Submissions for the 2024 Lammy Awards are now CLOSED. Best of luck to all submitted works! The shortlist will be announced in March, 2024.
Guidelines for Lammy Award Submissions
Lambda Literary Awards celebrate the outstanding LGBTQ+ storytelling from a given year. Lambda uses “LGBTQ+” as a catch-all term, meaning that works reflecting identities beyond lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer or questioning are also welcome, to include two-spirit, intersex, pansexual, aro/ace, and other emerging identities.
Please read through these guidelines carefully to ensure that your book is eligible for consideration and that you are submitting it to the proper category. When you are ready during the open submission period, tap the “GO TO SUBMITTABLE” button at the top of the page to submit works through our Submittable portal and follow the instructions for the feature labeled “36th Lambda Literary Awards Registration.”
Submissions for special prize categories open in January 2024.
If you have a question not answered here, visit the Awards FAQ page or email awards[at]lambdaliterary.org.
General Eligibility Guidelines
- Submitted books must be published between January 1 and December 31, 2023. The book must also be distributed (i.e., available in bookstores or online) in the United States during 2023. (See the LGBTQ Drama criteria for exceptions regarding plays.)
- Lambda Literary Awards are open to all authors regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity except in the case of the special awards that mark specific stages of an individual LGBTQ writer’s career. The content of the submitted work must be representative of/content relevant to LGBTQ+ lives.
- Titles must be published in English. Translations from other languages are eligible provided they meet other requirements re: publication year.
- Self-published books are eligible. Works must be available for purchase in a bound or collected format (i.e. not dripped in chapters delivered by newsletter. The work should exist published in a single file). Works published exclusively on social or subscriber-based sites such as blogs, personal newsletters, Patreons, and Wattpad are not eligible.
- First print editions of books previously published online or in ebook format are eligible.
- Reprints of books that were published in the US in previous years are not eligible. This includes second (or later) editions, books that have been republished by a different publisher, and books that are modified versions of previously published works.
- First US editions of books published outside the US before 2023 are eligible if the original edition was not submitted for Lammy consideration in a previous year.
- Submitted works must be human-authored and not generated in whole or in part by “A.I.” engines or services (i.e. ChatGPT)
Submission Fees
For the 2023-2024 award cycle, submission fees are as follows:
- Submissions by Big 4 publishers and universities: $115.00 USD per title
- Submissions by small press/independent publishers and individual authors: $65.00 USD per title for 1-10 titles; $55.00 USD per title for 11+ titles
Submission Formats
For the 2023-2024 award cycle, submissions must be made initially in digital format (epub, pdf preferred). To accommodate accessibility requests for our judges, we request three (3) additional physical/print copies of each submitted title where available (4 titles for the LGBTQ+ Young Adult category). Mailing address and additional information will be provided within Submittable.
Category-Specific Guidelines
A book may be submitted to only one category.
If a category receives fewer than ten (10) submissions, the category will not be active in this awards cycle. The submitted books may then be reassigned to another category, if appropriate. If the book cannot compete in another category, the submission fee will be refunded.
Lesbian or Gay Categories
Books eligible for lesbian categories feature a prominent lesbian character or contain content of strong significance to lesbian lives.
Books eligible for gay categories feature a prominent gay male character or contain content of strong significance to gay male lives.
Lesbian Fiction or Gay Fiction:
Literary fiction that does not fit more precisely into a specific genre category such as Erotica, Romance, Speculative Fiction, or Mystery. Novels, novellas, and short story collections by a single author are eligible; anthologies are not.
Lesbian Memoir/Biography or Gay Memoir/Biography:
Biographies, memoirs, autobiographies, and works of creative nonfiction by or about lesbians and gay men or with content of strong significance to gay and lesbian lives. Posthumously published works and/or those with co-authors are eligible; anthologies are not.
Lesbian Poetry or Gay Poetry:
Single volumes and collected poems are eligible; chapbooks are not. Updated editions of previously published works are not eligible unless at least 50% of the poetry (not the supplemental text) is new.
Lesbian Romance or Gay Romance:
Novels, novellas, and short story collections by a single author that focus on a central love relationship between two or more characters are eligible; anthologies are not. Category includes a broad range of subgenres including traditional, historical, gothic, Regency, and paranormal romance.
