Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry

Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry
Awarded for	Literary award
Sponsored by	Lambda Literary Foundation
Date	Annual
Website	http://www.lambdaliterary.org

The Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to a lesbian-themed book of poetry by a female writer. At the first two Lambda Literary Awards in 1989 and 1990, a single award for LGBT Poetry, irrespective of gender, was presented. Beginning with the 3rd Lambda Literary Awards in 1991, the poetry award was split into two separate awards for Lesbian Poetry and Gay Poetry, which have been presented continuously since then except at the 20th Lambda Literary Awards in 2008, when a merged LGBTQ poetry award was again presented for that year only.

Recipients

Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry winners and finalists

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
1991	Marilyn Hacker	Going Back to the River	Winner
	Irena Klepfisz	A Few Words in the Mother Tongue	Finalist
	S. Diane Bogus	Chant of the Women of Magdalena
	Minnie Bruce Pratt	Crime Against Nature
	Yvonne Zipter	Patience of Metal
1992	Adrienne Rich	An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991	Winner	[1]
	Eloise Klein Healy	Artemis in Echo Park	Finalist	[1]
	Maureen Seaton	Fear of Subways
	Eileen Myles	Not Me
	Becky Birtha	The Forbidden Poems
1993	Audre Lorde	Undersong	Winner	[2]
	Nancy Boutilier	According to Her Contours	Finalist	[2]
	Terry Wolverton	Black Slip
	Lori Anderson	Cultivating Excess
	Diane Stein	Lady Sun, Lady Moon
1994	Audre Lorde	The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance	Winner	[3]
	May Sarton	Collected Poems (1930-1993)	Finalist	[3]
	Cheryl Clarke	Experimental Love Poetry
	Kate Rushin	The Black Back-Ups
	Cherrie Moraga	The Last Generation
1995	Marilyn Hacker	Winter Numbers	Winner	[4]
	Sapphire	American Dreams	Finalist	[4]
	June Jordan	Haruko/Love Poems
	Linda Smukler	Normal Sex
	Mary Oliver	White Pine
1996	Adrienne Rich	Dark Fields of the Republic	Winner	[5]
	Chrystos	Fire Power	Finalist	[5]
	Gerry Gomez Pearlberg	Key to Everything
	Eileen Myles	Maxfield Parrish
	Jewelle Gomez	Oral Tradition
1997	Robin Becker	All-American Girl	Winner	[6]
	Maureen Seaton	Furious Cooking
	Clare Coss	Arc of Love	Finalist	[6]
	Linda Smukler	Home in Three Days. Don’t Wash.
	Jeredith Merrin	Shift
1998	Joan Larkin	Cold River	Winner	[7]
	Eileen Myles	School of Fish
	Pat Califia	Diesel Fuel	Finalist	[7]
	Emma Donoghue	Poems Between Women
	Gerry Gomez Pearlberg	Queer Dog: Homo/Pup/Poetry
1999	Gerry Gomez Pearlberg	Marianne Faithfull's Cigarette	Winner	[8]
	Pamela Sneed	Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery	Finalist	[8]
	Beatrix Gates	In the Open
	Letta Neely	Juba
	Leslea Newman	The Little Butch Book
2000	Olga Broumas	Rave	Winner	[9]
	Brenda Shaughnessy	Interior With Sudden Joy	Finalist	[9]
	Adrienne Rich	Midnight Salvage
	Rita Wong	Monkeypuzzle
	Minnie Bruce Pratt	Walking Back Up Depot Street
2001	Elena Georgiou	Mercy Mercy Me	Winner	[10]
