Writers of African descent won big at the Lambda Literary Awards 2021 announced on the evening of Tuesday, June 1, 2021.
The Lambda Literary Awards, or the “Lammys,” as they are known, are an award of Lambda Literary, the oldest and largest literary arts organization advancing LGBTQ literature in the United States. Awards are handed out in categories around fiction, poetry, mystery, memoir/biography, romance, graphic novels, anthologies, and studies. These are subdivided to the areas of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and LGBTQ. Some previous winners include Chike Frankie Edozien for Lives of Great Men in 2018, and Chinelo Okparanta twice for Under The Udala Tree in 2016 and for Happiness, Like Water in 2014.
The finalists for this year’s award, announced on March 15, were selected by a panel of over 60 literary professionals from more than 1,000 book submissions from over 300 publishers. The winners were announced last night and they are;
Bisexual Nonfiction
- Wow, No Thank You.: Essays, Samantha Irby, Vintage
Transgender Nonfiction
- The Black Trans Prayer Book, J Mase III & Dane Figueroa Edidi, The Black Trans Prayer Book
LGBTQ Nonfiction
- The Lonely Letters, Ashon T. Crawley, Duke University Press
Lesbian Poetry
- Funeral Diva, Pamela Sneed, City Lights Books
Bisexual Poetry
- Salt Body Shimmer, Aricka Foreman, YesYes Books
Transgender Poetry
- I Love You and I’m Not Dead, Sade LaNay, Argos Books
LGBTQ Children’s/Middle Grade
- King and the Dragonflies, Kacen Callender, Scholastic
LGBTQ Studies
- Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, NYU Press
Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction
- Ana-Maurine Lara
You can watch the whole ceremony below starting at 8:27 minutes;
