Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir or Biography

Last updated
Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography
Awarded forLiterary award
Sponsored by Lambda Literary Foundation
DateAnnual
Website lambdaliterary.org/awards/

The Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, to a memoir, biography, autobiography, or works of creative nonfiction by or about gay men. Works published posthumously and/or written with co-authors are eligible, but anthologies are not. [1]

Between 1994 and 2000, the award was given for gay biography/autobiography. [2] From 2002–2006 there was no gay biography/autobiography category (and also no lesbian biography/autobiography category) but rather separate categories for biography and for autobiography/memoir. In 2007 the gay memoir/autobiography category was created (as was the lesbian memoir/autobiography category). [2]

Recipients

List of Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography Recipients
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
1994 Edmund White GenetWinner [3]
Brad Gooch City Poet:The Life and Times of Frank O'HaraFinalist [3]
Lars Eighner Travels With Lizbeth
Reinaldo Arenas Before Night Falls
James Broughton Coming Unbuttoned
1995 Abraham Verghese My Own Country Winner [4]
Ned Rorem Knowing When to StopFinalist [4]
Lawrence Mass Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite
Paul Monette Last Watch of the Night
John Preston My Life as a Pornographer
1996 Lyle Leverich Tom: The Unknown Tennessee WilliamsWinner [5]
Bill T. Jones with Peggy GillespieLast Night on EarthFinalist [5]
Gore Vidal Palimpsest
Edmund White Our Paris
Leroy Aarons Prayers for Bobby
1997 Fenton Johnson Geography of the HeartWinner [6]
David Hajdu Lush LifeFinalist [6]
Assotto Saint Spells of a Voodoo Doll
Bernard Cooper Truth Serum
Mark Doty Heaven’s Coast
1998 Rafael Campo The Poetry of HealingWinner [7]
Gary Schmidgall Walt Whitman: a Gay LifeFinalist [7]
Felice Picano A House on the Ocean, A House on the Bay
Michael Klein Track Conditions
Mark Thompson Gay Body: a Journey Through Shadow to Self
1999 William J. Mann Wisecracker Winner [8]
Gavin Geoffrey Dillard In The FleshFinalist [8]
Norman PageAuden and Isherwood: The Berlin Years
Andrew TobiasThe Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up
Graham Caveney Gentleman Junkie: The Life and Legacy of William S. Burroughs
2000 Jesse Green The Velveteen FatherWinner [9]
Gad Beck An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi BerlinFinalist [9]
Mark Doty Firebird: A Memoir
Fred Kaplan Gore Vidal
Martin Duberman Left Out: The Politics of Exclusion
2001 Douglas Murray BosieWinner [10]
Jean-Yves Tadie Marcel ProustFinalist [10]
David Mixner Brave Journeys
Jay Quinn The Mentor
Ned Rorem Lies
2007 Bernard Cooper The Bill From My FatherWinner [11]
Alan Bennett Untold StoriesFinalist [11]
Jonathan Silin My Father’s Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents
Kim Powers History of Swimming
Patrick Moore Tweaked: A Crystal Meth Memoir
2008 Kevin Sessums Mississippi SissyWinner [12] [13]
Aaron Raz Link and Hilda RazWhat Becomes YouFinalist [13]
Kenny Fries The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory
Mark Doty Dog Years
Martin Duberman The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein
Thom Bierdz Forgiving Troy
2009 Sheila Rowbotham Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and LoveWinner [14]
Aaron Cooper Bringing Him HomeFinalist [14]
Aaron Shurin King of Shadows
Bob MorrisAssisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
Joel Derfner Swish
2010 Reynolds Price Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming BackWinner [15]
David Plante The Pure Lover: A Memoir of GriefFinalist [15]
Douglas A. Martin Once You Go Back
Edmund White City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960’s and 70’s
Jon Ginoli Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division
2011 Justin Spring Secret HistorianWinner [16]
Bryan Batt She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My MotherFinalist [17]
Gale Chester Whittington Beyond Normal: The Birth of Gay Pride
R. Tripp Evans Grant Wood: A Life
Selina Hastings The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham
2012 Glen Retief The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African ChildhoodWinner [18]
Charles Silverstein For the Ferryman: A Personal HistoryFinalist
Michael Schiavi Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo
Ryan Van Meter If You Knew Then What I Know Now
William E. JonesHalsted Plays Himself
2013 Cynthia Carr Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David WojnarowiczWinner [19]
