The Lambda Literary Foundation announced the finalists for its 2021 awards in multiple categories, making for a terrific to-read list of LGBTQ books. Nicknamed the Lammies, the finalists in 24 categories were chosen by 60 judges (authors and publishing industry professionals) from more than 1,000 books submitted by 300+ publishers.
The Lesbian Fiction finalists:
Bestiary, K-Ming Chang (One World)
Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Exile Music, Jennifer Steil (Viking)
Fiebre Tropical, Juli Delgado Lopera (Feminist Press)
Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier (Doubleday)
Gay Fiction finalists:
Cleanness, Garth Greenwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Neotenica, Joon Oluchi Lee (Nightboat Books)
Real Life, Brandon Taylor (Riverhead Books)
Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart (Grove Atlantic)
This Town Sleeps, Dennis E. Staples (Counterpoint Press)
Bisexual Fiction finalists:
Catherine House, Elisabeth Thomas (Custom House)
How Much of These Hills is Gold, C Pam Zhang (Riverhead Books)
Silence Is My Mother Tongue, Sulaiman Addonia (Graywolf Press)
Take a Hint, Dani Brown, Talia Hibbert (Avon Books)
You Exist Too Much, Zaina Arafat (Catapult)
Transgender Fiction finalists:
Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
The Seep, Chana Porter (Soho Press)
The Subtweet, Vivek Shraya (ECW Press)
The Thirty Names of Night, Zeyn Joukhadar (Atria Books)
Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers Lydia Rogue (Microcosm Publishing)
For finalists in Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Biography, Romance, Anthology, Children's books, Young Adult, Drama, Erotica, Mystery, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Comics and LGBTQ Studies finalists , visit www.lambdaliterary.org.
This year, the 33rd annual awards ceremony will take place online June 1, 4pm PST via Zoom, with a performance by Meshell Ndegeocello, and other guests including Alan Hollinghurst, Carmen Maria Machado, Torrey Peters, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Ryan O'Connell, JP Brammer, Katherine V. Forrest, and more.
The event will be free, and captioned and include live ASL interpretation.
www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists