Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Lammy Awards

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The winners of the 2025 Lammy Awards were announced in an online ceremony hosted by Jozie Clapp on Saturday, October 4, 2025 live from Charlie’s Queer Books in Seattle, WA. Please join us in congratulating these winners and all of the wonderful finalists for their outstanding contributions to LGBTQ+ literature.

BISEXUAL FICTION

  • Anyone’s Ghost // August Thompson. Penguin Press
  • Greta & Valdin // Rebecca K Reilly. Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster
  • The Pairing: Special 1st Edition // Casey McQuiston. St. Martin’s Griffin
  • We Were the Universe // Kimberly King Parsons. Alfred A. Knopf

BISEXUAL NONFICTION

  • Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes // Jon Macy. Street Noise Books
  • First Love: Essays on Friendship // Lilly Dancyger. The Dial Press
  • Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir // Rebecca Orchant. Unbound Edition Press
  • You Get What You Pay For // Morgan Parker. One World 

BISEXUAL POETRY

  • Good Dress // Brittany Rogers. Tin House
  • Return of the Chinese Femme // Dorothy Chan. Deep Vellum
  • The Endless Animal // Nathan Mader. fine. press
  • The Stuff of Hollywood // Niki Herd. Copper Canyon Press

GAY FICTION

  • Cinema Love // Jiaming Tang. Dutton
  • In Tongues // Thomas Grattan. MCD
  • Napalm in the Heart // Pol Guasch; Translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem. FSG Originals
  • Our Evenings // Alan Hollinghurst. Random House

GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

  • Be Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir // Darius Stewart. Belt Publishing
  • Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake // Komail Aijazuddin. Harry N. Abrams
  • Thom Gunn // Michael Nott. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • When the Band Played On // Michael G. Lee. Chicago Review Press 

GAY POETRY

  • Pentimento // Joshua Garcia. Black Lawrence Press
  • Rara Avis // Blas Falconer. Four Way Books
  • Scattered Snows, to the North // Carl Phillips. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  • Terminal Maladies // Okwudili Nebeolisa. Autumn House Press

GAY ROMANCE

  • It Takes Three To Tango // Jem Wendel. Larking About Press
  • Our Own Light // Logan Sage Adams. Self-published 
  • Outside the Wire // William Leet. Flashpoint Publications
  • We Could Be Heroes // Philip Ellis. G.P. Putnam’s Sons | Penguin Random House

LESBIAN FICTION

  • Dead in Long Beach, California // Venita Blackburn. MCD
  • Housemates // Emma Copley Eisenberg. Hogarth
  • Oye // Melissa Mogollon. Hogarth
  • Rainbow Black // Maggie Thrash. HarperCollins 

LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

  • Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found // Nikkya Hargrove. Algonquin Books | Little, Brown & Company
  • Portrait of a Body // Julie Delporte. Drawn & Quarterly
  • The Mary Years // Julie Marie Wade. TRP: The University Press of SHSU
  • Wrong is Not My Name // Erica N. Cardwell. The Feminist Press

LESBIAN POETRY

  • Alt-Nature // Saretta Morgan. Coffee House Press
  • Born Backwards // Tanya Olson. YesYes Books
  • Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect // Koss. Diode Editions
  • Instructions for the Lovers // Dawn Lundy Martin. Nightboat Books
  • The Velvet Book // Rae Gouirand. Cornerstone Press

LESBIAN ROMANCE

  • Bachelorette Number Twelve // Jae. Ylva Publishing 
  • Loser of the Year // Carrie Byrd. Ylva Publishing 
  • Loving Safoa // Liza Wemakor. Neon Hemlock
  • Outlaw Hearts // Lori G. Matthews. Bella Books

LGBTQ+ ANTHOLOGY

  • The Queer Arab Glossary // Marwan Kaabour. Saqi Books
  • Transmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around Us // Remi Recchia. Sundress Publications
  • We Mostly Come Out At Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures // Contributing Editor Rob Costello, with additional stories by: Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. Running Press Teens
  • When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton // Dustin Brookshire. Harbor Anthologies | Harbor Editions 

LGBTQ+ CHILDREN’S BOOKS

  • Harper Becomes a Big Sister // Seamus Kirst. American Psychological Association Magination Press
  • Jacob’s Missing Book // Sarah and Ian Hoffman. American Psychological Association Magination Press
  • Just Us // Molly Beth Griffin; Illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan. Charlesbridge
  • Love of the Half-Eaten Peach // Lee Wind, Illustrated by Jieting Chen. Reycraft

