37th Lambda Literary Awards

Last updated

37th Lambda Literary Awards
Awarded forWorks of LGBTQ+ literature
DateOctober 4, 2025 (2025-10-04)
Country United States
Presented by Lambda Literary Foundation
EligibilityLGBTQ+ storytelling, published in the US in 2024
Website www.lambdaliterary.org/awards
  36th  · Lambda Literary Awards ·  38th  

The finalists for the 37th Lambda Literary Awards , which honor works of LGBTQ+ literature published in 2024, were announced on July 30, 2025. [1] The virtual awards ceremony announcing the winners will take place on October 4, 2025. [2] [3]

Nominees and winners

37th Lambda Literary Awards winners and finalists
CategoryAuthorTitlePublisherResultRef.
Bisexual Fiction August ThompsonAnyone’s Ghost Penguin Press Finalist [1]
Rebecca K Reilly Greta & Valdin Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster
Muriel Leung How To Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster W. W. Norton & Company
Casey McQuiston The Pairing: Special 1st Edition St. Martin’s Griffin
Kimberly King ParsonsWe Were the Universe Alfred A. Knopf
Bisexual Nonfiction Jon Macy Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna BarnesStreet Noise BooksFinalist [1]
Lilly Dancyger First Love: Essays on Friendship The Dial Press
Rebecca OrchantSimmering: A Kitchen MemoirUnbound Edition Press
Morgan Parker You Get What You Pay ForOne World
Desiree Akhavan You’re Embarrassing Yourself Random House
Bisexual Poetry Brittany RogersGood Dress Tin House Finalist [1]
Jeddie SophroniusInterrogation Records Gaudy Boy
Dorothy Chan Return of the Chinese Femme Deep Vellum
Nathan MaderThe Endless Animalfine. press
Niki HerdThe Stuff of Hollywood Copper Canyon Press
Gay Fiction Jiaming TangCinema Love Dutton Finalist [1]
Allen BrattonHenry Henry Unnamed Press
Thomas GrattanIn TonguesMCD
Pol Guasch; translated by Mara Faye LethemNapalm in the Heart FSG Originals
Alan Hollinghurst Our Evenings Random House
Gay Memoir/ Biography Darius StewartBe Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir Belt Publishing Finalist [1]
Komail AijazuddinManboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake Harry N. Abrams
Brad Gooch RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring HarperCollins
Michael NottThom Gunn Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Michael G. LeeWhen the Band Played On Chicago Review Press
Gay Poetry Saúl HernándezHow to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters University of Wisconsin Press Finalist [1]
Joshua GarciaPentimento Black Lawrence Press
Blas Falconer Rara Avis Four Way Books
Carl Phillips Scattered Snows, to the North Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Okwudili NebeolisaTerminal Maladies Autumn House Press
Gay Romance Jem WendelIt Takes Three To TangoLarking About PressFinalist [1]
Logan Sage AdamsOur Own LightSelf-published
William LeetOutside the WireFlashpoint Publications
Benjamin S. Grossberg The Spring Before Obergefell: A Novel University of Nebraska Press
Philip EllisWe Could Be Heroes G.P. Putnam’s Sons | Penguin Random House
Lesbian Fiction Venita Blackburn Dead in Long Beach, CaliforniaMCDFinalist [1]
Emma Copley Eisenberg Housemates Hogarth
Melissa MogollonOyeHogarth
Maggie Thrash Rainbow BlackHarperCollins
Yael van der Wouden The Safekeep Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster
Lesbian Memoir/ Biography Nikkya HargroveMama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found Algonquin Books | Little, Brown & Company Finalist [1]
Sandra Gail LambertMy Withered Legs and Other Essays University of Georgia Press
Julie Delporte Portrait of a Body Drawn & Quarterly
Julie Marie Wade The Mary YearsTRP: The University Press of SHSU
Erica N. CardwellWrong is Not My Name The Feminist Press
Lesbian Poetry Saretta MorganAlt-Nature Coffee House Press Finalist [1]
Tanya OlsonBorn BackwardsYesYes Books
KossDancing Backwards Towards PluperfectDiode Editions
Dawn Lundy Martin Instructions for the Lovers Nightboat Books
Omotara JamesSong of My Softening Alice James Books
Rae GouirandThe Velvet Book Cornerstone Press
Lesbian Romance JaeBachelorette Number TwelveYlva PublishingFinalist [1]
Alison CochrunHere We Go Again Atria Books
Carrie ByrdLoser of the YearYlva Publishing
Liza WemakorLoving SafoaNeon Hemlock
Lori G. MatthewsOutlaw Hearts Bella Books
LGBTQ Anthology Rae Theodore and Nat BurnsSwagger: A Celebration of the Butch ExperienceFlashpoint PublicationsFinalist [1]
Marwan Kaabour The Queer Arab GlossarySaqi Books
Remi RecchiaTransmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around UsSundress Publications
Edited by Rob Costello; stories by: Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn WolfmoorWe Mostly Come Out At Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other CreaturesRunning Press Teens
Dustin BrookshireWhen I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen SeatonHarbor Anthologies | Harbor Editions
LGBTQ Children's Phil Bildner; illustrated by Daniel J. O’BrienGlenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High FiveFarrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young ReadersFinalist [1]
Seamus KirstHarper Becomes a Big SisterAmerican Psychological Association Magination Press
