We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2024 Lammy Awards!
This year, awards are offered in 26 categories alongside 7 special prizes, including two that are new in 2024: The Denneny Award for Editorial Excellence, named in honor of Michael Denneny, who founded the first ever LGBTQ+ imprint at a major publishing house, and The Pat Holt Prize for Critical Arts Writing, in memory of the celebrated author and long-time SF Chronicle book review editor Patricia Holt. The announcement of these 130 finalists marks the beginning of a season of uplifting and spotlighting these authors and their work throughout the awards season, with interviews, events, and other special opportunities to get to know the finalists and their vital stories.
The Lammys are the most prestigious award in LGBTQ publishing, with 75 judges who spent six months considering over 1300 submissions. Young Adult and Speculative Fiction continue to drive the growth seen in the last few years of submissions. Finalists and winners will be celebrated at the award ceremony held at Sony Hall in midtown NYC on Tuesday, June 11th.
Please join us in celebrating the following creators for their outstanding contributions to the queer literary landscape:
Lesbian Fiction
- Big Swiss // Jen Beagin (Scribner)
- Biography of X // Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Organ Meats // K-Ming Chang (One World)
- Our Hideous Progeny // C E McGill (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Pomegranate // Helen Elaine Lee (Atria Books)
Gay Fiction
- American Scholar // Patrick E. Horrigan (Lethe Press)
- Blackouts // Justin Torres (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Brother & Sister Enter the Forest: A Novel // Richard Mirabella (Catapult)
- Family Meal // Bryan Washington (Penguin Random House / Riverhead Books)
- I Will Greet the Sun Again // Khashayar J. Khabushani (Hogarth Books)
Bisexual Fiction
- All-Night Pharmacy: A Novel // Ruth Madievsky (Catapult)
- Endpapers // Jennifer Savran Kelly (Algonquin Books)
- Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen // Sarah James (Sourcebooks)
- Natural Beauty // Ling Ling Huang (Penguin Random House / Dutton)
- Old Enough // Haley Jakobson (Penguin Random House / Dutton)
Transgender Fiction
- Bellies // Nicola Dinan (Hanover Square Press)
- Girlfriends // Emily Zhou (LittlePuss Press)
- The Rage Letters // Valérie Bah; translator Kama La Mackerel (Metonymy Press)
- Trash // Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny (Deep Vellum)
- Wild Geese // Soula Emmanuel (Feminist Press)
Bisexual Nonfiction
- Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual and M-Spec Men // Vaneet Mehta (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
- Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto // Zachary Zane (Abrams Image)
- Creep: Accusations and Confessions // Myriam Gurba (Avid Reader Press)
- Crying Wolf // Eden Boudreau (Book*hug Press)
- Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir // Kawika Guillermo (Duke University Press)
Transgender Nonfiction
- Love and Money, Sex and Death // McKenzie Wark (Verso Books)
- Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary // Miss Major and Toshio Meronek (Verso)
- On Community // Casey Plett (Biblioasis)
- Tar Hollow Trans: Essays // Stacy Jane Grover (University Press of Kentucky)
- Transland: Consent, Kink, and Pleasure // Mx. Sly (Arsenal Pulp Press)
LGBTQ+ Nonfiction
- Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America // Daniel Black (Harlequin Trade Publishing / Hanover Square Press)
- Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City // Elyssa Maxx Goodman (Harlequin Trade Publishing / Hanover Square Press)
- Hi Honey, I’m Homo // Matt Baume (BenBella Books)
- Otherwise // Julie Marie Wade (Autumn House Press)
- Out: A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Your LGBTQIA+ Kid Through Coming Out and Beyond // John Sovec, LMFT (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
Lesbian Poetry
- Ardor // Alyse Knorr (Gasher Press)
- Because You Were Mine // Brionne Janae (Haymarket Books)
- Couplets // Maggie Millner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
- Dream of Xibalba //Stephanie Adams-Santos (Orison Books)
- Teeter // Kimberly Alidio (Nightboat Books)
Gay Poetry
- Hard Drive // Paul Stephenson (Carcanet Press)
- Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems // Richard Blanco (Beacon Press)
- Love(ly) Child // Emanuel Xavier (Rebel Satori Press)
- Trace Evidence // Charif Shanahan (Tin House)
- What We Lost in the Swamp // Grant Chemidlin (Central Avenue Poetry)
Bisexual Poetry
