# 33rd Lambda Literary Awards

The 33rd Lambda Literary Awards were announced on June 1, 2021, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, there was no public ceremony; instead, the winners were announced in a livestreamed virtual gala.
Nominees were announced in March 2021.

## Special awards

| Category | Winner |
| Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction | Nancy Agabian |
| Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize | Sarah Gerard, Brontez Purnell |
| Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award | Taylor Johnson, T Kira Madden |
| Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction | Ana-Maurine Lara |

## Nominees and winners

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Bisexual Fiction | Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much | Elisabeth Thomas. Catherine House C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold Sulaiman Addonia, Silence Is My Mother Tongue Talia Hibbert, Take a Hint, Dani Brown |
| Bisexual Nonfiction | Samantha Irby, Wow, No Thank You.: Essays | Natasha Sajé, Terroir: Love, Out of Place Emma Copley Eisenberg, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Shayla Lawson, This Is Major: Notes of Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope Alden Jones, The Wanting Was a Wilderness: Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and the Art of Memoir |
| Bisexual Poetry | Aricka Foreman, Salt Body Shimmer | George Abraham, Birthright Meghan Privitello, One God at a Time Jody Chan, sick S*an D. Henry-Smith, Wild Peach |
| Gay Fiction | Joon Oluchi Lee, Neotenica | Garth Greenwell, Cleanness Brandon Taylor, Real Life Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain Dennis E. Staples, This Town Sleeps |
| Gay Memoir/Biography | Mohsin Zaidi, A Dutiful Boy: A Memoir of a Gay Muslim’s Journey to Acceptance | R. Eric Thomas, Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body John Birdsall, The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard François Clemmons, Officer Clemmons: A Memoir |
| Gay Poetry | Eduardo C. Corral, Guillotine | Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue Justin Phillip Reed, The Malevolent Volume Romeo Oriogun, Sacrament of Bodies Ted Rees, Thanksgiving: A Poem |
| Gay Romance | Felice Stevens, The Ghost and Charlie Muir | Adriana Herrera, Finding Joy Lance Ringel, Flower of Iowa Erin Colleen McRae and Racheline Maltese, Ink and Ice Cat Sebastian, Two Rogues Make a Right |
| Lesbian Fiction | Juli Delgado Lopera, Fiebre Tropical | K-Ming Chang, Bestiary Francesca Ekwuyasi, Butter Honey Pig Bread Jennifer Steil, Exile Music Jean Kyoung Frazier, Pizza Girl |
| Lesbian Memoir/Biography | Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers | Tania De Rozario, And The Walls Come Crumbling Down Lori Soderlind, The Change: My Great American, Postindustrial, Midlife Crisis Tour Tana Wojczuk, Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First Celebrity Nina Kennedy, Practicing for Love: A Memoir |
| Lesbian Poetry | Pamela Sneed, Funeral Diva | Roya Marsh, dayliGht Sarah M. Sala, Devil’s Lake Mary Jean Chan, Flèche Kimberly Alidio, : once teeth bones coral : |
| Lesbian Romance | Alexandria Bellefleur, Written in the Stars | Clare Ashton, Finding Jessica Lambert Anna Burke, Nottingham Ali Vali, One More Chance Jae, Wrong Number, Right Woman |
| LGBTQ Anthology | Joshua Whitehead, Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction | Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement Dave Ring, Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die Jos Twist, Ben Vincent, Meg-John Barker and Kat Gupta, Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities Andrea Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel, We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics |
| LGBTQ Children's/Middle Grade | Kacen Callender, King and the Dragonflies | Niki Smith, The Deep & Dark Blue Vincent X. Kirsch, From Archie to Zack Phil Bildner, A High Five for Glenn Burke Peter Mercurio, Our Subway Baby |
| LGBTQ Drama | Yilong Liu, The Book of Mountains and Seas | Jacqueline Goldfinger, Babel Liza Birkenmeier and Jill Sobule, F*ck7thGrade Sarah Einspanier, House Plant R. Eric Thomas, Safe Space |
| LGBTQ Erotica | Lena Suksi, The Nerves | Sinclair Sexsmith, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 Anne Shade, Femme Tales Andrea Purcell, Smut Peddler Presents: Silver Kel Hardy, Tianna Henry and MJ Lyons, Smut Peddlers: Glad Day 50 |
| LGBTQ Comics | Bishakh Som, Apsara Engine | Sophie Yanow, The Contradictions Yao Xiao, Everything Is Beautiful, and I’m Not Afraid: A Baopu Collection Tina Horn, Laurenn McCubbin, Jen Hickman, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Michael Dowling, Steve Wands, Tula Lotay, Katie Skelly and Chris O'Halloran, SFSX (Safe Sex), Vol. 1: Protection Bishakh Som, Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir |
| LGBTQ Mystery | Tom Ryan, I Hope You’re Listening | A. E. Radley, Death Before Dessert Cheryl A. Head, Find Me When I’m Lost Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead Rosalie Knecht, Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery |
| LGBTQ Nonfiction | Ashon T. Crawley, The Lonely Letters | Ruth Coker Burks, All the Young Men Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué and Erich Kessel Jr., An Excess of Quiet: Selected Sketches by Gustavo Ojeda, 1979–1989 Marty Fink, Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care Josephine Donovan, The Lexington Six: Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America |
| LGBTQ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror | Julian K. Jarboe, Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel | Rebecca Roanhorse, Black Sun Zen Cho, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Silence of the Wilting Skin Aaron A. Reed, Subcutanean |
| LGBTQ Studies | Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World | Cait McKinney, Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies José Esteban Muñoz, The Sense of Brown Janet R. Jakobsen, The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics Jane Ward, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality |
| LGBTQ Young Adult | Mike Curato, Flamer | Lev A. C. Rosen, Camp Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish Agnes Borinsky, Sasha Masha Leah Johnson, You Should See Me in a Crown |
| Transgender Fiction | Zeyn Joukhadar, The Thirty Names of Night | Nino Cipri, Finna Chana Porter, The Seep Vivek Shraya, The Subtweet Lydia Rogue, Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers |
| Transgender Nonfiction | J Mase III and Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, The Black Trans Prayer Book | Meredith Talusan, Fairest: A Memoir Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, The Freezer Door L Heidenreich, Nepantla Squared: Transgender Mestiz@ Histories in Times of Global Shift Hil Malatino, Trans Care |
| Transgender Poetry | Sade LaNay, I Love You and I'm Not Dead | Aeon Ginsberg, Greyhound Kay Ulanday Barrett, More Than Organs Maxe Crandall, The Nancy Reagan Collection Jay Besemer, Theories of Performance |