Lambda Literary is pleased to announce Rabih Alameddine and Kristen Arnett as the winners of the 2026 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.
Rabih Alameddine
RABIH ALAMEDDINE is the author of the novels The Wrong End of the Telescope; The Angel of History; An Unnecessary Woman; The Hakawati; I, the Divine; and Koolaids, as well as the story collection The Perv. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. His most recent awards include the 2019 Dos Passos Prize, the 2021 Lannan Prize for Fiction, the 2022 Pen/Faulkner award and the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in March 2025.
He recently co-edited The Penguin Book of the International Short Story, and his new novel, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) won the National Book Award for Fiction. He divides his time between his bedroom and his living room.
Rabih Alameddine's splendid books have been a touchstone for any number of readers and writers, very much including queer and trans people. His books and other writing are triumphs of abundance, teeming with profundity, hilarity, curiosity, heartbreak, and clarity. Queer and trans literature would be noticeably diminished without what he's given us, and we are so excited to see what he publishes next. It is a deep honor and a joy to award Rabih Alameddine with a Lambda Literary Duggins Prize.
Kristen Arnett
Kristen Arnett is the queer Floridian author of the novels STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE (Riverhead Books, 2025) which was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize, and was awarded a silver medal from The Florida Book Awards, With Teeth (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction, and the New York Times bestselling debut Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction.
and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She was awarded a Shearing Fellowship at Black Mountain Institute, has held residencies at Ragdale Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, the Millay Colony, and the Studios of Key West, and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is the Florida Chair for Authors Against Book Bans. Her upcoming short fiction collection, Party at the End of the World, will be published by Riverhead Books in Spring 2027. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.
Place deeply inspires and informs Kristen Arnett’s work. She writes with generosity and complexity about the beautiful, wild, and red state of Florida, and shines a light on the queer and trans people who live there. Her writing is cinematic, captivating, and darkly funny—Kristen is a brave writer, unafraid to explore the complexities and vulnerabilities and messiness of queer relationships, parenting, family, and grief. Kristen’s three acclaimed novels, a short story collection, and the many essays, articles, and interviews are all important contributions to LGBTQ literature. Kristen worked for years as a librarian, is currently the Florida Chair for Authors Against Book Bans, and has been an important voice for the queer and literary communities and for queer Southerners. In recognition of her accomplished career, and for the promising work that lay ahead, including the forthcoming story collection, Party at the End of the World: Stories we can’t wait to read, we are so pleased to award Kristen with a Duggins Prize.
