21st Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners and Finalists
2008 Categories:
Overview of the categories by year
- Lesbian
- Debut Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Memoir/Biography, Mystery, Poetry, Romance
- Bisexual
- General LGBT:
- Anthology, Children's/ Young Adult, Drama, Non-fiction, Science fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror, LGBT Studies
- Gay Men's
- Debut Fiction, Erotica, Fiction, Memoir/Biography, Mystery, Poetry, Romance
- Transgender
Lesbian Debut Fiction:
- Winner The Bruise
by Magdalena Zurawski (Fiction Collective Two/University of Alabama Press)
- Finalists
- Red Audrey & the Roping
by Jill Malone (Bywater Books)
- Passing for Black
by Linda Villarosa (Kensington)
- Closer to Fine
by Meri Weiss (Kensington)
- Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind
by Chavisa Woods (Fly by Night Press)
Lesbian Erotica:
- Winner In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip
by Radclyffe and Karin Kallmaker (Bold Strokes Books)
- Finalists
- Lipstick on Her Collar and Other Tales of Lesbian Lust
by Sacchi Green and Rakelle Valencia (Pretty Things Press)
- Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures
by Lynne Jamneck (Lethe Press)
- Winners (tie)
- The Sealed Letter
by Emma Donoghue (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- All the Pretty Girls
by Chandra Mayor (Conundrum Press)
- Finalists
- The Slow Fix
by Ivan E. Coyote (Arsenal Pulp Press) [Review]
- Map of Ireland
by Stephanie Grant (Scribner)
- Breaking Spirit Bridge
by Ruth Perkinson (Spinsters Ink)
Lesbian Memoir/Biography:
- Winner Sex Talks to Girls: A Memoir
by Maureen Seaton (University of Wisconsin Press)
- Finalists
- Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen
by Susan Griffin (Shambhala Publications)
- Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word)
by Thea Hillman (Manic D Press)
- Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeanette Howard Foster
by Joanne Passet (Da Capo)
- Case of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer's Story
by Abbe Smith (Palgrave Macmillan)
Lesbian Mystery:
- Winner Whacked
by Josie Gordon (Bella Books)
- Finalists
- Blind Faith
by Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall (Bold Strokes Books)
- Sweet Poison
by Ellen Hart (St. Martin’s Press)
- Losers Weepers
by Jessica Thomas (Bella Books)
- Calling the Dead by Ali Vali (Bold Strokes Books)
Lesbian Poetry:
- Winner love belongs to those who do the feeling
by Judy Grahn (Red Hen Press )
- Finalists
- Interpretive Work
by Elizabeth Bradfield (Arktoi/Red Hen Press)
- Kissing Dead Girls
by Daphne Gottlieb (Soft Skull Press)
- Same Life
by Maureen N. McLane, Farrar (Straus and Giroux)
- Two Minutes of Light
by Nancy K. Pearson (Perugia Press)
Lesbian Romance:
- Winner The Kiss That Counted
by Karin Kallmaker (Bella Books)
- Finalists
- Finding Home
by Georgia Beers (Bold Strokes Books)
- A Pirate’s Heart
by Catherine Friend (Bold Strokes Books)
- Hotel Liaison
by JLee Meyer (Bold Strokes Books)
- The Lonely Hearts Club
by Radclyffe (Bold Strokes Books)
Bisexual
- Winner Open: Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage
by Jenny Block (Seal Press)
- Finalists
- Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love & Desire
by Lisa M. Diamond (Harvard University Press)
- The Bishop’s Daughter
by Honor Moore (W.W. Norton)
- Kinsey Zero Through Sixty: Bisexual Perspectives on Kinsey
(a.k.a. Bisexual Perspectives on the Life and Work of Alfred C. Kinsey ) by Ron Jackson Suresha (Taylor & Francis Journals)
- Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel
by Edmund White (Atlas & Company)
LGBT Anthology:
- Winner Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles
edited by Thomas Glave (Duke University Press)
- Finalists
- A Casualty of War: Gay Short Fiction
by Peter Burton (Arcadia Books)
- Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction
edited by Sabrina Chapadjiev (Seven Stories Press)
- Love, West Hollywood: Reflections of Los Angeles
edited by Chris Freeman and James J. Berg (Alyson)
- Big Trips: More Good Gay Travel Writing
edited by Raphael Kadushin (University of Wisconsin Press)
LGBT Children's/Young Adult:
- Winner Out of the Pocket
by Bill Konigsberg (Dutton)
- Finalists
- Hit the Road, Manny: A Manny Files Novel
by Christian Burch (Simon and Schuster)
- How They Met & Other Stories
by David Levithan (Knopf Children’s Books)
- Mousetraps
by Pat Schmatz (Carolrhoda Books)
- What They Always Tell Us
by Martin Wilson (Random House Children’s Books)
- Love & Lies: Marisol’s Story
by Ellen Wittlinger (Simon and Schuster)
LGBT Drama:
