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Eileen Myles & Hilton Als to be Honored at the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards

Eileen Myles & Hilton Als to be Honored at the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards

Author: Edit Team

April 20, 2016

EILEEN MYLES & HILTON ALS TO BE HONORED

AT THE 28TH ANNUAL LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS

Stellar Roster of Presenters Include Kate Bornstein, Tim Federle,
Tavi Gevinson, Silas Howard, Cherry Jones, Ira Sachs,
Rakesh Satyal, Pamela Sneed

Comedienne Kate Clinton Returns as Master of Ceremonies

Lambda Literary is pleased to announce that Eileen Myles will receive Lambda’s Pioneer Award and Hilton Als will receive the Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature at the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (“Lammys”). Myles and Als will be honored along with the winning authors of 25 separate LGBT literary categories as determined by over 90 judges. The Lammys bring together over 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature, making it the most glamorous and prestigious LGBT literary event in the world. The awards will be hosted for a fifth year by comedienne Kate Clinton on Monday, June 6 in New York City at the NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts (566 Laguardia Place, New York, NY 10012). The red carpet and exclusive VIP cocktail reception begin at 5:30 pm followed by the ceremony at 7 pm. An After-Party at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) will immediately follow the ceremony.

Cherry Jones to introduce Eileen Myles for the Pioneer Award

Eileen Myles, the Pioneer Award honoree, is the author of nineteen books including I Must Be Living Twice: New & Selected Poems, and a 2015 reissue of her highly acclaimed novel Chelsea Girls. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, four Lambda Literary Awards, and the Shelley Prize from the Poets Society of America. In 2016 Myles received a Creative Capital grant and the Clark Prize for excellence in art writing. Myles will be introduced by Cherry Jones, who starred on Broadway most recently in the revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, and is the winner of two Tony Awards (The Heiress, Doubt), and an Emmy Award for Fox network’s 24. On the 2015 season of Amazon’s hit television show Transparent, Jones played Leslie Mackinaw, a character based on Eileen Myles.

Tavi Gevinson to introduce Hilton Als for Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature

Hilton Als, the honoree for Excellence in Literature, is the author of The Women and most recently, White Girls, a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Als became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1994 and a theater critic in 2002. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing, the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and the 2016 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in nonfiction. He has co-curated exhibitions at La MaMa Gallery, the VeneKlasen/Werner gallery in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met. Als will be introduced by writer Tavi Gevinson, the editor-in-chief of Rookie, an online magazine for teenage girls. Gevinson starred in the Tony-nominated 2014 revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth, and returns to Broadway this year in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

“This year’s special honorees, Eileen Myles and Hilton Als, have made a deep impact, not just on LGBT culture, but on American culture, inspiring a new generation of writers, critics, and artists,” said Tony Valenzuela, executive director. “We are privileged to celebrate their tremendous contributions at this year’s Lammy Awards.”

Master of Ceremonies Kate Clinton Returns as MC

Previous Lammy finalist and Pioneer Award recipient, comedienne Clinton returns to reprise her role as master of ceremonies with her signature brand of topical, political comedy. Clinton will share the stage with a glittering line up of awards presenters who hail from the worlds of literature, publishing, theater, politics, film, civil rights activism, and television.

Additional celebrity presenters and the ceremony’s entertainment will be announced in May.

Confirmed Lammy Presenters (in alphabetical order)

