The Lambda Literary Awards celebrated a quarter century of queer and trans literature at a ceremony in New York City on June 3.
Canadian writer Jeffrey Round, who has also written for Xtra, won for his book Lake on the Mountain in the Gay Mystery category.
Other Canadians nominated for awards included musician Rae Spoon, for First Spring Grass Fire (Transgender Fiction), and Kamal Al-Solaylee, for Intolerable (Gay Memoir/ Biography), and Xtra writer Lydia Perovic, for Incidental Music (LGBT Debut Fiction).
The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard contributor Imogen Binnie explained that the ceremony marked the first time transgender people accepted the award for transgender literature at the Lambdas. The anthology of short stories brings together the work of almost 30 trans-identified writers and won the award for Transgender Fiction.
Comic artist Justin Hall, who was recently in Canada for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, took home the LGBT Anthology award for his work on No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics.
“Cartoonists tend to have a spotty understanding of the history of their chosen art form, because it’s been so underground, DIY, and disrespected over the years,” Hall says. “LGBTQ history, of course, is in much the same boat, and many queer people have no sense of the important legacies they are part of.”
Other honorees included author Augusten Burroughs, who was presented with the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Literature for Running with Scissors. Chicana writer and feminist Cherrie Moraga accepted the Lambda Literary Pioneer Award, and legendary gay novelist Edmund White presented the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Bridge Builder Award to John Irving for his novel In One Person (See interview below).
The Lambda Literary Foundation is dedicated to nurturing and promoting LGBT literature for both established and emerging writers.
Winners of the 25th annual Lambda Literary Awards
>Transgender Fiction: The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard, edited by Tom Léger and Riley MacLeod, Topside Press
Transgender Nonfiction: Transfeminist Perspective In and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, edited by Anne Enke, Temple University Press
Bisexual Literature: Tie between In One Person, John Irving, Simon & Schuster and My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B, Cheryl Burke, Topside Signature
Gay General Fiction: Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Cinco Puntos Press
Gay Memoir/Biography: Fire in the Belly, Cynthia Carr
Gay Mystery: Lake on the Mountain: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round, Dundurn
Gay Poetry: He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, Stephen S Mills, Sibling Rivalry Press
Gay Romance: Kamikaze Boys, Jay Bell, Jay Bell Books
Gay Erotica: The Facialist, Mykola Dementiuk, JMS Books
Lesbian General Ficiton: The World We Found: A Novel, Thrity Umrigar, HarperCollins Publishers/Harper
Lesbian Memoir/Biography: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson, Grove/Atlantic
>Lesbian Mystery: Ill Will, JM Redmann, Bold Strokes Books
Lesbian Poetry: Sea and Fog, Etel Adnan, Nightboat Books
Lesbian Romance: Month of Sundays, Yolanda Wallace, Bold Strokes Books
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Lesbian Erotica: The Harder She Comes: Butch/Femme Erotica, DL King, Cleis Press
LGBT Anthology: No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, edited by Justin Hall, Fantagraphics Books
LGBT Children’s/Young Adult: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
LGBT Debut Fiction: The Summer We Got Free, Mia McKenzie, BGD Press
LGBT Drama: The Myopia and Other Plays by David Greenspan, Marc Robinson, University of Michigan Press
LGBT Nonfiction: Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v Texas, Dale Carpenter, WW Norton & Company
LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror: Green Thumb, Tom Cardamone, Lethe Press
LGBT Studies: Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics, Ramón H Rivera-Servera, University of Michigan Press
Dr James Duggins Mid-Career Novelist Prize: Nicola Griffith and Trebor Healey
Dr Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Awards: Sassafras Lowrey and Carter Sickels
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