Lambda Literary Awards 1998: Complete list of winners

The 1998 Lambda Literary Awards marked another landmark year for recognizing the most vital LGBTQ voices in literature. The Lambda Literary Awards, often called the Lambdas or Lambda Awards, have long served as the publishing industry’s most prestigious honor celebrating gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender writers. That year’s winners spanned genres and genres and personal narratives that captured the full spectrum of queer experience—from intimate memoirs to sweeping fiction that explored identity, faith, and resilience.

The slate of 1998 winners reflected the awards’ commitment to lifting up diverse perspectives within the LGBTQ community. Aryeh Lev Stollman’s The Far Euphrates took the Gay Fiction prize, while Rafael Campo’s The Poetry of Healing won Gay Memoir/Biography. On the lesbian side, Elana Dykewomon’s Beyond the Pale claimed the Fiction category, and Barbara Wilson’s Blue Windows: a Christian Science Childhood earned recognition in Memoir/Biography. The transgender category saw The Last Time I Wore a Dress by Dylan Scholinski and Jane Meredith Adams honored for its unflinching exploration of gender identity and institutional experience. These selections demonstrated how the Lambda Literary Awards continued to champion stories that might otherwise struggle to find mainstream visibility.

Below is a complete look at the 1998 Lambda Literary Awards winners:

Gay Fiction

• The Far Euphrates by Aryeh Lev Stollman

Gay Memoir/Biography

• The Poetry of Healing by Rafael Campo

Lesbian Fiction

• Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon

Lesbian Memoir/Biography

• Blue Windows: a Christian Science Childhood by Barbara Wilson

Transgender Fiction

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