The USA’s Lambda Awards for LGBTQ+ storytelling have been announced highlighting a long list of notable new books.

The awards come just months after UK based Polari Award was called for 2025 after many of the nominated authors withdrew their works from consideration over the inclusion of author John Boyne in the prize. Boyne has been a vocal advocate against transgender acceptance.

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Established in 1985, Lambda Literary has championed LGBTQ themed books and authors and their awards now has a massive 26 categories. If you’re looking for a great new book to read – here’s a great list to jump off from.

The winner of the Bisexual Fiction category was How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnamable Disaster by Muriel Leung. The author’s debut novel is set in a dystopian future where acid rain has transformed New York into a wasteland cutting residents off from each other.

In the Bisexual Non-Fiction category the winner was Desiree Akhaven’s You’re Embarrassing Yourself. The Guardian described this memoir by filmmaker Akhavan as “smart, funny, painfully honest”. Ahhavan is best known for directing the film The Miseducation of Cameron Post.

Henry Henry by Allen Bratton was named best Gay Fiction. It’s a queer reimagining of Shakespeare’s Henry V transposing the story to that of a 22-year-old gay Catholic man in modern day London.

The best Lesbian Fiction was awarded to The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. This debut novel from the Dutch author also won the 2025 Wone’s Prize and was shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. Set fifteen years after the Second World War it explores how the life of a solitary women is shattered when an unexpected house guest enters her world.

The life of artist Keith Haring is documented in Brad Gooch’s award winning biography The Life and Line of Keith Haring, it picked up the best Gay Non-Fiction award, while My Withered Legs and Other Essays by Sandra Gail Lambert was the lesbian category winner.

In the realm of poetry Interrogation Records by Jeddie Sophronius was named Best Bisexual Poetry, Saúl Hernández’s How to Kill a Goat and Other Monster was the best Gay Poetry winner, and Song of My Softening by Omotara James was the winner in the lesbian category. Eduardo Martínez-Leyva won the award for LGBTQ+ Poetry for his work Cowboy Park, and Zefyr Lisowski won the award for Transgender Poetry with Girl Work.

The awards also have a romance category where The Spring Before Obergell by Ben Grossberg was the winner in the gay section, Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun won the Lesbian Award, while Oyster by Fearne Hill picked up the award i nthe LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica category.

Swagger: A Celebration of the Butch Experience by Rae Theodore and Nat Burns was the winner of the LGBTQ+ Anthology category, while Glenn Burke won the Children’s Book section with Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five.

Comics are also represented, Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia was the winner, while the play The Green Line by Makram Ayache won the LGBTQ+ Drama Award.

Along side these there were also prizes in the areas of Transgender Fiction and Non Fiction, Young Adult, LGBTQ+ Studies, Speculative Fiction, Mystery and Middle Grade.

See the full list of nominees and winners

BISEXUAL FICTION

• Anyone’s Ghost // August Thompson. Penguin Press
• Greta & Valdin // Rebecca K Reilly. Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster
• WINNER How To Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster // Muriel Leung. W. W. Norton & Company
• The Pairing: Special 1st Edition // Casey McQuiston. St. Martin’s Griffin
• We Were the Universe // Kimberly King Parsons. Alfred A. Knopf

BISEXUAL NONFICTION

• Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes // Jon Macy. Street Noise Books
• First Love: Essays on Friendship // Lilly Dancyger. The Dial Press
• Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir // Rebecca Orchant. Unbound Edition Press
• You Get What You Pay For // Morgan Parker. One World 
• WINNER You’re Embarrassing Yourself // Desiree Akhavan. Random House

BISEXUAL POETRY

• Good Dress // Brittany Rogers. Tin House
• WINNER Interrogation Records // Jeddie Sophronius. Gaudy Boy
• Return of the Chinese Femme // Dorothy Chan. Deep Vellum
• The Endless Animal // Nathan Mader. fine. press
• The Stuff of Hollywood // Niki Herd. Copper Canyon Press

GAY FICTION

• Cinema Love // Jiaming Tang. Dutton
• WINNER Henry Henry // Allen Bratton. Unnamed Press
• In Tongues // Thomas Grattan. MCD
• Napalm in the Heart // Pol Guasch; Translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem. FSG Originals
• Our Evenings // Alan Hollinghurst. Random House

GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

• Be Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir // Darius Stewart. Belt Publishing
• Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake // Komail Aijazuddin. Harry N. Abrams
• WINNER RADIANT: The Life and Line of Keith Haring// Brad Gooch. HarperCollins
• Thom Gunn // Michael Nott. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• When the Band Played On // Michael G. Lee. Chicago Review Press 

GAY POETRY

• WINNER How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters // Saúl Hernández. University of Wisconsin Press
• Pentimento // Joshua Garcia. Black Lawrence Press
• Rara Avis // Blas Falconer. Four Way Books
• Scattered Snows, to the North // Carl Phillips. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Terminal Maladies // Okwudili Nebeolisa. Autumn House Press

GAY ROMANCE

• It Takes Three To Tango // Jem Wendel. Larking About Press
• Our Own Light // Logan Sage Adams. Self-published 
• Outside the Wire // William Leet. Flashpoint Publications
• WINNER The Spring Before Obergefell: A Novel // Ben Grossberg. University of Nebraska Press
• We Could Be Heroes // Philip Ellis. G.P. Putnam’s Sons | Penguin Random House

LESBIAN FICTION

• Dead in Long Beach, California // Venita Blackburn. MCD
• Housemates // Emma Copley Eisenberg. Hogarth
• Oye // Melissa Mogollon. Hogarth
• Rainbow Black // Maggie Thrash. HarperCollins 
• WINNER The Safekeep // Yael van der Wouden. Avid Reader Press | Simon & Schuster

LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

• Mama: A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found // Nikkya Hargrove. Algonquin Books | Little, Brown & Company
• WINNER My Withered Legs and Other Essays // Sandra Gail Lambert. University of Georgia Press
• Portrait of a Body // Julie Delporte. Drawn & Quarterly
• The Mary Years // Julie Marie Wade. TRP: The University Press of SHSU
• Wrong is Not My Name // Erica N. Cardwell. The Feminist Press

LESBIAN POETRY

• Alt-Nature // Saretta Morgan. Coffee House Press
• Born Backwards // Tanya Olson. YesYes Books
• Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect // Koss. Diode Editions
• Instructions for the Lovers // Dawn Lundy Martin. Nightboat Books
• WINNER Song of My Softening // Omotara James. Alice James Books
• The Velvet Book // Rae Gouirand. Cornerstone Press

LESBIAN ROMANCE

• Bachelorette Number Twelve // Jae. Ylva Publishing 
• WINNER Here We Go Again // Alison Cochrun. Atria Books
• Loser of the Year // Carrie Byrd. Ylva Publishing 
• Loving Safoa // Liza Wemakor. Neon Hemlock
• Outlaw Hearts // Lori G. Matthews. Bella Books

LGBTQ+ ANTHOLOGY

• WINNER Swagger: A Celebration of the Butch Experience // Rae Theodore and Nat Burns. Flashpoint Publications
• The Queer Arab Glossary // Marwan Kaabour. Saqi Books
• Transmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around Us // Remi Recchia. Sundress Publications
• We Mostly Come Out At Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures // Contributing Editor Rob Costello, with additional stories by: Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. Running Press Teens
• When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton // Dustin Brookshire. Harbor Anthologies | Harbor Editions 

LGBTQ+ CHILDREN’S BOOKS

• WINNER Glenn Burke, Game Changer: The Man Who Invented the High Five // Phil Bildner, Illustrated by Daniel J. O’Brien. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers
• Harper Becomes a Big Sister // Seamus Kirst. American Psychological Association Magination Press
• Jacob’s Missing Book // Sarah and Ian Hoffman. American Psychological Association Magination Press
• Just Us // Molly Beth Griffin; Illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan. Charlesbridge
• Love of the Half-Eaten Peach // Lee Wind, Illustrated by Jieting Chen. Reycraft

LGBTQ+ COMICS

• Girlmode // Magdalene Visaggio, Illustrated by Paulina Ganucheau. HarperCollins 
• WINNER Putty Pygmalion // Lonnie Garcia. Silver Sprocket
• SN_33P’sCoolZine.pdf // Tenacity Plys. fifth wheel press
• Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love // Sarah Leavitt. Arsenal Pulp Press
• We Belong: An All-Black/All-Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology // Viktor T. Kerney and William O. Tyler. Stacked Deck Press

LGBTQ+ DRAMA

• Bathhouse.pptx // Jesus I. Valles. Yale University Press
• Casey and Diana // Nick Green. Scirocco Drama (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
• Goldie, Max & Milk // Karen Hartman. Samuel French, A Concord Theatricals imprint
• In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot // Sarah Mantell. Playwrights Horizons
• WINNER The Green Line | خطّ التماس // Makram Ayache. Playwrights Canada Press

