| 37th Lambda Literary Awards | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Works of LGBTQ+ literature |
| Date | October 4, 2025 |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Lambda Literary Foundation |
| Eligibility | LGBTQ+ storytelling, published in the US in 2024 |
| Website | www |
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
[edit]| Category | Author | Title | Publisher | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bisexual Fiction | August Thompson | Anyone’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 Parsons | We Were the Universe | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
| Bisexual Nonfiction | Jon Macy | Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes | Street Noise Books | Finalist | [1] |
| Lilly Dancyger | First Love: Essays on Friendship | The Dial Press | |||
| Rebecca Orchant | Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir | Unbound Edition Press | |||
| Morgan Parker | You Get What You Pay For | One World | |||
| Desiree Akhavan | You’re Embarrassing Yourself | Random House | |||
| Bisexual Poetry | Brittany Rogers | Good Dress | Tin House | Finalist | [1] |
| Jeddie Sophronius | Interrogation Records | Gaudy Boy | |||
| Dorothy Chan | Return of the Chinese Femme | Deep Vellum | |||
| Nathan Mader | The Endless Animal | fine. press | |||
| Niki Herd | The Stuff of Hollywood | Copper Canyon Press | |||
| Gay Fiction | Jiaming Tang | Cinema Love | Dutton | Finalist | [1] |
| Allen Bratton | Henry Henry | Unnamed Press | |||
| Thomas Grattan | In Tongues | MCD | |||
| Pol Guasch; translated by Mara Faye Lethem | Napalm in the Heart | FSG Originals | |||
| Alan Hollinghurst | Our Evenings | Random House | |||
| Gay Memoir/ Biography | Darius Stewart | Be Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir | Belt Publishing | Finalist | [1] |
| Komail Aijazuddin | Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake | Harry N. Abrams | |||
| Brad Gooch | RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring | HarperCollins | |||
| Michael Nott | Thom Gunn | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
| Michael G. Lee | When the Band Played On | Chicago Review Press | |||
| Gay Poetry | Saúl Hernández | How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters | University of Wisconsin Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Joshua Garcia | Pentimento | Black Lawrence Press | |||
| Blas Falconer | Rara Avis | Four Way Books | |||
| Carl Phillips | Scattered Snows, to the North | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
| Okwudili Nebeolisa | Terminal Maladies | Autumn House Press | |||
| Gay Romance | Jem Wendel | It Takes Three To Tango | Larking About Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Logan Sage Adams | Our Own Light | Self-published | |||
| William Leet | Outside the Wire | Flashpoint Publications | |||
| Benjamin S. Grossberg | The Spring Before Obergefell: A Novel | University of Nebraska Press | |||
| Philip Ellis | We Could Be Heroes | G.P. Putnam’s Sons | Penguin Random House | |||
| Lesbian Fiction | Venita Blackburn | Dead in Long Beach, California | MCD | Finalist | [1] |
| Emma Copley Eisenberg | Housemates | Hogarth | |||
| Melissa Mogollon | Oye | Hogarth | |||
| Maggie Thrash | Rainbow Black | HarperCollins | |||
| Yael van der Wouden | The Safekeep | Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster | |||
| Lesbian Memoir/ Biography | Nikkya Hargrove | Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found | Algonquin Books | Little, Brown & Company | Finalist | [1] |
| Sandra Gail Lambert | My Withered Legs and Other Essays | University of Georgia Press | |||
| Julie Delporte | Portrait of a Body | Drawn & Quarterly | |||
| Julie Marie Wade | The Mary Years | TRP: The University Press of SHSU | |||
| Erica N. Cardwell | Wrong is Not My Name | The Feminist Press | |||
| Lesbian Poetry | Saretta Morgan | Alt-Nature | Coffee House Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Tanya Olson | Born Backwards | YesYes Books | |||
| Koss | Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect | Diode Editions | |||
| Dawn Lundy Martin | Instructions for the Lovers | Nightboat Books | |||
| Omotara James | Song of My Softening | Alice James Books | |||
| Rae Gouirand | The Velvet Book | Cornerstone Press | |||
| Lesbian Romance | Jae | Bachelorette Number Twelve | Ylva Publishing | Finalist | [1] |
| Alison Cochrun | Here We Go Again | Atria Books | |||
| Carrie Byrd | Loser of the Year | Ylva Publishing | |||
| Liza Wemakor | Loving Safoa | Neon Hemlock | |||
| Lori G. Matthews | Outlaw Hearts | Bella Books | |||
| LGBTQ Anthology | Rae Theodore and Nat Burns | Swagger: A Celebration of the Butch Experience | Flashpoint Publications | Finalist | [1] |
| Marwan Kaabour | The Queer Arab Glossary | Saqi Books | |||
| Remi Recchia | Transmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around Us | Sundress 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 Wolfmoor | We Mostly Come Out At Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures | Running Press Teens | |||
| Dustin Brookshire | When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton | Harbor Anthologies | Harbor Editions | |||
| LGBTQ Children's | Phil Bildner; illustrated by Daniel J. O’Brien | Glenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five | Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers | Finalist | [1] |
| Seamus Kirst | Harper Becomes a Big Sister | American Psychological Association Magination Press | |||
| Sarah Hoffman and Ian Hoffman | Jacob’s Missing Book | American Psychological Association Magination Press | |||
| Molly Beth Griffin; Illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan | Just Us | Charlesbridge | |||
| Lee Wind; illustrated by Jieting Chen | Love of the Half-Eaten Peach | Reycraft | |||