Comedian and writer Joel Kim Booster; grand dame of trans theory and theater, gender outlaw Kate BornsteinJonathan Burnham, HarperCollins publisher; Diana Cage, professor and author of six books, one of which The Lesbian Sex Bible was a Lammy winner last year; poet and essayist of numerous titles, R. Erica Doyle, a NYFA Poetry Fellow, as well as Cave Canem fellow; David Ebershoff, author of novels The Danish Girl and the New York Times bestselling The 19th Wife; writer, musician, producer, and Le Tigre band member Johanna FatemanTim Federle, an award-winning American novelist and librettist whose works include the novel Better Nate Than Ever and the forthcoming Broadway musical adaptation of Tuck Everlasting; author and journalist Laura Flanders of the eponymous Laura Flanders Show, and host and founder of GRITtv; the Department of Education’s first-ever LGBT liaison for NYC’s public schools, Jared Fox; the executive editor and president of Farrar Straus & Giroux, Jonathan Galassi, who is also a poet, translator, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient; Silas Howard, formerly of Tribe8, who is the first trans director of the hit TV show Transparent; fiction writer Brian Leung, author of two novels, and recipient of the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize from Lambda Literary; artist, writer, and punk singer Cristy C. Road, author of the graphic memoir Spit and PassionRakesh Satyal, author of the Lammy Award-winning Blue Boy, and a recipient of the NYFA Fiction Fellowship; poet, performance artist, actress, activist, and teacher Pamela Sneed, the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery and KONG and Other WorksCarmelita Tropicana, performance artist, playwright and actor, the recipient of Anonymous Was a Woman award and an Obie Award.

“Our stellar group of presenters includes not only Broadway stars, but familiar names from the New York literati,” said Lambda Literary board president KG MacGregor. “A Big Apple celebration of the best in LGBTQ literature.”

2016 Corporate Sponsors (to date):


Benefactor Level
: HarperCollins Publishers, Macy’s, Target Cue.

Patron Level: American Institute of Bisexuality, Barnes & Noble, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster.

Mentor Level: Bywater Books

Friend Level: Arsenal Pulp Press, Bold Strokes Books, Chronicle Books, The Feminist Press, Kensington Publishing, Nobrow Press

Champion Underwriters: John Faubion & Warren Thomas, Chuck Forester, KG MacGregor, Katherine Percy

Partner Underwriters: Darla Baker, Theodore Cornwell, Robert Ferrante &  Tony Valenzuela, Tom Healy, David McConnell

Event and Ticket Information:

The 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, June 6th, 2016 at the NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts (566 Laguardia Place, New York, NY 10012). The Red Carpet and exclusive VIP cocktail reception begin at 5:30 pm followed by the ceremony at 7 pm. An After-Party at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) will immediately follow the ceremony.

5:30 pm: Red Carpet & VIP Cocktail reception at NYU Skirball Center

7:00 pm: Ceremony at NYU Skirball Center

9:30 pm: After-Party at Le Poisson Rouge

Tickets for the Lambda Literary Award VIP cocktail reception, ceremony and after-party can be purchased here.  

Finalists of the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards can be found here.

2016 Lambda Literary Awards Host Committee

Co-Chairs: William Johnson, Jerome Murphy, Amy Scholder

Kevin Brannon

Jamie Brickhouse

Michael Carroll

Paul Dierkes

Dick Donahue

Paul Florez

David Gale

Antonio Gonzalez

David Groff

Michele Karlsberg

Elizabeth Koke

Melanie LaRosa

Nick Nicholson

Angelo Nikolopoulos

 

Julia Pastore

Lori Perkins

Cathy Renna

Charles Rice-Gonzalez

Patrick Ryan

Eddie Sarfaty

Karen Schechner

John Sellers

S. Chris Shirley

Bob Smith

Rocco Staino

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela

Jason Wells

 

 

Lambda Literary Board of Trustees

KG MacGregor, President, John Rochester, Vice-President  Michael Samuel, Treasurer, Denise Penn, Secretary Tamika Butler, Lisa Girolami, David Groff, Jerome Murphy, Charlie Pendergast, Amy Scholder, Salem West, Jan Zivic

About Lambda Literary:

Lambda Literary believes 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. LL’s programs include: the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, LGBTQ Writers in Schools, and our web magazine The Lambda Literary Review at www.LambdaLiterary.org. For more information call (323) 643-4281 or e-mail admin@lambdaliterary.org. 

 

Join the conversation by following the Twitter hashtag #Lammys. Learn more at www.LambdaLiterary.org and connect with us on  facebook.com/LambdaLiterary and twitter.com/LambdaLiterary.

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