- A Film in Which I Play Everyone // Mary Jo Bang (Graywolf Press)
- Desire Museum // Danielle Cadena Deulen (BOA Editions)
- Ephemera // Sierra DeMulder (Button Poetry)
- Good Grief, the Ground // Margaret Ray (BOA Editions)
- Impersonal Rainbow & The Bisexual Purge // Paul Killebrew (Canarium Books)
Transgender Poetry
- Hood Vacations // Michal ‘MJ’ Jones (Black Lawrence Press)
- Portraits as Animal: Poems // Victoriano Cárdenas (Bloomsday Literary)
- Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco // K. Iver (Milkweed Editions)
- Taking to Water // Jennifer Conlon (Autumn House Press)
- Transitory // Subhaga Crystal Bacon (BOA Editions)
LGBTQ+ Poetry
- Lanternfly August // Robin Gow (Driftwood Press)
- motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life // Destiny Hemphill (Action Books)
- Pig // Sam Sax (Scribner)
- The Perfect Bastard // Quinn Carver Johnson (Northwestern University Press)
- Toska // Alina Pleskova (Deep Vellum)
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
- Hijab Butch Blues // Lamya H (The Dial Press)
- Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives // Amelia Possanza (Catapult)
- Suicide: The Autoimmune Disorder of the Psyche // Vi Khi Nao (11:11 Press)
- To Name the Bigger Lie // Sarah Viren (Scribner)
- Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters // Lynnée Denise (The University of Texas Press)
Gay Memoir/Biography
- Leading Lady // Charles Busch (BenBella Books)
- Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It // Greg Marshall (Abrams Press)
- Mother, Nature // Jedidiah Jenkins (Convergent Books)
- Reaching Ninety // Martin Duberman (Chicago Review Press )
- Tweakerworld // Jason Yamas (Unnamed Press)
Lesbian Romance
- A Lady to Treasure // Marianne Ratcliffe (Bellows Press)
- Catch // Kris Bryant (Bold Strokes Books)
- Dance with Me // Georgia Beers (Bold Strokes Books)
- Love at 350° // Lisa Peers (The Dial Press)
- Lucky in Lace // Melissa Brayden (Bold Strokes Books)
Gay Romance
- Dionysus in Wisconsin // E. H. Lupton (Winnowing Fan Press)
- Mistletoe & Mishigas // M.A. Wardell (Self-published)
- The Art of Husbandry // Jay Hogan (Southern Lights Publishing / Self-published)
- The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen // KJ Charles (Sourcebooks)
- We Could Be So Good // Cat Sebastian (Avon Books)
LGBTQ+ Anthology
- 2 Trans 2 Furious: An extremely serious journal of Transgender Street Racing Studies // Tuck Woodstock & Niko Stratis (Rapid Onset Gender Distro / Self-published)
- A Pill for Promiscuity: Gay Sex in an Age of Pharmaceuticals // Andrew R. Spieldenner and Jeffrey Escoffier (Rutgers University Press)
- Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection // Madeline Dyer; with contributions by Cody Daigle-Orians, Kat Yuen, Akemi Dawn Bowman, Rosiee Thor, Madeline Dyer, Linsey Miller, K. Hart, S.E. Anderson, Emily Victoria, Anju Imura, RoAnna Sylver, Moniza Hossain, Lara Ameen, Jas Brown, and S.J. Taylor (Page Street Publishing / Page Street YA)
- Fairy Tale Review: The Rainbow Issue // Benjamin Schaefer (Wayne State University Press)
- Rosalind’s Siblings: Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Scientists of Marginalized Genders // Bogi Takács; with contributions by Cameron Van Sant, Celia Neri, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Emma Alice Johnson, Hal Y. Zhang, Isha Karki, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Julian K. Jarboe, Julie Nováková, Kanika Agrawal, Laura Jane Swanson, Leigh Harlen, Lisa M. Bradley, Lydia Moon, Osahon Ize-Iyamu, Phoebe Barton, Polenth Blake, Premee Mohamed, Santiago Belluco, Stefani Cox, Tessa Fisher, Ursula Whitcher, and Vajra Chandrasekera (Atthis Arts)
LGBTQ+ Children’s Books
- The Apartment House on Poppy Hill // Nina LaCour; illustrator Sonia Albert (Chronicle Books)
- Door by Door // Meeg Pincus and Meridth Mckean Gimbel (Crown Books for Young Readers)
- Gender Identity for Kids // Andy Passchier (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- Grandad’s Pride // Harry Woodgate (Little Bee Books)
- The Wishing Flower // A. J. Irving and Kip Alizadeh (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
LGBTQ Comics
- A Guest in The House // Emily Caroll (First Second)
- Belle of the Ball // Mari Costa (First Second)
- Blackward // Lawrence Lindell (Drawn & Quarterly)
- Roaming // Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
- The Chromatic Fantasy // H.A. (Silver Sprocket)
LGBTQ+ Drama
- Fat Ham // James Ijames (TCG Books/Samuel French, a Concord Theatricals Company)
- For Both Resting and Breeding // Adam Meisner (Scirocco Drama / J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