Bisexual or Transgender Categories
These categories are non-gender-specific works containing material of strong significance to members of the bi/pan and trans communities.
Bisexual Fiction or Transgender Fiction:
Novels, novellas, short story collections, and anthologies with prominent bi/pan and trans characters and/or content of strong significance to the bi/pan and trans communities. May include historical novels, comics, cross-genre works of fiction, humor, and other styles of fiction.
Bisexual Nonfiction or Transgender Nonfiction:
Nonfiction works with content of strong significance to members of the bi/trans communities. Includes a wide range of subjects for the general or academic reader (e.g., history, memoirs, cultural studies, public policy, law, politics, community organizations, humor, spirituality, gender studies, parenting, religion, spirituality, relationships, psychology, travel).
Bisexual Poetry or Transgender Poetry:
Single volumes and collected poems are eligible; chapbooks are not. Updated editions of previously published works are not eligible unless at least 50% of the poetry (not the supplemental text) is new.
LGBTQ Categories
These categories are non-gender-specific works containing material of strong significance to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
LGBTQ+ Anthology:
Anthologies are collections of fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry by multiple authors. Collected works authored entirely by a single person are not eligible in this category.
LGBTQ+ Children’s Books:
Individual works and collections of fiction, nonfiction, picture books, board books, early-readers and poetry whose intended audience is young readers are all eligible; anthologies are not.
LGBTQ+ Middle Grade:
Individual works and collections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry whose intended audience is the middle grade audience are all eligible; anthologies are not.
LGBTQ+ Young Adult:
Individual works and collections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry whose intended audience is young adult readers are all eligible; anthologies are not.
LGBTQ+ Comics:
Book-length works of fiction or non-fiction that use a combination of words and sequential art to convey a narrative are eligible, including novels, graphic memoirs and short story or comics collections by the same author/team. Individual comic books, periodicals, anthologies, and web-only content are not eligible.
LGBTQ+ Drama:
Plays and other theatrical works and performance pieces that have been published in book or script form during 2023. Collections from a single author are eligible; anthologies featuring multiple authors are not.
LGBTQ+ Mystery:
Novels, novellas, and short story collections in which a crime or series of crimes is an integral part of the story are all eligible; anthologies are not. Category includes a wide range of crime fiction subgenres including police procedurals, political/legal/medical thrillers, cozies, and hard-boiled detective stories.
LGBTQ+ Nonfiction:
LGBTQ-themed works for general readers, as opposed to those targeted primarily to scholarly audiences (e.g., LGBT/Queer/Gender Studies programs). Includes but is not limited to law, history, politics, spirituality, humor, parenting, relationships, psychology, travel, and photography. Anthologies (edited collections of separately authored work) are not eligible in the LGBTQ+ Nonfiction category and should be submitted to LGBTQ+ Anthology. (Please see the LGBTQ+ Studies category below for comparison and contact Lambda’s awards manager at awards@lambdaliterary.org if you have questions about where to submit your work.)
LGBTQ+ Poetry:
Single volumes and collected poems are eligible; chapbooks are not. Updated editions of previously published works are not eligible unless at least 50% of the poetry (not the supplemental text) is new. Works of specifically Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender Poetry are encouraged to submit in their respective categories to allow representations of other identities space in this category.
LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica:
Novels, novellas, and short story collections by a single author that focus on a central love relationship between two or more LGBTQ+ characters, or whose content is principally of an erotic nature are eligible. Category includes a broad range of subgenres including traditional, historical, gothic, Regency, and paranormal romance. Works of specifically Lesbian or Gay Romance are encouraged to submit in their respective categories to allow representations of other identities space in this category.
LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction:
Includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and related genres. Novels, novellas, and short story collections are eligible; anthologies are not.
LGBTQ+ Studies:
Scholarly work focusing on issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, and oriented toward academia, libraries, cultural professionals, and the more academic reader. Generally, but not exclusively, published by university presses. Anthologies (edited collections of separately authored work) are not eligible in the LGBTQ+ Studies category and should be submitted to LGBTQ+ Anthology. (Please see the LGBTQ+ Nonfiction category above for comparison and contact the Lambda’s awards manager at awards@lambdaliterary.org if you have questions about where to submit your work.)