	Joy Harjo	A Map to the Next World	Finalist	[10]
	Nancy Boutilier	And on the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone
	Leslea Newman	Signs of Love
	Robin Becker	The Horse Fair
2002	Adrienne Rich	Fox	Winner	[11]
	Letta Neely	Here	Finalist	[11]
	Gerry Gomez Pearlberg	Mr. Bluebird
	Eileen Myles	Skies
	Daphne Gottlieb	Why Things Burn
2003	Ellen Bass	Mules of Love	Winner	[12]
	C. C. Carter	Body Language	Finalist	[12]
	Eloise Klein Healy	Passing
	Melanie Braverman	Red
	Jenny Factor	Unraveling
2004	Minnie Bruce Pratt	The Dirt She Ate	Winner	[13]
	Terry Wolverton	Embers	Finalist	[13]
	Daphne Gottlieb	Final Girl
	Susan McCabe	Swirl
	Michelle Tea	The Beautiful
2005	Beverly Burch	Sweet to Burn	Winner	[14]
	Amy King	Antidotes for an Alibi	Finalist	[14]
	Carol Guess	Femme’s Dictionary
	Adrienne Rich	The School Among the Ruins
	Mary Oliver	Why I Wake Early
2006	June Jordan	Directed by Desire: Collected Poems	Winner	[15]
	Amber Flora Thomas	Eye of Water	Finalist	[15]
	Jackie Kay	Life Mask
	Mary Oliver	New and Selected Poems, Volume II
	Samiya Bashir	Where the Apple Falls
2007	Sina Queyras	Lemon Hound	Winner	[16]
	Cheryl Clarke	Days of Good Looks	Finalist	[16]
	Robin Becker	Domain of Perfect Affection
	Juliet Patterson	The Truant Lover
	Nathalie Stephens	Touch to Affliction
2008	No award presented			[17] [18]
2009	Judy Grahn	love belongs to those who do the feeling	Winner	[19]
	Elizabeth Bradfield	Interpretive Work	Finalist	[19]
	Daphne Gottlieb	Kissing Dead Girls
	Maureen N. McLane	Same Life
	Nancy K. Pearson	Two Minutes of Light
2010	Stacie Cassarino	Zero at the Bone	Winner	[20]
	Kristin Naca	Bird Eating Bird	Finalist	[20]
	Samiya Bashir	Gospel: Poems
	Marilyn Hacker	Names
	Ana Božičević	Stars of the Night Commute
2011	Anna Swanson	The Nights Also	Winner	[21] [22]
	Elizabeth J. Colen	Money for Sunsets	Finalist	[23]
	Jen Currin	The Inquisition Yours
	Eleanor Lerman	The Sensual World Re-Emerges
	Laurie MacFadyen	White Shirt
2012	Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha	Love Cake	Winner	[24]
	Daphne Gottlieb	15 Ways to Stay Alive	Finalist
	Dawn Lundy Martin	Discipline
	Julie R. Enszer (ed.)	Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry
	Christina Hutchins	The Stranger Dissolves
2013	Etel Adnan	Sea and Fog	Winner	[25]
	Kathryn L. Pringle	fault tree	Finalist	[25]
	Julia Bloch	Letters to Kelly Clarkson
	Eileen Myles	snowflake/different streets
	Marty McConnell	wine for a shotgun
2014	Ana Božičević	Rise in the Fall	Winner	[26] [27] [28]
	Eloise Klein Healy	A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings	Finalist	[29] [27]
	Veronica Reyes	Chopper! Chopper! Poetry From Bordered Lives
	Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers	Chord Box
	R. Erica Doyle	Proxy
	Kamilah Aisha Moon	She Has a Name
	Ai	The Collected Poems of Ai
	Sophie Cabot Black	The Exchange
	Suzanne Parker	Viral
	Tamiko Beyer	We Come Elemental
2015	Valerie Wetlaufer	Mysterious Acts by My People	Winner	[30] [31]
	Lenelle Moïse	Haiti Glass	Finalist	[32]
