Write On Author finalist for Award

Finalists Announced for the 22nd Annual Lambda Literary Awards

Dear Friends,

The news you've been waiting for: after four months of reading, deliberating, and consulting, 87 dedicated (and eye-weary) judges, assessing 462 LGBT-interest titles nominated by almost 200 publishers and authors, have selected 113 finalists in 23 categories.

"This has been a record year for queer books," said the 2009 Lambda Awards Administrator, Richard Labonté, who has been associated with the Lammys since their inception in 1989 as a judge and consultant. "The number of titles nominated and the number of publishers represented is in both cases about 10 per cent higher than last year."

And, for the first time, the single catchall Bisexual category - after reaching a threshold of 10 nominated titles in both fiction and nonfiction - has matured into two distinct categories, Bisexual Fiction and Bisexual Nonfiction.

"In a year of challenge and change for writers and publishers - and for the Foundation - the hundreds of books submitted for nomination illustrate the continuing dynamism of our literature," said Lambda Foundation Board President Katherine V. Forrest. "This year's Lambda Literary Award Finalists and the quality of their work speak eloquently to the richness and range of our literature."

Reflecting the impact of self-publishing and publish-on-demand technology, more titles from non-traditional sources than ever were nominated, and several were selected as finalists, said Labonté. In addition, the Lammy contenders for 2009 continue the tradition of celebrating the best of both our community's specifically queer presses, and books from academic and more mainstream publishers.

Winners will be announced at the 22nd Annual Awards, May 27 in New York at the School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street. Click here for tickets and information.

"To our finalists, I'm proud of your extraordinary talent and hard work," said Lambda Executive Director Tony Valenzuela. "I hope to see you all at the Awards. And to all the readers out there wondering what LGBT books to buy next, take a look at this stellar list of nominees - or check out the new reviews that are being posted on the revised and expanded lambdaliterary.org web site - and go shopping! Support our authors and publishers: they are to be congratulated."

Richard Labonté
2009 Lambda Awards Administrator

Tony Valenzuela
Executive Director



Lambda Literary Awards Finalists


LGBT Anthologies

• Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris, edited by David Bergman (University of Wisconsin Press)
• Moral Panics, Sex Panics: Fear and the Fight Over Sexual Rights, edited by Gilbert Herdt (NYU Press)
• My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them, edited by Michael Montlack (University of Wisconsin Press)
• Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City, edited by Ariel Gore (Lit Star Press)
• Smash the Church, Smash the State! The Early Years of Gay Liberation, edited by Tommi Avicolli Mecca (City Lights)


LGBT Children's/Young Adult

• Ash, by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown)
• How Beautiful the Ordinary, edited by Michael Cart (HarperCollins)
• In Mike We Trust, by P.E. Ryan (HarperCollins)
• Sprout, by Dale Peck (Bloomsbury USA)
• The Vast Fields of Ordinary, by Nick Burd (Penguin Books)
LGBT Drama
• The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, by Kate Moira Ryan & Linda S. Chapman (Dramatists Play Service)
• The Collected Plays Of Mart Crowley, by Mart Crowley (Alyson Books)
• Revenge of the Women's Studies Professor, by Bonnie L. Morris (Indiana University Press)

LGBT Nonfiction

• The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, edited by Drewey Wayne Gunn (MLR Press)
• The Greeks and Greek Love, by James Davidson (Random House)
• I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, edited by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole & Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Oxford University Press)
• Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, by Sarah Schulman (The New Press)
• Unfriendly Fire:How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, by Nathaniel Frank (St. Martin's Press)

LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror
• Centuries Ago and Very Fast, by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
• Fist of the Spider Woman, by Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• In the Closet, Under the Bed, by Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe Press)
• Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valenta (Bantam/Spectra Books)
• Pumpkin Teeth, by Tom Cardamone (Lethe Press)

LGBT Studies

• Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities, by Julie Abraham (University of Minnesota Press)
• Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight Against AIDS, by Deborah B. Gould (University of Chicago Press)
• The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century, by Kathryn Bond Stockton (Duke University Press)
• The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade, by Armando Maggi (University of Chicago Press)
• The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century America, by Margot Canaday (Princeton University Press)

Bisexual Fiction

• Arusha, by J.E. Knowles (Spinsters Ink)
• Holy Communion, by Mykola Dementiuk (Synergy Press)
• The Janeid, by Bobbie Geary (The Graeae Press)
• Love You Two, by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli (Random House Australia)
• Torn, by Amber Lehman (Closet Case Press)

Bisexual Nonfiction

• Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life, by Edna O'Brien (W. W. Norton)
• Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents, by Minal Hajratwala (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Map, by Audrey Beth Stein (Lulu.com)
• Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer, by Emanuel Levy (St. Martin's Press)

Transgender
• Bharat Jiva, by Kari Edwards (Litmus Press)
• Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show, by Lynn Breedlove (Manic D Press)
• The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, by S Bear Bergman (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Transmigration, by Joy Ladin (Sheep Meadow Press)
• Troglodyte Rose, by Adam Lowe (Cadaverine Publications)

