Living Canon

Lambda Literary Awards

The Lambda Literary Awards (Lammys), presented annually since 1989, celebrate published works that explore LGBTQ+ themes. They are the most prestigious awards in LGBTQ+ literature, spanning fiction, memoir, poetry, and more.

• Putty Pygmalion

  2025LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Pretty by KB Brookins

  2025LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Girl Work by Zefyr Lisowski

  2025LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Firebugs by Nino Bulling

  2025LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel

  2024LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Tweakerworld by Jason Yamas

  2024LambdaGay Memoir
• Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

  2024LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss MajorandToshio Meronek

  2024LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives by Amelia Possanza

  2024LambdaLesbian Memoir
• Hood Vacations by Michal "MJ" Jones

  2024LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Family Meal by Bryan Washington

  2024LambdaGay Fiction
• Desire Museum by Danielle Cadena Deulen

  2024LambdaBisexual Literature
• Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba

  2024LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

  2024LambdaLesbian Fiction
• A Guest in the House

  2024LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  The Third Person by Emma Grove

  2023LambdaTransgender Fiction
• The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan

  2023LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Call-Out by Cat Fitzpatrick

  2023LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

  2023LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes by Nicky Beer

  2023LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  MissSettl by Kamden Ishmael Hilliard

  2023LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Mamo

  2023LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness by Kathryn Schulz

  2023LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez

  2023LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang

  2023LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Appropriate Behavior by Maria San Filippo

  2023LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  We Want What We Want by Alix Ohlin

  2022LambdaBisexual Literature
• The One You Want to Marry (And Other Identities I’ve Had) by Sophie Santos

  2022LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton

  2022LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Stone Fruit

  2022LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie

  2022LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir by Brian Broome

  2022LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Gumbo Ya Ya by Aurielle Marie

  2022LambdaBisexual Literature
• Crossbones on My Life by Mason J

  2022LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Borealis by Aisha Sabatini Sloan

  2022LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison

  2022LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

  2022LambdaGay Fiction
• You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

  2021LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Wow, No Thank You.: Essays by Samantha Irby

  2021LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

  2021LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Black Trans Prayer Book by J Mase IIIandLady Dane Figueroa Edidi

  2021LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Salt Body Shimmer by Aricka Foreman

  2021LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Neotenica by Joon Oluchi Lee

  2021LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland

  2021LambdaLesbian Memoir
• I Love You and I'm Not Dead by Sade LaNay

  2021LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Fiebre Tropical by Julián Delgado Lopera

  2021LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Apsara Engine

  2021LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi

  2021LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

  2020LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma (editors)

  2020LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Socialist Realism by Trisha Low

  2020LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Pet Sounds by Stephanie Young

  2020LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

  2020LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Lot by Bryan Washington

  2020LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante

  2020LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

  2020LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  HULL by Xandria Phillips

  2020LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Exquisite Mariposa by Fiona Alison Duncan

  2020LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Cannonball

  2020LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  lo terciario / the tertiary by Roque Salas Rivera

  2019LambdaTransgender Fiction
• We Play a Game by Duy Doan

  2019LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai

  2019LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Lie and How We Told It

  2019LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Out of Step: A Memoir by Anthony Moll

  2019LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell L. Moore

  2019LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Little Fish by Casey Plett

  2019LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

  2019LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Histories of the Transgender Child by Julian Gill-Peterson

  2019LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, withTina Kover(trans.)

  2019LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Chronology by Zahra Patterson

  2019LambdaLesbian Memoir
• recombinant by Ching-In Chen

  2018LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction by Bogi Takács(editor)

  2018LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Gift by Barbara Browning

  2018LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

  2018LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  My Favorite Thing is Monsters

  2018LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Lives of Great Men by Chiké Frankie Edozien

  2018LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Hunger by Roxane Gay

  2018LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

  2018LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

  2018LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  After the Blue Hour by John Rechy

  2018LambdaGay Fiction
• ody, Undone: Living On After Great Pain by Gloria Joseph

  2017LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Wuvable Oaf: Blood & Metal

  2017LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  When We Rise by Cleve Jones

