# 32nd Lambda Literary Awards

The 32nd Lambda Literary Awards were announced on June 1, 2020, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, there was no gala ceremony; instead, the winners were announced exclusively through social media and the press.
The nominees were announced in March 2020. Winners are in bold.

## Special awards

| Category | Winner |
| Trustee Award | Jericho Brown |
| Visionary Award | Jane Wagner |
| Publishing Professional Award | Brian Lam |
| Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction | Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha |
| Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize | Larissa Lai |
| Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award | Xandria Phillips and Calvin Gimpelevich |

## Nominees and winners

| Category | Winner | Nominated |
| Bisexual Fiction | Fiona Alison Duncan, Exquisite Mariposa | Garrett Leigh, Jude Deborah Levy, The Man Who Saw Everything Tomaz Moniz, Big Familia Carley Moore, The Not Wives Zack Smedley, Deposing Nathan Jess Taylor, Just Pervs Alia Trabucco Zerán, The Remainder (Sophie Hughes, tr.) |
| Bisexual Nonfiction | Trisha Low, Socialist Realism | Victoria Freeman, A World Without Martha: A Memoir of Sisters, Disability, and Difference Janet W. Hardy, IMPERVIOUS: Confessions of a Semi-Retired Deviant |
| Bisexual Poetry | Stephanie Young, Pet Sounds | Dorothy Chan, Revenge of the Asian Woman mai c. doan, water/tongue Moina Pam Dick, Moira of Edges, Moira the Tart Camonghne Felix, Build Yourself a Boat Faylita Hicks, HoodWitch Ariana Reines, A Sand Book Cam Scott, Romans/Snowmare |
| Gay Fiction | Bryan Washington, Lot | Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Animalia (Frank Wynne, tr.) Lindsey Drager, The Archive of Alternate Endings Will Eaves, Murmur Jaime Manrique, Like This Afternoon Forever João Gilberto Noll, Lord (Edgar Garbelotto, tr.) Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous De'Shawn Charles Winslow, In West Mills |
| Gay Memoir/Biography | Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives | Joseph Caldwell, In the Shadow of the Bridge Siddharth Dube, An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex Guy Hocquenghem, The Amphitheater of the Dead (Max Fox, tr.) Isaac Mizrahi, I.M. Alvin Orloff, DISASTERAMA! Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977-1997 James Oseland, Jimmy Neurosis Chris Rush, The Light Years |
| Gay Mystery | Michael Nava, Carved in Bone | Michael Craft, ChoirMaster: A Mister Puss Mystery Chris Gill, The Nowhere Greg Herren, Royal Street Reveillon Liam McIlvanney, The Quaker David S. Pederson, Death Takes a Bow Timothy Jay Smith, The Fourth Courier Marshall Thornton, Rewind |
| Gay Poetry | Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Slingshot | Billy-Ray Belcourt, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field Jericho Brown, The Tradition Douglas Crane, The Revisionist & The Astropastorals Lawrence Lacambra Ypil, The Experiment of the Tropics Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué, Losing Miami Jake Skeets, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers Brian Teare, Doomstead Days |
| Gay Romance | James Lovejoy, Joseph Chapman: My Molly Life | Bryan T. Clark, Escaping Camp Roosevelt Chris Delyani, Best Man Jay Hogan, Digging Deep Garrett Leigh, Kiss Me Again Rick R. Reed, Blue Umbrella Sky R. A. Thorn, My Baby Chased Away the Blues Marshall Thornton, Code Name: Liberty |
| Lesbian Fiction | Nicole Dennis-Benn, Patsy | Kristen Arnett, Mostly Dead Things Beth Brant, A Generous Spirit: Selected Work by Beth Brant (Janice Gould, ed.) Carolina de Robertas, Cantoras Madeline Ffitch, Stay and Fight Shannon Pufahl, On Swift Horses Mathangi Subramanian, A People's History of Heaven Jacqueline Woodson, Red at the Bone |
| Lesbian Memoir/Biography | Samra Habib, We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir | Elissa Altman, Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing Jaquira Díaz, Ordinary Girls Julia Koets, The Rib Joint: A Memoir in Essays Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval T. Kira Madden, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls Benjamin Moser, Sontag: Her Life and Work Edie Windsor and Joshua Lyon, A Wild and Precious Life |
| Lesbian Mystery | Ann McMan, Galileo | Amelia Ellis, The Mirror of Muraro Ellen Hart, Twisted at the Root: A Jane Lawless Mystery Catherine Maiorisi, The Blood Runs Cold Claire O'Dell, The Hound of Justice |