Charles Rowan Beye My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man’s OdysseyFinalist [19]
Kamal Al-Solaylee Intolerable
Mutsuo Takahashi with Jeffrey Angles (trans.)Twelve Views from the Distance
Reynolds Price Midstream: An Unfinished Memoir
Ron Padgett (editor)The Collected Writings of Joe Brainard
2014 Jerry Rosco (editor)A Heaven of WordsWinner [20] [21]
Alysia Abbott Fairyland: A Memoir of My FatherFinalist [20]
Blake Bailey Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson
David Margolick Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns
Didier Eribon Returning to Reims
Hilary Holladay American Hipster
Jim Elledge Henry Darger, Throwaway Boy: The Tragic Life of an Outsider Artist
Perry N. Halkitis The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience
Richard Rodriguez Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography
Tim Teeman In Bed With Gore Vidal
2015 John Lahr Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh Winner (tie) [22]
Richard Blanco The Prince of Los Cocuyos
Alain Mabanckou with Sara Meli Ansari (trans.)Letter to JimmyFinalist [23]
Brent Phillips Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance
Edmund White Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris
Philip Gefter Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe
Rob SmithClosets, Combat and Coming Out
Sean Strub Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival
2016 Langdon Hammer James Merrill: Life and ArtWinner [24]
Arsham Parsi and Marc ColbourneExiled for Love: The Journey of an Iranian Queer ActivistFinalist [25]
Bernard Cooper My Avant-Garde Education: A Memoir
Brad Gooch Smash Cut
Jameson Currier Until My Heart Stops
Jean Findlay Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C. K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy, and Translator
Matthew Spender A House in St. John’s Wood
Michael V. Smith My Body Is Yours
2017 Cleve Jones When We RiseWinner [26]
Augusten Burroughs Lust & Wonder Finalist [27]
Brian Blanchfield Proxies
Frederic Spotts Cursed Legacy: The Tragic Life of Klaus Mann
Garrard Conley Boy Erased: A Memoir
Joseph Osmundson Capsid: A Love Song
Michael Schreiber One Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin
Will Schwalbe Books For Living
2018 Chiké Frankie Edozien Lives of Great MenWinner [28] [29]
Alan Bennett Keeping On Keeping OnFinalist [30]
Bill Goldstein The World Broke in Two
Casey Gerald There Will Be No Miracles Here
Jonathan Alexander Creep: A Life, a Theory, an Apology
José Antonio Rodríguez House Built on Ashes
Kenny Fries In the Province of the Gods
Parvez Sharma A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance
Victor Corona Night Class
2019 Darnell L. Moore No Ashes in the Fire Winner [31]
Alexander Chee How to Write an Autobiographical NovelFinalist [32]
Deray Mckesson On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
Edmund White The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading
Jeffrey C. Stewart The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
Jerry Torre and Tony MaiettaThe Marble Faun of Grey Gardens
Lillian Faderman Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death
2020 Saeed Jones How We Fight for Our Lives Winner [33] [34]
Alvin Orloff DISASTERAMA! Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977-1997Finalist [35] [36]
Chris Rush The Light Years
Guy Hocquenghem with Max Fox (trans.)The Amphitheater of the Dead
Isaac Mizrahi I.M.
James Oseland Jimmy Neurosis
Joseph Caldwell In the Shadow of the Bridge
Siddharth Dube An Indefinite Sentence
2021 Mohsin Zaidi A Dutiful BoyWinner [37] [38] [39]
Billy-Ray Belcourt A History of My Brief Body Finalist [40]
François S. Clemmons Officer Clemmons: A Memoir
John BirdsallThe Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard
R. Eric Thomas Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
2022 Brian Broome Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir Winner [41] [42]
Rajiv Mohabir Antiman: A Hybrid MemoirFinalist [43]
John Paul Brammer Hola Papi
Peter Staley Never Silent: ACT UP and My Life in Activism
Luis Felipe Fabre with JD Pluecker (trans.)Writing with Caca / Escribir con Caca
2023 Edgar Gomez High-Risk HomosexualWinner [44]
Seán Hewitt All Down Darkness Wide: A MemoirFinalist [45]
Jim Elledge An Angel in Sodom
Ron Goldberg Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of ACT UP New York
Jesse Leon I’m Not Broken
2024 Jason Yamas TweakerworldWinner [46]
Charles Busch Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual BoyFinalist [47]
Greg Marshall Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It
Jedidiah Jenkins Mother, Nature
Martin Duberman Reaching Ninety