- Winner The Second Coming of Joan of Arc
by Carolyn Gage (Outskirts Press)
- Finalists
- Phi Alpha Gamma
by Dan Bernitt (Sawyer House)
- Radical Acts: Collected Political Plays
by Martin Duberman (The New Press)
- Two Truths and a Lie
by Scott Schofield (Homofactus Press)
- Vile Affections
by Vanda (Original Works Publishing)
LGBT Non-Fiction:
- Winner Loving The Difficult
by Jane Rule (Hedgerow Press)
- Finalists
- Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter
by Nancy Agabian (Aunt Lute Books)
- If I Could Write This in Fire
by Michelle Cliff (Univ of Minnesota Press)
- Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861-2003
by William N. Eskridge Jr (Penguin Group) [Non-fiction winner, Stonewall Awards 2009]
- Beyond (Straight & Gay) Marriage:Valuing All Families Under the Law
by Nancy Polikoff (Beacon Press)
- Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay and Coming of Age on the Streets of New York
by Kai Wright (Beacon Press)
LGBT Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror:
- Winner Turnskin
by Nicole Kimberling (Blind Eye Books) [Shortlisted for Best Novel, Gaylactic Spectrum Awards 2009] [Gay, fantasy]
- Finalists
- The Archer’s Heart
by Astrid Amara (Blind Eye Books) [Gay, fantasy]
- The Magician and the Fool
by Barth Anderson (Bantam Del Rey) [Gay, fantasy]
- Wilde Stories 2008: The Best of the Year's Gay Speculative Fiction
by Steve Berman (Lethe Press) [Gay, fantasy, science fiction]
- Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories
by Craig Gidney (Lethe Press) [Gay, fantasy]
LGBT Studies:
- Winner Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality
by Regina Kunzel (The University of Chicago Press)
- Finalists
- Tomboys: A Literary & Cultural History
by Michelle Ann Abate (Temple University Press)
- The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington
by Amin Ghaziani (The University of Chicago Press)
- Political Manhood: Red Bloods, Mollycoddles, & the Politics of Progressive Reform
by Kevin P. Murphy (Columbia University Press)
- Screening Sex
by Linda Williams (Duke University Press)
Gay Debut Fiction:
- Winner Finlater
by Shawn Stewart Ruff (Quote Editions)
- Finalists
- Shuck
by Daniel Allen Cox (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Light Fell
by Evan Fallenberg (Soho Press) [Literature winner, Stonewall Awards 2009]
- The Screwed-Up Life of Charlie The Second
by Drew Ferguson (Kensington)
- The Steve Machine
by Mike Hoolboom (Coach House Books)
Gay Erotica:
- Winner Best Gay Erotica 2009
by Richard Labonte & James Lear (Cleis Press)
- Finalists
- The Secret Tunnel
by James Lear (Cleis Press)
- Hard Working Men
by William Maltese, Victor J. Banis, Jardonn Smith, & J.P. Bowie (MLR Press)
Gay Fiction:
- Winner We Disappear
by Scott Heim (Harper Perennial)
- Finalists
- Stray Dog Winter
by David Francis (Macadam/Cage Publishing) [Literature winner, Stonewall Awards 2010]
- The Torturer’s Wife
by Thomas Glave (City Light Publishers)
- The Conversion
by Joseph Olshan (St. Martin’s Press)
- The Boomerang Kid
by Jay Quinn (Alyson)
Gay Memoir/Biography:
- Winner Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love
by Sheila Rowbotham (Verso Books)
- Finalists
- Bringing Him Home
by Aaron Cooper (Late August Press)
- Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever
by Joel Derfner (Broadway Books)
- Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
by Bob Morris (Harper)
- King of Shadows
by Aaron Shurin (City Lights Publishers)
Gay Mystery:
- Winner First You Fall
by Scott Sherman (Alyson Books)
- Finalists
- The Fisher Boy
by Stephen Anable (Poisoned Pen Press)
- Sundowner Ubuntu
by Anthony Bidulka (Insomniac Press)
- Mahu Fire
by Neil Plakcy (Alyson Books)
- Spider Season
by John Morgan Wilson (St. Martin’s Press)
Gay Poetry:
- Winners (tie)
- Fire to Fire
by Mark Doty (Harper)
- Now You’re the Enemy
by James Allen Hall (Univ. of Arkansas Press)
- Finalists
- Want
by Rick Barot (Sarabande Press)
- Please
by Jericho Brown (New Issues)
- My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
by Jack Spicer, edited by Peter Gizzi & Kevin Killian (Wesleyan University Press)
Gay Romance:
- Winner Got ’til it’s Gone
by Larry Duplechan (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Finalists
- Mexican Heat
by Laura Baumbach & Josh Lanyon (MLR Press)
- The Protector
by N.L. Gassert (Seventh Window Publications)
Transgender:
- Winner Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word)
- Finalists
- 10,000 Dresses
by Marcus Ewert & Rex Ray (Seven Stories Press)
- Two Truths and a Lie
- Boy with Flowers
by Ely Shipley (Barrow Street Press)
- Transgender History
by Susan Stryker (Seal Press)