Lesbian Debut Fiction

• The Creamsickle, by Rhiannon Argo (Spinsters Ink)
• The Bigness of the World, by Lori Ostlund (University of Georgia Press)
• Land Beyond Maps, by Maida Tilchen (Savvy Press)
• More of This World or Maybe Another, by Barb Johnson (HarperCollins)
• Verge, by Z Egloff (Bywater Books)


Gay Debut Fiction
• Blue Boy, by Rakesh Satyal (Kensington Books)
• God Says No, by James Hannaham (McSweeneys)
• Pop Salvation, by Lance Reynald (HarperCollins)
• Shaming the Devil: Collected Short Stories, by G. Winston James (Top Pen Press)
• Sugarless, by James Magruder (University of Wisconsin Press)

Lesbian Erotica

• Flesh and Bone, by Ronica Black (Bold Strokes Books)
• Lesbian Cowboys, edited by Sacchi Green & Rakelle Valencia (Cleis Press)
• Punishment with Kisses, by Diane Anderson-Minshall (Bold Strokes Books)
• Where the Girls Are, by D.L. King (Cleis Press)
• Women of the Bite, by Cecelia Tan (Alyson Books)

Gay Erotica
• Rough Trade: Dangerous Gay Erotica, edited by Todd Gregory (Bold Strokes Books)
• Impossible Princess, by Kevin Killian (City Lights)
• I Like It Like That: True Tales of Gay Desire, edited by Richard Labonté & Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Low Road, by James Lear (Cleis Press)
• Eight Inches, by Sean Wolfe (Kensington Books)


Lesbian Fiction
• Dismantled, by Jennifer McMahon (HarperCollins)
• A Field Guide to Deception, by Jill Malone (Bywater Books)
• Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory, by Emma Pérez (University of Texas Press)
• Risk, by Elena Dykewomon (Bywater Books)
• This One's Going to Last Forever, by Nairne Holtz (Insomniac Press)

Gay Fiction

• Lake Overturn, by Vestal McIntyre (HarperCollins)
• The River In Winter, by Matt Dean (Queens English Productions)
• Said and Done, by James Morrison (Black Lawrence Press)
• Salvation Army, by Abdellah Taia (Semiotext(e))
• Silverlake, by Peter Gadol (Tyrus Books)

Lesbian Memoir/Biography
• Called Back: My Reply to Cancer, My Return to Life, by Mary Cappello (Alyson Books)
• Mean Little deaf Queer, by Terry Galloway (Beacon Press)
• My Red Blood: A Memoir of Growing Up Communist, Coming Onto the Greenwich Village Folk Scene, and Coming Out in the Feminist Movement, by Alix Dobkin (Alyson Books)
• Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag, by Ariel Schrag (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone Fireside)
• The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin's Press)

Gay Memoir/Biography
• Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back, by Reynolds Price (Scribner Books)
• City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960's and 70's, by Edmund White (Bloomsbury USA)
• Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, by Jon Ginoli (Cleis Press)
• Once You Go Back, by Douglas A. Martin (Seven Stories Press)
• The Pure Lover: A Memoir of Grief, by David Plante (Beacon Press)

Lesbian Mystery
• Command of Silence, by Paulette Callen (Spinsters Ink)
• Death of a Dying Man, by J.M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)
• From Hell to Breakfast, by Joan Opyr (Blue Feather Books)
• The Mirror and the Mask, by Ellen Hart (St. Martin's/Minotaur)
• Toasted, by Josie Gordon (Bella Books)

Gay Mystery
• All Lost Things, by Josh Aterovis (P.D. Publishing)
• The Killer of Orchids, by Ralph Ashworth (State Street Press)
• Murder in the Garden District, by Greg Herren (Alyson Books)
• Straight Lies, by Rob Byrnes (Kensington Books)
• What We Remember, by Michael Thomas Ford (Kensington Books)

Lesbian Poetry
• Bird Eating Bird, by Kristin Naca (HarperCollins)
• Gospel: Poems, by Samiya Bashir (Red Bone Press)
• Names, by Marilyn Hacker (W.W. Norton)
• Stars of the Night Commute, by Ana Bozicevic (Tarpaulin Sky Press)
• Zero at the Bone, by Stacie Cassarino (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

Gay Poetry

• Breakfast with Thom Gunn, by Randall Mann (University of Chicago Press)
• The Brother Swimming Beneath Me, by Brent Goodman (Black Lawrence Press)
• The First Risk, by Charles Jensen (Lethe Press)
• Sweet Core Orchard, by Benjamin S. Grossberg (University of Tampa Press)
• What the Right Hand Knows, by Tom Healy (Four Way Books)

Lesbian Romance
• It Should Be a Crime, by Carsen Taite (Bold Strokes Books)
• No Rules of Engagement, by Tracey Richardson (Bella Books)
• The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin, by Colette Moody (Bold Strokes Books)
• Stepping Stone, by Karin Kallmaker (Bella Books)
• Worth Every Step, by KG MacGregor (Bella Books)

Gay Romance

• Drama Queers!, by Frank Anthony Polito (Kensington Books)
• A Keen Edge, by H. Leigh Aubrey (iUniverse)
• The Rest of Our Lives, by Dan Stone (Lethe Press)
• Time After Time, by J.P. Bowie (MLR Press)
• Transgressions, by Erastes (Running Press)