Who We Are & What we do?

For over 30 years, Lambda Literary has championed LGBTQ books and authors. No other organization in the world serves LGBTQ writers and readers more comprehensively than Lambda Literary. We believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer literature is fundamental to the preservation of our culture, and that LGBTQ lives are affirmed when our stories are written, published, and read.

Our Programs

Lambda’s programs are intended to develop and celebrate LGBTQ+ writers of page, stage, and screen in prose and poetry.

LGBTQ Writers in Schools is a virtual and in-person program that brings reading to life by connecting K-12 students with working LGBTQ+ authors. Since 2015, Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program and the NYC Department of Education have partnered to provide LGBTQ+ students with an experience that creates critically necessary, safe spaces for students to talk about great books and how to thrive as an LGBTQ+ person. The program includes curricular and extra-curricular visits, mini-poetry workshops, and writing workshops.

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The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices is the nation’s premier and only LGBTQ+ multi-genre writing residency devoted exclusively to emerging LGBTQ+ writers. The program provides sophisticated instruction in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, and speculative fiction led by the most talented and acclaimed LGBTQ writers working today. 

The expanded 10-day program offers genre-based revision workshops, panels and interviews with publishing professionals, craft talks, generative writing workshops, community building events, and nightly readings. These opportunities don’t end after the 10-days–fellows are invited to participate in extended programming throughout the year.

 

In addition to year-round learning and community building opportunities, In the spring, we publish our annual anthology: Emerge. Edited by a scholarship fellow, Emerge showcases the vast talent of the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices and serves as an archive for this special once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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The Lambda Literary Awards (Lammys)

The Lambda Literary Awards (fondly known as the Lammys) were created in 1989 to garner national visibility for LGBTQ books, which had established a foothold through a nascent network of lesbian and gay publishers and bookstores.

 

Today, the Lammys celebrate more than 150 LGBTQ writers across 26 categories spanning a number of genres, lived identities, and experiences. We continue to proudly recognize works by self-published authors and independent and academic presses alongside works supported by traditional big 5 publishers.

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One of Lambda’s oldest programs, the Review is a digital publication of reviews and engagement with LGBTQ+ works and their authors. The program is currently on hiatus, but you can check out the archive at lambdaliteraryreview.org

 

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Other Programs

Lambda LitFest (2016-2020) was a week-long festival hosting LGBTQIA+ writers in conversations on art-making, joy, and how to dismantle a white supremacist, ableist, cisgender, heteronormative world. 

 

Lambda LitFest was supported in part by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood, as well as support from the California Arts Council and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

litfest
Check out LitFest 2019 on YouTube
Check out LitFest 2020 on YouTube

Lambda Literary Does Pride

Throughout June 2020 Lambda Literary celebrated Pride with some of our community’s biggest stars in a series of online readings and conversations. Recordings of all events are now available.

Check out the Does Pride series on YouTube

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E-newsletters run on the first Thursday of every month, though you may receive additional communications from our programs. We promise not to spam you!

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