LGBTQ+ COMICS

  • Girlmode // Magdalene Visaggio, Illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau. HarperCollins 
  • SN_33P’sCoolZine.pdf // Tenacity Plys. fifth wheel press
  • Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love // Sarah Leavitt. Arsenal Pulp Press
  • We Belong: An All-Black/All-Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology // Viktor T. Kerney and William O. Tyler. Stacked Deck Press

LGBTQ+ DRAMA

  • Bathhouse.pptx // Jesus I. Valles. Yale University Press
  • Casey and Diana // Nick Green. Scirocco Drama (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
  • Goldie, Max & Milk // Karen Hartman. Samuel French, A Concord Theatricals imprint
  • In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot // Sarah Mantell. Playwrights Horizons

LGBTQ+ MIDDLE GRADE

  • Noah Frye Gets Crushed // Maggie Horn. HarperCollins 
  • Splinter & Ash // Marieke Nijkamp. Greenwillow Books | HarperCollins
  • Wishbone // Justine Pucella Winans. Bloomsbury

LGBTQ+ MYSTERY

  • Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher // Katie Siegel. Kensington
  • One of Us Knows // Alyssa Cole. William Morrow 
  • Rough Pages // Lev AC Rosen. Tor Publishing Group
  • The Night of Baba Yaga // Akira Otani, Translated from Japanese by Sam Bett. Soho Crime

LGBTQ+ NONFICTION

  • Fierce Desires // Rebecca L. Davis. W. W. Norton & Company 
  • Gender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative World // Diane Ehrensaft and Michelle Jurkiewicz. The Experiment
  • Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution // Amin Ghaziani. Princeton University Press
  • Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between // Gemma Rolls-Bentley. Frances Lincoln

LGBTQ+ POETRY

  • I Hate Parties // Jes Battis. Nightwood Editions
  • No Credit River // Zoe Whittall. Book*hug Press
  • Nonbinary Bird of Paradise // Emilia Phillips. University of Akron Press
  • Your Dazzling Death // Cass Donish. Alfred A. Knopf

LGBTQ+ ROMANCE AND EROTICA

  • Bradford, Bru and Brendan Too // Colin Dereham. Self-published 
  • Leather, Lace and Locs // Anne Shade. Bold Strokes Books
  • Midsummer // Jena Doyle. Self-published 
  • Mr. Blue Sky // Isla Olsen. Self-published 

LGBTQ+ SPECULATIVE FICTION

  • Bury Your Gays // Chuck Tingle. Tor Publishing Group
  • Markless // C.G. Malburi. Levine Querido
  • The Sunforge // Sascha Stronach. Saga Press | Simon and Schuster
  • The Palace of Eros // Caro De Robertis. Primero Sueno Press | Simon and Schuster

LGBTQ+ STUDIES

  • Dysphoric Modernism: Undoing Gender in French Literature // Mat Fournier. Columbia University Press
  • Jill Johnston in Motion: Dance, Writing, and Lesbian Life // Clare Croft. Duke University Press
  • Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability // Mary Zaborskis. New York University Press
  • The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China // Matthew H. Sommer. Columbia University Press

LGBTQ+ YOUNG ADULT

  • Old Wounds  // Logan-Ashley Kisner. Delacorte Press | Random House Children’s Books
  • So Let Them Burn // Kamilah Cole. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
  • The Feast Makers // H. A. Clarke. Erewhon Books
  • Time and Time Again // Chatham Greenfield. Bloomsbury

TRANSGENDER FICTION

  • All Things Seen and Unseen: A Novel // RJ McDaniel. ECW Press
  • Love the World or Get Killed Trying // Alvina Chamberland. Noemi Press
  • Love/Aggression // June Martin. tRaum Books
  • Yellow Barks Spider // Harman Burns. Radiant Press

TRANSGENDER NONFICTION

  • American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era // Nico Lang. Harry N. Abrams
  • How to Fuck Like a Girl // Vera Blossom. DOPAMINE Books
  • Make it Count // CeCé Telfer. Grand Central Publishing
  • Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds // Nat Raha and Mijke van der Drift. Pluto Press

TRANSGENDER POETRY

  • Arasahas: Poems from the Tropics // Jaya Jacobo, Translated from Filipino by Christian Jil Benitez. PAWA Press*
  • Consider the Rooster // Oliver Baez Bendorf. Nightboat Books
  • I Don’t Want to Be Understood // Joshua Jennifer Espinoza. Alice James Books
  • TRANZ // Spencer Williams. Four Way Books

* Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA), Inc., in association with Paloma Press, made possible with support from the GOH Translation Committee, the National Book Development Board of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippines), Savage Mind Publishing House, and The Office of Senator Loren Legarda