	Rachel Zolf	Janey’s Arcadia
	Meg Day	Last Psalm at Sea Level
	Ellen Bass	Like a Beggar
	Sina Queyras	MxT
	Megan Volpert	Only Ride
	Susanna Mishler	Termination Dust
2016	Dawn Lundy Martin	Life in a Box is a Pretty Life	Winner	[33] [34]
	Claudia Rodriguez	Everybody’s Bread	Finalist	[35] [36]
	Sara Jane Stoner	Experience in the Medium of Destruction
	Margot Douaihy	Girls Like You
	Jessica Jacobs	Pelvis with Distance
	J. P. Howard	Say/Mirror: Poems and Histories
	Stephanie Gray	Shorthand and Electric Language Stars
	Melissa Buzzeo	The Devastation
2017	Pat Parker (Julie R. Enszer, ed.)	Complete Works of Pat Parker	Winner	[37]
	Francine J. Harris	play dead
	Donika Kelly	Bestiary	Finalist	[38]
	Etel Adnan	Night
	Stacy Szymaszek	Sinister Wisdom/A Midsummer Night’s Press Journal of Ugly Sites
	Stephanie Adams-Santos	Swarm Queen’s Crown
	Vi Khi Nao	The Old Philosopher
	Arisa White	You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened
2018	Rosamond S. King	Rock | Salt | Stone	Winner	[39] [40] [41]
	Constance Merritt	Blind Girl Grunt	Finalist	[42]
	Sarah Pinder	Common Place
	Dawn Lundy Martin	Good Stock Strange Blood
	Ana-Maurine Lara	Kohnjehr Woman
	Sina Queyras	My Ariel
	Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa	Rummage
	Jen Bervin	Silk Poems
2019	Nina Puro	Each Tree Could Hold a Noose or a House	Winner	[43] [44]
	Emilia Nielsen	Body Work	Finalist	[45]
	Eileen Myles	Evolution
	Marylyn Tan	Gaze Back
	T. Liem	Obits.
	Kristin Chang	Past Lives
	Etel Adnan	Surge
	Jane Miller	Who Is Trixie the Trasher? And Other Questions
2020	t'ai freedom ford	& more black	Winner	[46] [47] [48]
	Rocío Carlos	(the other house)	Finalist	[49] [50]
	Shira Erlichman	Odes to Lithium
	Sharanpal Ruprai	Pressure Cooker Love Bomb
	Franny Choi	Soft Science
	Etel Adnan	Time
	Lee Ann Roripaugh	tsunami vs. the fukushima 50
	Gala Mukomolova	Without Protection
2021	Pamela Sneed	Funeral Diva	Winner	[51] [52] [53]
	Kimberly Alidio	: once teeth bones coral :	Finalist	[54]
	Roya Marsh	dayliGht
	Sarah M. Sala	Devil’s Lake
	Mary Jean Chan	Flèche
2022	Tamiko Beyer	Last Days	Winner	[55]
	Rosamond S. King	All the Rage	Finalist	[56]
	Grace Lau	The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak
	Donika Kelly	The Renunciations: Poems
	Arisa White	Who’s Your Daddy
2023	Shelley Wong	As She Appears	Winner	[57]
	Natalie Wee	Beast at Every Threshold	Finalist	[58]
	Courtney Faye Taylor	Concentrate
	Brynne Rebele-Henry	Prelude
	Rage Hezekiah	Yearn
2024	Kimberly Alidio	Teeter	Winner	[59]
	Alyse Knorr	Ardor	Finalist	[60]
	Brionne Janae	Because You Were Mine
	Maggie Millner	Couplets
	Stephanie Adams-Santos	Dream of Xibalba
2025	Omotara James	Song of My Softening	Winner	[61]
	Saretta Morgan	Alt-Nature	Finalist	[62]
	Tanya Olson	Born Backwards
	Koss	Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect
	Dawn Lundy Martin	Instructions for the Lovers
	Rae Gouirand	The Velvet Book

References

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External links

• LGBTQ portal
• Literature portal

• Official website