LGBTQ+ MIDDLE GRADE

• WINNER Mallory in Full Color // Elisa Stone Leahy. Quill Tree Books | HarperCollins
• Murray Out of Water // Taylor Tracy. Quill Tree Books | HarperCollins
• Noah Frye Gets Crushed // Maggie Horn. HarperCollins 
• Splinter & Ash // Marieke Nijkamp. Greenwillow Books | HarperCollins
• Wishbone // Justine Pucella Winans. Bloomsbury

LGBTQ+ MYSTERY

• Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher // Katie Siegel. Kensington
• One of Us Knows // Alyssa Cole. William Morrow 
• Rough Pages // Lev AC Rosen. Tor Publishing Group
• WINNER Rough Trade // Katrina Carrasco. MCD
• The Night of Baba Yaga // Akira Otani, Translated from Japanese by Sam Bett. Soho Crime

LGBTQ+ NONFICTION

• Fierce Desires // Rebecca L. Davis. W. W. Norton & Company 
• Gender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative World // Diane Ehrensaft and Michelle Jurkiewicz. The Experiment
• Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution // Amin Ghaziani. Princeton University Press
• Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between // Gemma Rolls-Bentley. Frances Lincoln
• WINNER The Other Olympians // Michael Waters. Farrar, Straus and Giroux

LGBTQ+ POETRY

• WINNER Cowboy Park // Eduardo Martínez-Leyva. University of Wisconsin Press
• I Hate Parties // Jes Battis. Nightwood Editions
• No Credit River // Zoe Whittall. Book*hug Press
• Nonbinary Bird of Paradise // Emilia Phillips. University of Akron Press
• Your Dazzling Death // Cass Donish. Alfred A. Knopf

LGBTQ+ ROMANCE AND EROTICA

• Bradford, Bru and Brendan Too // Colin Dereham. Self-published 
• Leather, Lace and Locs // Anne Shade. Bold Strokes Books
• Midsummer // Jena Doyle. Self-published 
• Mr. Blue Sky // Isla Olsen. Self-published 
• WINNER Oyster // Fearne Hill. Self-published

LGBTQ+ SPECULATIVE FICTION

• Bury Your Gays // Chuck Tingle. Tor Publishing Group
• Markless // C.G. Malburi. Levine Querido
• WINNER Metal From Heaven // August Clarke. Erewhon Books
• The Sunforge // Sascha Stronach. Saga Press | Simon and Schuster
• The Palace of Eros // Caro De Robertis. Primero Sueno Press | Simon and Schuster

LGBTQ+ STUDIES

• Dysphoric Modernism: Undoing Gender in French Literature // Mat Fournier. Columbia University Press
• Jill Johnston in Motion: Dance, Writing, and Lesbian Life // Clare Croft. Duke University Press
• Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability // Mary Zaborskis. New York University Press
• The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China // Matthew H. Sommer. Columbia University Press
• WINNER When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader // Susan Stryker, edited by McKenzie Wark. Duke University Press

LGBTQ+ YOUNG ADULT

• WINNER Icarus // K. Ancrum. HarperCollins
• Old Wounds  // Logan-Ashley Kisner. Delacorte Press | Random House Children’s Books
• So Let Them Burn // Kamilah Cole. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• The Feast Makers // H. A. Clarke. Erewhon Books
• Time and Time Again // Chatham Greenfield. Bloomsbury

TRANSGENDER FICTION

• All Things Seen and Unseen: A Novel // RJ McDaniel. ECW Press
• WINNER Firebugs // Nino Bulling. Drawn & Quarterly
• Love the World or Get Killed Trying // Alvina Chamberland. Noemi Press
• Love/Aggression // June Martin. tRaum Books
• Yellow Barks Spider // Harman Burns. Radiant Press

TRANSGENDER NONFICTION

• American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era // Nico Lang. Harry N. Abrams
• How to Fuck Like a Girl // Vera Blossom. DOPAMINE Books
• Make it Count // CeCé Telfer. Grand Central Publishing
• WINNER Pretty // KB Brookins. Alfred A. Knopf
• Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds // Nat Raha and Mijke van der Drift. Pluto Press

TRANSGENDER POETRY

• Arasahas: Poems from the Tropics // Jaya Jacobo, Translated from Filipino by Christian Jil Benitez. PAWA Press*
• Consider the Rooster // Oliver Baez Bendorf. Nightboat Books
• WINNER Girl Work // Zefyr Lisowski. Noemi Press
• I Don’t Want to Be Understood // Joshua Jennifer Espinoza. Alice James Books
• TRANZ // Spencer Williams. Four Way Books