| Lesbian Poetry | t'ai freedom ford, & more black | Etel Adnan, Time Rocío Carlos, (the other house) Franny Choi, Soft Science Shira Erlichman, Odes to Lithium Gala Mukomolova, Without Protection Lee Ann Roripaugh, tsunami vs. the fukushima 50 Sharanpal Ruprai, Pressure Cooker Love Bomb |
| Lesbian Romance | Emily Noon, Aurora's Angel | Alyssa Cole, Once Ghosted, Twice Shy Donna K. Ford, Tennessee Whiskey Virginia Hale, The Secret Chord Jae, The Roommate Arrangement M. Ullrich, Pretending in Paradise M. Ullrich, Top of Her Game Erin Zak, Create a Life to Love |
| LGBTQ Anthology | Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Love WITH Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse Noam Sienna, A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969 | Fatimah Asghar and Safia Elhillo, The BreakBeat Poets Volume 3: Halal if You Hear Me Amber Dawn and Justin Ducharme, Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry Luiza Flynn-Goodlett, Foglifter Volume 4 Issue 2 The Other Foundation, The Heart of the Matter: The Gerald Kraak Anthology Jeff Mann and Julia Watts, LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia Micah Rajunov and Scott Duane, Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity |
| LGBTQ Children's/Young Adult | Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Hazel's Theory of Evolution Alexandra Villasante, The Grief Keeper | Jaye Robin Brown, The Meaning of Birds Akwaeke Emezi, Pet Nicole Melleby, Hurricane Season Saundra Mitchell, All the Things We Do in the Dark Rory Power, Wilder Girls Robin Stevenson, Pride Colors |
| LGBTQ Drama | Michael R. Jackson, A Strange Loop | Liza Birkenmeier, Dr. Ride’s American Beach House Jordan Harrison, The Amateurs |
| LGBTQ Erotica | L. A. Warman, Whore Foods | Rosalind Chase, Lot's Wife Thomas Kearnes, Texas Crude Vikram Kolmannskog, Lord of the Senses Gary Garth McCann, The Shape of the Earth |
| LGBTQ Graphic Novel | Kelsey Wroten, Cannonball | Jaime Hernandez, Is This How You See Me? Vivek Shraya, Death Threat Mariko Tamaki, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? |
| LGBTQ Nonfiction | Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House | W. Ian Bourland, Bloodflowers: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Photography, and the 1980s Cyrus Grace Dunham, A Year Without a Name E. Patrick Johnson, Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women Brett Krutzsch, Dying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual Politics Hugh Ryan, When Brooklyn Was Queer Karen Tongson, Why Karen Carpenter Matters Selby Wynn Schwartz, The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their Afterlives |
| LGBTQ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror | Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, The Deep | Matthew Bright, Stories to Sing in the Dark Julie C. Day, The Rampant Craig Laurance Gidney, A Spectral Hue Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf Jac Jemc, False Bingo Nina MacLaughlin, Wake, Siren Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree |
| LGBTQ Studies | Emily L. Thuma, All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence | R. L. Cagle, Scorpio Rising: A Queer Film Classic Jian Neo Chen, Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement Elizabeth Freeman, Beside You in Time: Sense Methods and Queer Sociabilities in the American Nineteenth Century Robb Hernández, Archiving an Epidemic: Art, AIDS, and the Queer Chicanx Avant-Garde Kara Keeling, Queer Times, Black Futures Dana Seitler, Reading Sideways: The Queer Politics of Art in Modern American Fiction Roberto Strongman, Queering Black Atlantic Religions: Transcorporeality in Candomblé, Santería and Vodou |
| Transgender Fiction | Hazel Jane Plante, Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) | M. Z. McDonnell, Poet, Prophet, Fox: The Tale of Sinnach the Seer Bones McKay, Honey Walls Rachel Pollack, The Beatrix Gates Bogi Takács, The Trans Space Octopus Congregation |
| Transgender Nonfiction | Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma, We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan | Samantha Leigh Allen, Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States T. Fleischmann, Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through S. J. Langer, Theorizing Transgender Identity for Clinical Practice: A New Model for Understanding Gender Andrea Long Chu, Females |
| Transgender Poetry | Xandria Phillips, Hull | Andrea Abi-Karam, Extratransmission Samuel Ace, Our Weather Our Sea Cameron Awkward-Rich, Dispatch Yanyi, The Year of Blue Water |