, Army of Lovers.
On Soehnlein’s work, a judge commented:
K. M. Soehnlein’s beautifully crafted novels have animated various slices of queer life, culminating in his most recent work, the award-winning Army of Lovers, a powerful and poignant must-read set during an important period of LGBTQ history. Soehnlein’s essays, articles, and interviews have also contributed to the understanding of queer lives and letters. Furthermore, Soehnlein is an educator who has nurtured emerging writers as well as toured the country to open up spaces for queer readers to reflect on the history of LGBTQ identity and activism and its legacy for the future. His talent, steadfast work ethic, perseverance, and commitment to craft are an inspiration for others as well as a bedrock on which to build as this important and accomplished writer embarks on future works for readers to savor.
