The 8th Lambda Literary Awards were held in 1996 to honour works of LGBT literature published in 1995. [1]
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Editor's Choice | Patrick Califia and Janine Fuller, Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada |
| Pioneer Award | L. Page “Deacon” Maccubbin, Lambda Rising |
| Publisher's Service | Nancy Bereano, Firebrand Press Janine Fuller and Stuart Blackley, Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial |
| Category | Author/Editor | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthologies (Fiction) | E. J. Levy (ed.) | Tasting Life Twice | Winner |
| Pat Califia and Janine Fuller | Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada | Finalist | |
| Robert Drake | His | Finalist | |
| Catherine McKinley and ` (eds.) | Afrekete | Finalist | |
| Eileen Myles and Liz Kotz (eds.) | The New Fuck You | Finalist | |
| Anthologies (Non-Fiction) | Claude J. Summers (ed.) | Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage | Winner |
| Karla Jay (ed.) | Dyke Life | Finalist | |
| Leslea Newman (ed.) | A Loving Testimony | Finalist | |
| Lynn Witt , Sherry Thomas, and Eric Marcus (eds.) | Out in All Directions | Finalist | |
| Lynn Yamaguchi and Karin Barber (eds.) | Tomboys | Finalist | |
| Children's and Young Adult | Jacqueline Woodson | From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun | Winner |
| Francesca Lia Block | Baby Bebop | Finalist | |
| Kurt Chandler | Passages of Pride | Finalist | |
| Daniel Vilmure | Toby’s Lie | Finalist | |
| Judith Vinga | My Two Uncles | Finalist | |
| Drama | Tony Kushner | Slavs (Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness) | Winner |
| Guinevere Turner and Rose Troche | Go Fish | Winner | |
| Michael Kearns | T-Cells and Sympathy | Finalist | |
| Eric Lane and Nina Shengold (eds.) | The Actor’s Book of Gay and Lesbian Plays | Finalist | |
| Terrence McNally | Love! Valour! Compassion! | Finalist | |
| Gay Biography and Autobiography | Lyle Leverich | Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams | Winner |
| Leroy F. Aarons | Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son | Finalist | |
| Bill T. Jones and Peggy Gillespie | Last Night on Earth | Finalist | |
| Gore Vidal | Palimpsesta | Finalist | |
| Edmund White | Our Paris | Finalist | |
| Gay Fiction | Michael Cunningham | Flesh and Blood | Winner |
| Christopher Bram | Father of Frankenstein | Finalist | |
| Jim Grimsley | Dream Boy | Finalist | |
| Scott Heim | Mysterious Skin | Finalist | |
| Felice Picano | Like People in History | Finalist | |
| Gay Mystery | R. D. Zimmerman | Closet | Winner |
| George Baxt | Queer Kind of Umbrella | Finalist | |
| Steven Saylor | The Venus Throw | Finalist | |
| Richard Stevenson | Shock to the System | Finalist | |
| Mark Richard Zubro | Another Dead Teenager | Finalist | |
| Gay Poetry | Mark Doty | Atlantis | Winner |
| David Laurents | Badboy Book of Erotic Verse | Finalist | |
| Timothy Liu | Burnt Offerings | Finalist | |
| James Merrill | Scattering of Salts | Finalist | |
| Carl Phillips | Cortege | Finalist | |
| Gay Studies | Joseph Carrier | De Los Otros | Winner |
| Daniel Halperin | Saint=Foucault | Finalist | |
| Jonathan Ned Katz | The Invention of Heterosexuality | Finalist | |
| Pierre Seel | I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual | Finalist | |
| Andrew Sullivan | Virtually Normal | Finalist | |
| Humor | Ellen Orleans | The Butches of Madison County | Winner |
| Alison Bechdel | Unnatural Dykes to Watch Out For | Finalist | |
| Diane DiMassa | Revenge of HotHead Paisan | Finalist | |
| Funny Gay Males | Growing Up Gay: From Left Out to Coming Out | Finalist | |
| Mabel Maney | Ghost in the Closet | Finalist | |
| Lesbian Biography and Autobiography | Erica Fischer | Aimee & Jaguar | Winner |
| Dorothy Allison | Two or Three Things I Know for Sure | Finalist | |
| Claudia Brenner and Hannah Ashley | Eight Bullets: One Woman's Story of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence | Finalist | |
| Susan E. Cayliff | Babe | Finalist | |
| Deb Price and Joyce Murdoch | And Say Hi to Joyce | Finalist | |
| Lesbian Fiction | Jacqueline Woodson | Autobiography of a Family Photo | Winner |
| Lucy Jane Bledsoe | Sweat | Finalist | |
| Louise Blum | Amnesty | Finalist | |
| Stephanie Grant | Passion of Alice | Finalist | |
| Sarah Schulman | Rat Bohemia | Finalist | |
| Lesbian Mystery | Jean M. Redmann | Intersection of Law and Desire | Winner |
| Ellen Hart | Faint Praise | Finalist | |
| Jaye Maiman | Someone to Watch | Finalist | |
| Penny Mickelbury | Night Songs | Finalist | |
| Elizabeth Pincus | Hangdog Hustle | Finalist | |
| Lesbian Poetry | Adrienne Rich | Dark Fields of the Republic | Winner |
| Chrystos | Fire Power | Finalist | |
| Jewelle Gomez | Oral Tradition | Finalist | |
| Eileen Myles | Maxfield Parrish | Finalist | |
| Gerry Gomez Pearlberg | Key to Everything | Finalist | |
| Lesbian Studies | Karla Jay | Dyke Life | Winner |
| Julie Glamuzina and Alison J. Laurie | Parker and Hulme | Finalist | |
| Minnie Bruce Pratt | S/he | Finalist | |
| Urvashi Vaid | Virtual Equality | Finalist | |
| Lynn Yamaguchi and Karin Barber | Tomboys | Finalist | |
| Photography and Visual Arts | Andrea Weiss | Paris Was a Woman | Winner |
| Emmanuel Cooper | Fully Exposed: The Male Nude in Photography | Finalist | |
| Howard Cruse | Stuck Rubber Baby | Finalist | |
| Geoff Manasse and Jean Swallow | Making Love Visible | Finalist | |
| M.G. Soares | Butch/Femme | Finalist | |
| Science fiction, fantasy or horror | Nicola Griffith | Slow River | Winner |
| Melissa Scott | Shadow Man | Winner | |
| Samuel R. Delany | Atlantis: Three Tales | Finalist | |
| Pam Keesey | Dark Angels | Finalist | |
| Felice Picano | Dryland’s End | Finalist | |
| Small Press | Eileen Myles and Liz Kotz | The New Fuck You | Winner |
| Staszek | Three-Hand Jax and Other Spells | Finalist | |
| Adam Klein | The Medicine Burns | Finalist | |
| Minnie Bruce Pratt | S/He | Finalist | |
| Vega Press | Milking Black Bull | Finalist | |
| Spirituality | Brian Bouldrey | Wrestling with the Angel | Winner |
| Peter Cashorali | Gay Fairy Tales | Finalist | |
| John J. McNeill | Freedom, Glorious Freedom | Finalist | |
| Will Roscoe | Queer Spirits | Finalist | |
| Nancy Wilson | Our Tribe | Finalist |