The literati’s glitterati were out in full force and a more fabulous night there wasn’t.
The Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York was the scene of a dramatic explosion of gay brainpower and talent Monday night for the awarding of the 27th Annual Lambda Literary Awards — a/k/a The Lammys. Let’s do some name dropping: Alison Bechdel,Justin Vivian Bond, Andrew Rannells, Susie Bright, Alan Cumming, Janet Mock, and Michelangelo Signorile.
Need more? How about gossip great Liz Smith and Gloria Steinem.
Boom!
And those were just the presenters.
Among the major awards were two of the LGBT community’s biggest heroes and sheroes — Rita Mae Brown and John Waters. Brown is famed author of the lesbian classic, Rubyfruit Jungle, and her Lammy was the Pioneer Award.
She’s a groundbreaker on multiple levels and was among a group of lesbians who in the 1970s forced the feminist movement to halt the de facto policy of sweeping LGBT issues aside.
“James Baldwin got me through high school.” John Waters at #Lammys pic.twitter.com/DtnODrGaJP
— Ileana Jiménez (@feministteacher) June 2, 2015
Brown was introduced by Steinem, the Ms. magazine founder.
Steinem, calling laughter “an orgasm of the mind,” she praised the author for always understanding joy and laughter. Brown returned the favor, lauding Steinem as “our North Star.” “If you can find her, you’ll never be lost.”
Smith introduced writer and movie maker John Waters, the winner of Lambda’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature who is often likened to Andy Warhol.
“Nowadays Andy Warhol is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but John Waters is the real thing. John is truly sweet. Andy only appeared that way,” Smith said.
Here is the full list of winners:
BISEXUAL FICTION
Best Bi Short Stories: Bisexual Fiction, Sheela Lambert, editor, Gressive Press, an imprint of Circlet Press Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin, Ron J. Suresha, Lethe Press Finder of Lost Objects, Susie Hara, Ithuriel’s Spear Give It to Me, Ana Castillo, The Feminist Press [Winner] She of the Mountains, Vivek Shraya, Arsenal Pulp Press
BISEXUAL NONFICTION
Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Charles M. Blow, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [Winner] Not My Father’s Son, Alan Cumming, HarperCollins Publishers/Dey Street Books Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men, Robyn Ochs & H. Sharif Williams, editors, Bisexual Resource Center GAY EROTICA
The Bears of Winter, Jerry Wheeler, Bear Bones Books Incubus Tales, Hushicho, Circlet Press
The King, Tiffany Reisz, MIRA Books [Winner]
Leather Spirit Stallion, Raven Kaldera, Circlet Press
The Thief Taker, William Holden, Bold Strokes Books
GAY GENERAL FICTION
All I Love and Know,Judith Frank,HarperCollins/William Morrow Barracuda,Christos Tsiolkas, Hogarth Bitter Eden: A Novel, Tatamkhulu Afrika, Macmillan/Picador USA The City of Palaces, Michael Nava, University of Wisconsin Press I Loved You More,Tom Spanbauer, Hawthorne Books [Winner] Little Reef and Other Stories,Michael Carroll, Terrace Books, an imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press Next to Nothing: Stories,Keith Banner, Lethe Press Souljah, John R Gordon, Angelica Entertainments Ltd/Team Angelica Publishing GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY [Two Winners] :
Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival,Sean Strub, Scribner Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance, Brent Phillips, University Press of Kentucky Closets, Combat and Coming Out: Coming Of Age As A Gay Man In The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Army, Rob Smith, Blue Beacon Books by Regal Crest Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris, Edmund White, Bloomsbury Letter to Jimmy, Alain Mabanckou, translated by Sara Meli Ansari, Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press The Prince of Los Cocuyos, Richard Blanco, HarperCollins/Ecco [Winner] Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, John Lahr, W. W. Norton & Company [Winner] Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, Philip Gefter, W. W. Norton & Company/Liveright GAY MYSTERY
Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery , Katie Gilmartin, Cleis Press [Winner] Boystown 6: From the Ashes , Marshall Thornton, MLR Calvin’s Head , David Swatling, Bold Strokes Books
DeadFall , David Lennon, BlueSpike Publishing
Fair Game , Josh Lanyon, Carina Press A Gathering Storm , Jameson Currier, Chelsea Station Editions Moon Over Tangier , Janice Law, Open Road Media
The Next , Rafe Haze, Wilde City Press GAY POETRY
[insert] boy , Danez Smith , YesYes Books [Winner] Clean , David J. Daniels, Four Way Books
Don’t Go Back To Sleep , Timothy Liu, Saturnalia Books
ECODEVIANCE: (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness , CAConrad, Wave Books The New Testament , Jericho Brown, Copper Canyon Press Prelude to Bruise , Saeed Jones , Coffee House Press This Life Now, Michael Broder, A Midsummer Night’s Press This Way to the Sugar , Hieu Minh Nguyen, Write Bloody Publishing GAY ROMANCE