  2017LambdaGay Memoir
• The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine

  2017LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Small Beauty by jia qing wilson-yang

  2017LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Reacquainted with Life by Kokumo

  2017LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Mouth to Mouth by Abigail Child

  2017LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Life Beyond My Body: A Transgender Journey to Manhood in China by Lei Ming

  2017LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

  2017LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me by Ana Castillo

  2017LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  succubus in my pocket by kari edwards

  2016LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

  2016LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Tiny Pieces of Skull, or a Lesson in Manners by Roz Kaveney

  2016LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ & Amal

  2016LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear by Kate Carroll de Gutes

  2016LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  James Merrill: Life and Art by Langdon Hammer

  2016LambdaGay Memoir
• Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham by Emily Bingham

  2016LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  God in Pink by Hasan Namir

  2016LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency by Willy Wilkinson

  2016LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Yabo by Alexis De Veaux

  2015LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

  2015LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Second Avenue Caper

  2015LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

  2015LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer

  2015LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Give It to Me by Ana Castillo

  2015LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow

  2015LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith by Alethia JonesandVirginia Eubanks, withBarbara Smith

  2015LambdaLesbian Memoir
• A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett

  2015LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Wanting in Arabic by Trish Salah

  2014LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The End of San Francisco by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

  2014LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television by Maria San Filippo

  2014LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  My Education by Susan Choi

  2014LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Mundo Cruel by Luis NegrónwithSuzanne Jill Levine(trans.)

  2014LambdaGay Fiction
• Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta

  2014LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir

  2014LambdaLGBTQ+ Comics
• 
  Body Geographic by Barrie Jean Borich

  2014LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  A Heaven of Words by Jerry Rosco(editor)

  2014LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

  2013LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies by Anne Enke(editor)

  2013LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

  2013LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Collection: Short Fiction From The Transgender Vanguard by Tom Légerand Riley MacLeod (editors)

  2013LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B by Cheryl Burke

  2013LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr

  2013LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

  2013LambdaGay Fiction
• When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love & Revolution by Jeanne Córdova

  2012LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood by Glen Retief

  2012LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  The Horizontal Poet by Jan Steckel

  2012LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín

  2012LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Correspondence Artist by Barbara Browning

  2012LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels by Justin Vivian Bond

  2012LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica by Tristan Taormino(editor)

  2012LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Six Metres of Pavement by Farzana Doctor

  2012LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett

  2011LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet by Myrlin A. Hermes

  2011LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Secret Historian by Justin Spring

  2011LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Inferno (a poet's novel) by Eileen Myles

  2011LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Holding Still for As Long As Possible by Zoe Whittall

  2011LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Hammer!: Making Movies Out of Sex and Life by Barbara Hammer

  2011LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

  2011LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community by Noach Dzmura(editor)

  2011LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar

  2010LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show by Lynn Breedlove

  2010LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents by Minal Hajratwala

  2010LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre

  2010LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Holy Communion by Mykola Dementiuk

  2010LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back by Reynolds Price

  2010LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  A Field Guide to Deception by Jill Malone

  2010LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  We Disappear by Scott Heim

  2009LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Sex Talks to Girls: A Memoir by Maureen Seaton

  2009LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Open by Jenny Block

  2009LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) by Thea Hillman

  2009LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love by Sheila Rowbotham

  2009LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  All the Pretty Girls by Chandra Mayor

  2009LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Transparent by Cris Beam

  2008LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The IHOP Papers by Ali Liebegott

  2008LambdaLesbian Fiction
• Split Screen by Brent Hartinger

  2008LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums

  2008LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

  2008LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  And Now We Are Going to Have a Party by Nicola Griffith

  2008LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  The Transgender Studies Reader by Susan StrykerandStephen Whittle(editors)

  2007LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

  2007LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe by Michael SzymanskiandNicole Kristal

  2007LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  The Bill From My Father by Bernard Cooper

  2007LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Suspension by Robert Westfield

  2007LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

  2007LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  The Sluts by Dennis Cooper

  2006LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Choir Boy by Charlie Anders