- I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet // Andrew Rincón (Samuel French, a Concord Theatricals Company)
- Joan of Arkansas // Milo Wippermann (Ugly Duckling Presse)
- the bandaged place // Harrison David Rivers (Samuel French, a Concord Theatricals Company)
LGBTQ+ Middle Grade
- Dear Mothman // Robin Gow (Amulet Books)
- Ellie Engle Saves Herself // Leah Johnson (Disney Hyperion)
- Just Lizzie // Karen Wilfrid (HarperCollins / Clarion Books)
- Matteo // Michael Leali (HarperCollins)
- The Beautiful Something Else // Alder Van Otterloo (Scholastic Press)
LGBTQ+ Mystery
- A Calculated Risk // Cari Hunter (Bold Strokes Books)
- Don’t Forget the Girl // Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark)
- The Good Ones // Polly Stewart (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Transitory // J. M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)
- Where the Dead Sleep // Joshua Moehling (Poisoned Pen Press)
LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica
- A Tight Squeeze: Smutty Trans and Queer Stories // laura q (Microcosm Publishing)
- Chef’s Choice // TJ Alexander (Emily Bestler Books / Atria Books)
- Fly with Me: A Novel // Andie Burke (St. Martin’s Griffin)
- Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date // Ashley Herring Blake (Berkley)
- The Fiancee Farce // Alexandria Bellefleur (Avon Books)
LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction
- Bang Bang Bodhisattva // Aubrey Wood (Solaris)
- I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel // Marisa Crane (Catapult)
- The Archive Undying // Emma Mieko Candon (Tordotcom Publishing)
- The Saint of Bright Doors // Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom Publishing)
- The Thick and the Lean // Chana Porter (Saga Press)
LGBTQ+ Studies
- Ambivalent Affinities: A Political History of Blackness and Homosexuality after World War II // Jennifer Dominique Jones (University of North Carolina Press)
- Care without Pathology: How Trans- Health Activists Are Changing Medicine // Christoph Hanssmann (University of Minnesota Press)
- Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America // Margot Canaday (Princeton University Press)
- Sexuality and the Rise of China: The Post-1990s Gay Generation in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China // Travis S. K. Kong (Duke University Press)
- The Sexual Politics of Empire: Postcolonial Homophobia in Haiti // Erin L. Durban (University of Illinois Press)
LGBTQ+ Young Adult
- Cold Girls // Maxine Rae (Flux)
- Only This Beautiful Moment // Abdi Nazemian (HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray)
- Pritty // Keith F. Miller, Jr. (HarperCollins / HarperTeen)
- That Self-Same Metal (The Forge & Fracture Saga, Book 1) // Brittany N. Williams (Amulet Books)
- The Wicked Bargain // Gabe Cole Novoa (Random House Books for Young Readers)
Tickets to this year’s ceremony at Sony Hall in NYC are now available for purchase here. You can also support our finalists by buying their books.
On behalf of Lambda Literary, congratulations to all of our authors, poets, playwrights, and all of the people who make these works happen.
Each category is judged by a panel of three judges selected primarily from Lambda’s extensive community of readers, authors, fellows, former finalists, and other stakeholders, provided they themselves do not have titles eligible during the award year. Judges and their categories are kept confidential unless they want to be named in the credits for the ceremony. We maintain a goal of selecting judges who share an affinity with the category they are judging as they are experts on their own representation. The judges are provided with a broad rubric for selecting their longlist titles, with factors including the title’s LGBTQ content, quality of writing, and artistic merit. Judges may also consider factors such as the presence of harmful representation or the impact the title or the author has had on the LGBTQ community. Judge panels are given autonomy in making their decisions, meaning that Lambda’s board and staff do not interfere or dictate the selection process. Titles provided for the longlist (top 10 titles, not publicized) are vetted to ensure they meet all technical criteria for eligibility (verified publication year, appropriate category and publishing avenue, etc) and any title found to not meet those requirements is disqualified. Finalist authors or their submitting representatives (publishers, editors) are notified of shortlist (top 5) placement in advance of the public announcement, to confirm details such as contributor names and whether or not they will be accepting the nomination.