Sarah Hoffman and Ian HoffmanJacob’s Missing BookAmerican Psychological Association Magination Press
Molly Beth Griffin; Illustrated by Anait SemirdzhyanJust UsCharlesbridge
Lee Wind; illustrated by Jieting ChenLove of the Half-Eaten PeachReycraft
LGBTQ Comics Magdalene Visaggio; illustrated by Paulina GanucheauGirlmodeHarperCollinsFinalist [1]
Lonnie GarciaPutty Pygmalion Silver Sprocket
Tenacity PlysSN_33P’sCoolZine.pdffifth wheel press
Sarah LeavittSomething, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love Arsenal Pulp Press
Viktor T. Kerney and William O. TylerWe Belong: An All-Black| All-Queer Sci-Fi| Fantasy Comics AnthologyStacked Deck Press
LGBTQ Drama Jesus I. VallesBathhouse.pptx Yale University Press Finalist [1]
Nick Green Casey and DianaScirocco Drama (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
Karen Hartman Goldie, Max & Milk Samuel French, A Concord Theatricals imprint
Sarah MantellIn the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot Playwrights Horizons
Makram Ayache The Green Line (خطّ التماس) Playwrights Canada Press
LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica Colin DerehamBradford, Bru and Brendan TooSelf-publishedFinalist [1]
Anne ShadeLeather, Lace and Locs Bold Strokes Books
Jena DoyleMidsummerSelf-published
Isla OlsenMr. Blue SkySelf-published
Fearne HillOysterSelf-published
LGBTQ Middle Grade Elisa Stone LeahyMallory in Full Color Quill Tree Books | HarperCollinsFinalist [1]
Taylor TracyMurray Out of WaterQuill Tree Books | HarperCollins
Maggie HornNoah Frye Gets CrushedHarperCollins
Marieke Nijkamp Splinter & Ash Greenwillow Books | HarperCollins
Justine Pucella WinansWishbone Bloomsbury
LGBTQ Mystery Katie Siegel Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher Kensington Finalist [1]
Alyssa Cole One of Us Knows William Morrow
Lev A. C. Rosen Rough Pages Tor Publishing Group
Katrina CarrascoRough TradeMCD
Akira Otani; translated by Sam BettThe Night of Baba Yaga Soho Crime
LGBTQ Nonfiction Rebecca L. DavisFierce DesiresW. W. Norton & CompanyFinalist [1]
Diane Ehrensaft and Michelle JurkiewiczGender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative WorldThe Experiment
Amin GhazianiLong Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution Princeton University Press
Gemma Rolls-BentleyQueer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces BetweenFrances Lincoln
Michael WatersThe Other OlympiansFarrar, Straus and Giroux
LGBTQ Poetry Eduardo Martínez-LeyvaCowboy ParkUniversity of Wisconsin PressFinalist [1]
Jes BattisI Hate PartiesNightwood Editions
Zoe Whittall No Credit RiverBook*hug Press
Emilia PhillipsNonbinary Bird of Paradise University of Akron Press
Cass DonishYour Dazzling DeathAlfred A. Knopf
LGBTQ Speculative Fiction Chuck Tingle Bury Your GaysTor Publishing GroupFinalist [1]
C.G. MalburiMarklessLevine Querido
August ClarkeMetal From Heaven Erewhon Books
Sascha StronachThe Sunforge Saga Press | Simon and Schuster
Caro De Robertis The Palace of ErosPrimero Sueno Press | Simon and Schuster
LGBTQ Studies Mat FournierDysphoric Modernism: Undoing Gender in French Literature Columbia University Press Finalist [1]
Clare CroftJill Johnston in Motion: Dance, Writing, and Lesbian Life Duke University Press
Mary ZaborskisQueer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability New York University Press
Matthew H. SommerThe Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial ChinaColumbia University Press
Susan Stryker; edited by McKenzie Wark When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker ReaderDuke University Press
LGBTQ Young Adult K. Ancrum IcarusHarperCollinsFinalist [1]
Logan-Ashley KisnerOld WoundsDelacorte Press | Random House Children’s Books
Kamilah ColeSo Let Them BurnLittle, Brown Books for Young Readers
H. A. ClarkeThe Feast MakersErewhon Books
Chatham GreenfieldTime and Time AgainBloomsbury
Transgender Fiction RJ McDanielAll Things Seen and Unseen: A Novel ECW Press Finalist [1]
Nino BullingFirebugsDrawn & Quarterly
Alvina ChamberlandLove the World or Get Killed Trying Noemi Press
June MartinLove/AggressiontRaum Books
Harman BurnsYellow Barks SpiderRadiant Press
Transgender Nonfiction Nico LangAmerican Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent EraHarry N. AbramsFinalist [1]
Vera BlossomHow to Fuck Like a GirlDOPAMINE Books
CeCé Telfer Make it Count Grand Central Publishing
KB Brookins PrettyAlfred A. Knopf
Nat Raha and Mijke van der DriftTrans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds Pluto Press
Transgender Poetry Jaya Jacobo; translated by Christian Jil BenitezArasahas: Poems from the TropicsPAWA PressFinalist [1]
Oliver Baez Bendorf Consider the RoosterNightboat Books
Zefyr LisowskiGirl WorkNoemi Press
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza I Don’t Want to Be UnderstoodAlice James Books
Spencer WilliamsTRANZ Four Way Books

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Lewis, L. D. (July 30, 2025). "Announcing the Finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved August 11, 2025.
  2. "Current Finalists". Lambda Literary. Retrieved August 11, 2025.
  3. "Canadian authors Zoe Whittall, Sarah Leavitt and Jes Battis shortlisted for 2SLGBTQ+ writing awards". CBC. August 1, 2025. Retrieved August 11, 2025.