  2006LambdaTransgender Fiction
• Babyji by Abha Dawesar

  2006LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Master by Colm Tóibín

  2005LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Gender Frontier by Mariette Pathy Allen

  2005LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  A Seahorse Year by Stacey D'Erasmo

  2005LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Southland by Nina Revoyr

  2004LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan

  2004LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Lives of the Circus Animals by Christopher Bram

  2004LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

  2003LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Dress Codes by Noelle Howey

  2003LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill

  2003LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Practical Heart by Allan Gurganus

  2002LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Omnigender: A Trans-religious Approach by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

  2002LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Omnigender: A Trans-religious Approach by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

  2002LambdaBisexual Literature
• 
  Days of Awe by Achy Obejas

  2002LambdaLesbian Fiction
• Valencia by Michelle Tea

  2001LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The World of Normal Boys by K. M. Soehnlein

  2001LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

  2001LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Lifesaving by Judith Barrington

  2001LambdaLesbian Memoir
• Bosie by Douglas Murray

  2001LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Trumpet by Jackie Kay

  2000LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

  2000LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Velveteen Father by Jesse Green

  2000LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami

  2000LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Allan Stein by Matthew Stadler

  2000LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Wisecracker by William J. Mann

  1999LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  The Indelible Alison Bechdel; Confessions, Comix, and Miscellaneous Dykes to Watch Out for by Alison Bechdel

  1999LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  The Empress Is a Man by Michael R. Gorman

  1999LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison

  1999LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  An Arrow's Flight by Mark Merlis

  1999LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Poetry of Healing by Rafael Campo

  1998LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  The Last Time I Wore a Dress by Dylan Scholinskiand Jane Meredith Adams

  1998LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  The Far Euphrates by Aryeh Lev Stollman

  1998LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Blue Windows: a Christian Science Childhood by Barbara Wilson

  1998LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon

  1998LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas

  1997LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Life in a Day by Doris Grumbach

  1997LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Geography of the Heart by Fenton Johnson

  1997LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

  1997LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Body Alchemy by Loren Cameron

  1997LambdaTransgender Fiction
• 
  Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams by Lyle Leverich

  1996LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham

  1996LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Autobiography of a Family Photo by Jacqueline Woodson

  1996LambdaLesbian Fiction
• Aimee & Jaguar by Erica Fischer

  1996LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  The Gifts of the Body by Rebecca Brown

  1995LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

  1995LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  My Own Country by Abraham Verghese

  1995LambdaGay Memoir
• Gertrude Stein: In Words and Pictures by Renate Stendhal(editor)

  1995LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

  1994LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Marguerite Yourcenar by Josyane Savigneau

  1994LambdaLesbian Memoir
• 
  Living Upstairs by Joseph Hansen

  1994LambdaGay Fiction
• Genet by Edmund White

  1994LambdaGay Memoir
• 
  Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound by Judith Katz

  1993LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan

  1993LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  What the Dead Remember by Harlan Greene

  1992LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

  1992LambdaLesbian Fiction
• The Body and Its Dangers by Allen Barnett

  1991LambdaGay Fiction
• 
  Out of Time by Paula Martinac

  1991LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Bar Stories: A Novel After All by Nisa Donnelly

  1990LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  Eighty-Sixed by David B. Feinberg

  1990LambdaGay Fiction
• Trash: Short Stories by Dorothy Allison

  1989LambdaLesbian Fiction
• 
  The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White

  1989LambdaGay Fiction

• Bisexual Literature
• Gay Fiction
• Gay Memoir/Biography
• Lesbian Fiction
• Lesbian Memoir/Biography
• LGBTQ+ Comics
• Transgender Fiction

See also

• Arthur C. Clarke Award
• Booker Prize
• Caldecott Medal
• Carnegie Medal
• Costa Book Awards
• Edgar Awards
• Giller Prize
• Hugo Awards
• International Booker Prize
• Kirkus Prize
• Locus Awards
• National Book Award
• National Book Critics Circle Award
• Nebula Awards
• Newbery Medal
• Nobel Prize in Literature
• PEN/Faulkner Award
• PEN/Hemingway Award
• Pulitzer Prizes
• Women’s Prize for Fiction
• World Fantasy Awards