| LGBTQ Comics | Magdalene Visaggio; illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau | Girlmode | HarperCollins | Finalist | [1] |
| Lonnie Garcia | Putty Pygmalion | Silver Sprocket | |||
| Tenacity Plys | SN_33P’sCoolZine.pdf | fifth wheel press | |||
| Sarah Leavitt | Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love | Arsenal Pulp Press | |||
| Viktor T. Kerney and William O. Tyler | We Belong: An All-Black| All-Queer Sci-Fi| Fantasy Comics Anthology | Stacked Deck Press | |||
| LGBTQ Drama | Jesus I. Valles | Bathhouse.pptx | Yale University Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Nick Green | Casey and Diana | Scirocco Drama (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing) | |||
| Karen Hartman | Goldie, Max & Milk | Samuel French, A Concord Theatricals imprint | |||
| Sarah Mantell | In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot | Playwrights Horizons | |||
| Makram Ayache | The Green Line (خطّ التماس) | Playwrights Canada Press | |||
| LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica | Colin Dereham | Bradford, Bru and Brendan Too | Self-published | Finalist | [1] |
| Anne Shade | Leather, Lace and Locs | Bold Strokes Books | |||
| Jena Doyle | Midsummer | Self-published | |||
| Isla Olsen | Mr. Blue Sky | Self-published | |||
| Fearne Hill | Oyster | Self-published | |||
| LGBTQ Middle Grade | Elisa Stone Leahy | Mallory in Full Color | Quill Tree Books | HarperCollins | Finalist | [1] |
| Taylor Tracy | Murray Out of Water | Quill Tree Books | HarperCollins | |||
| Maggie Horn | Noah Frye Gets Crushed | HarperCollins | |||
| Marieke Nijkamp | Splinter & Ash | Greenwillow Books | HarperCollins | |||
| Justine Pucella Winans | Wishbone | 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 Carrasco | Rough Trade | MCD | |||
| Akira Otani; translated by Sam Bett | The Night of Baba Yaga | Soho Crime | |||
| LGBTQ Nonfiction | Rebecca L. Davis | Fierce Desires | W. W. Norton & Company | Finalist | [1] |
| Diane Ehrensaft and Michelle Jurkiewicz | Gender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative World | The Experiment | |||
| Amin Ghaziani | Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution | Princeton University Press | |||
| Gemma Rolls-Bentley | Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between | Frances Lincoln | |||
| Michael Waters | The Other Olympians | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
| LGBTQ Poetry | Eduardo Martínez-Leyva | Cowboy Park | University of Wisconsin Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Jes Battis | I Hate Parties | Nightwood Editions | |||
| Zoe Whittall | No Credit River | Book*hug Press | |||
| Emilia Phillips | Nonbinary Bird of Paradise | University of Akron Press | |||
| Cass Donish | Your Dazzling Death | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
| LGBTQ Speculative Fiction | Chuck Tingle | Bury Your Gays | Tor Publishing Group | Finalist | [1] |
| C.G. Malburi | Markless | Levine Querido | |||
| August Clarke | Metal From Heaven | Erewhon Books | |||
| Sascha Stronach | The Sunforge | Saga Press | Simon and Schuster | |||
| Caro De Robertis | The Palace of Eros | Primero Sueno Press | Simon and Schuster | |||
| LGBTQ Studies | Mat Fournier | Dysphoric Modernism: Undoing Gender in French Literature | Columbia University Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Clare Croft | Jill Johnston in Motion: Dance, Writing, and Lesbian Life | Duke University Press | |||
| Mary Zaborskis | Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability | New York University Press | |||
| Matthew H. Sommer | The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China | Columbia University Press | |||
| Susan Stryker; edited by McKenzie Wark | When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader | Duke University Press | |||
| LGBTQ Young Adult | K. Ancrum | Icarus | HarperCollins | Finalist | [1] |
| Logan-Ashley Kisner | Old Wounds | Delacorte Press | Random House Children’s Books | |||
| Kamilah Cole | So Let Them Burn | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | |||
| H. A. Clarke | The Feast Makers | Erewhon Books | |||
| Chatham Greenfield | Time and Time Again | Bloomsbury | |||
| Transgender Fiction | RJ McDaniel | All Things Seen and Unseen: A Novel | ECW Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Nino Bulling | Firebugs | Drawn & Quarterly | |||
| Alvina Chamberland | Love the World or Get Killed Trying | Noemi Press | |||
| June Martin | Love/Aggression | tRaum Books | |||
| Harman Burns | Yellow Barks Spider | Radiant Press | |||
| Transgender Nonfiction | Nico Lang | American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era | Harry N. Abrams | Finalist | [1] |
| Vera Blossom | How to Fuck Like a Girl | DOPAMINE Books | |||
| CeCé Telfer | Make it Count | Grand Central Publishing | |||
| KB Brookins | Pretty | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
| Nat Raha and Mijke van der Drift | Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds | Pluto Press | |||
| Transgender Poetry | Jaya Jacobo; translated by Christian Jil Benitez | Arasahas: Poems from the Tropics | PAWA Press | Finalist | [1] |
| Oliver Baez Bendorf | Consider the Rooster | Nightboat Books | |||
| Zefyr Lisowski | Girl Work | Noemi Press | |||
| Joshua Jennifer Espinoza | I Don’t Want to Be Understood | Alice James Books | |||
| Spencer Williams | TRANZ | Four Way Books |
References
[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Lewis, L. D. (July 30, 2025). "Announcing the Finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. Retrieved August 11, 2025.
- ^ "Current Finalists". Lambda Literary. Retrieved August 11, 2025.
- ^ "Canadian authors Zoe Whittall, Sarah Leavitt and Jes Battis shortlisted for 2SLGBTQ+ writing awards". CBC. August 1, 2025. Retrieved August 11, 2025.