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References

  1. ↑ "Submissions". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-01. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  2. 1 2 "Previous Winners". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  3. 1 2 "6th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 1994-07-14. Archived from the original on 2022-01-01. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  4. 1 2 "7th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 1995-07-15. Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  5. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2012-03-04). "8th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 4 March 2012. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  6. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (1997-07-15). "9th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  7. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (1998-07-15). "10th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  8. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (1999-07-15). "11th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  9. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2000-07-15). "12th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  10. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2001-07-10). "13th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-23. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
  11. 1 2 "19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 2006-04-30. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  12. ↑ "2008 Lambda Award Winners Announced". McNally Robinson Booksellers. 2008-06-05. Archived from the original on 2022-08-19. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  13. 1 2 "20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 2007-04-30. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  14. 1 2 Gonzalez Cerna, Antonio (2010-02-18). "21st Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-23. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  15. 1 2 Valenzuela, Tony (2010-05-10). "22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2020-08-09. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  16. ↑ "23rd Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners". Lambda Literary. 2011-05-27. Archived from the original on 2022-01-23. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  17. ↑ "23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. 2011-06-27. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  18. ↑ "24th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced in New York". Lambda Literary. 2012-06-05. Archived from the original on 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  19. 1 2 "25th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced!". Lambda Literary. 2013-06-04. Archived from the original on 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  20. 1 2 "Winners of the 26th Annual Lambda Literary Awards Announced". Lambda Literary. 2014-06-03. Archived from the original on 2021-09-12. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  21. ↑ bent (2014-06-03). "Full List of 2014 Lambda Literary Award Winners". IndieWire. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  22. ↑ Thrasher, Steven W (2015-06-02). "John Waters receives 'crown of queer royalty' at 27th Lambda literary awards". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  23. ↑ "The 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists". Lambda Literary. 2015-03-04. Archived from the original on 2022-01-01. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  24. ↑ "28th Annual Lammy Award Winners Announced". Lambda Literary. 2016-06-07. Archived from the original on 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  25. ↑ "Lambda Literary Awards Finalists Revealed: Carrie Brownstein, Hasan Namir, 'Fun Home' and Truman Capote Shortlisted". www.out.com. 2016-03-08. Archived from the original on 2021-12-08. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  26. ↑ Veron, Luis Damian (2017-06-14). "29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced: FULL LIST". Towleroad Gay News. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  27. ↑ "29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. 2017-03-14. Archived from the original on 2021-12-30. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  28. ↑ "30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced". Lambda Literary. 2018-06-05. Archived from the original on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  29. ↑ Froemming-Carter, Rah (2018-06-05). "2018 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced". BOOK RIOT. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  30. ↑ Boureau, Ella (2018-03-06). "30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2020-03-19. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  31. ↑ "31st Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced". Lambda Literary. 2019-06-04. Archived from the original on 2021-11-22. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  32. ↑ Talusan, Meredith (2019-03-07). "Announcing the 2019 Lambda Literary Awards Nominations". them. Archived from the original on 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  33. ↑ Aviles, Gwen (2021-06-01). "Lambda Literary announces 25 winning books for annual Lammy Awards". NBC News. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  34. ↑ "2020 Winners". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  35. ↑ Yee, Katie (2020-03-10). "Here are the finalists for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards!". Literary Hub. Archived from the original on 2020-04-01. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  36. ↑ Hart, Michelle (2020-03-10). "Here are the Finalists For the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards". Oprah Daily. Archived from the original on 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  37. ↑ "2021 Winners". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-01-09. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  38. ↑ Qiao, Vicky (2021-06-02). "Indigenous anthology Love After The End wins Lambda Literary Award". Canadian Broadcasting Company. Archived from the original on 2022-03-20. Retrieved 2021-12-23.
  39. ↑ Essen, Leah Rachel von (2021-06-02). "Announcing the Winners of the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards". BOOK RIOT. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  40. ↑ Gentes, Brian (2021-03-15). "2021 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  41. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2022-06-13). "Lambda Literary Award Winners Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  42. ↑ Segal, Corinne (2022-06-13). "Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards!". Literary Hub. Archived from the original on 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  43. ↑ "Current Finalists". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
  44. ↑ "2023 Winners". Lambda Literary . Archived from the original on 2024-05-25. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  45. ↑ "Current Finalists". Lambda Literary. Archived from the original on 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  46. ↑ Sobhan, Athena (2024-06-12). "2024 Lambda Literary Awards - See the Complete List of Winners". People . Archived from the original on 2024-06-15. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  47. ↑ "Announcing the Finalists for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". them. 2024-03-27. Archived from the original on 2024-04-05. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
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