The Companion , Lloyd A. Meeker, Dreamspinner Press Everything’s Coming Up Roses: Four Tales of M/M Romance , Barry Lowe, Lydian Press Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction , Timothy Lambert and R.D. Cochrane, Cleis Press Like They Always Been Free , Georgina Li, Queer Young Cowboys Message of Love , Jim Provenzano, Myrmidude Press/CreateSpace The Passion of Sergius & Bacchus, A Novel of Truth , David Reddish, DoorQ Publishing Pulling Leather , L.C. Chase, Riptide Publishing
Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War , Jeff Mann, Bear Bones Books [Winner] LESBIAN EROTICA
All You Can Eat. A Buffet of Lesbian Erotica and Romance , Andi Marquette and R.G. Emanuelle, Ylva Publishing Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire , Cheyenne Blue, Ladylit Publishing Lesbian Sex Bible , Diana Cage, Quiver Books [Winner] LESBIAN GENERAL FICTION
Adult Onset , Ann-Marie Macdonald, Tin House Books Last Words From Montmartre , Qiu Miaojin, Translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich, New York Review Books Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 , Francine Prose , Harper Collins/Harper Miracle Girls , MB Caschetta , Engine Books New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 , Shelly Oria , FSG Originals / Farrar, Straus and Giroux The Palace Blues , Brandy T. Wilson, Spinsters Ink The Paying Guests , Sarah Waters , Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House Yabo , Alexis De Veaux, RedBone Press [Winner]
LESBIAN MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith , Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, with Barbara Smith, SUNY Press [Winner] Cease – a memoir of love, loss and desire , Lynette Loeppky, Oolichan Books Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger , Kelly Cogswell , The University of Minnesota Press The End of Eve , Ariel Gore , Hawthorne Books Under This Beautiful Dome: A Senator, A Journalist, and the Politics of Gay Love in America , Terry Mutchler, Seal Press LESBIAN MYSTERY
The Acquittal , Anne Laughlin, Bold Strokes Books Done to Death , Charles Atkins, Severn House Publishers
The Old Deep and Dark-A Jane Lawless Mystery , Ellen Hart, Minotaur Books [Winner] Slash and Burn , Valerie Bronwen, Bold Strokes Books UnCatholic Conduct , Stevie Mikayne, Bold Strokes Books
LESBIAN POETRY
Haiti Glass , Lenelle Moïse, City Lights/Sister Spit Janey’s Arcadia , Rachel Zolf, Coach House Books
Last Psalm at Sea Level , Meg Day, Barrow Street Press Like a Beggar, Ellen Bass, Copper Canyon Press MxT , Sina Queyras, Coach House Books
Mysterious Acts by My People , Valerie Wetlaufer, Sibling Rivalry Press [Winner] Only Ride , Megan Volpert, Sibling Rivalry Press Termination Dust , Susanna Mishler, Red Hen Press/Boreal LESBIAN ROMANCE
Christmas Crush , Kate McLachlan, Regal Crest
The Farmer’s Daughter , Robbi McCoy, Bella Books [Winner] The Heat of Angels , Lisa Girolami, Bold Strokes Books
Jolt , Kris Bryant, Bold Strokes Books
Nightingale , Andrea Bramhall, Bold Strokes Books
Seneca Falls , Jesse J. Thoma, Bold Strokes Books
Tangled Roots , Marianne K. Martin, Bywater Books That Certain Something , Clare Ashton, Breezy Tree Press LGBT ANTHOLOGY
Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call , Charles Stephens and Steven G. Fullwood, Vintage Entity Press A Family by Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships , Bruce Gillespie, TouchWood Editions Outer Voices Inner Lives , Mark McNease and Stephen Dolainski, editors, MadeMark Publishing The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South , Douglas Ray, editor, Sibling Rivalry Press Understanding and Teaching US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History , Leila J. Rupp & Susan K. Freeman, University of Wisconsin Press [Winner] LGBT CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out , Susan Kuklin, Candlewick Press Double Exposure , Bridget Birdsall, Sky Pony Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing Five, Six, Seven, Nate! , Tim Federle, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers [Winner] Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before , Karelia Stetz-Waters, Ooligan Press Lies We Tell Ourselves , Robin Talley, Harlequin Teen Pukawiss the Outcast , Jay Jordan Hawke, Dreamspinner Press/Harmony Ink Press This is Not a Love Story , Suki Fleet, Dreamspinner Press/Harmony Ink Press When Everything Feels like the Movies , Raziel Reid, Arsenal Pulp Press LGBT DEBUT
Death in Venice, California , Vinton Rafe McCabe, The Permanent Press Kill Marguerite and Other Stories , Megan Milks, Emergency Press A Map of Everything , Elizabeth Earley, Jaded Ibis Press The Music Teacher , Bob Sennett, Lethe Press
Part the Hawser, Limn the Sea , Dan Lopez, Chelsea Station Editions Unaccompanied Minors , Alden Jones, New American Press The Walk-In Closet , Abdi Nazemian, Curtis Brown Unlimited [Winner] LGBT DRAMA
The Beast of Times , Adelina Anthony, Kórima Press Bootycandy , Robert O’Hara, Samuel French [Winner]
A Kid Like Jake , Daniel Pearle, Dramatists Play Service The Whale , Samuel D. Hunter, Samuel French
Wolves , Steve Yockey, Samuel French
LGBT GRAPHIC NOVELS
100 Crushes , Elisha Lim, Koyama Press Band Vs. Band Comix Volume 1 , Kathleen Jacques, Paper Heart Comix
Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag , A.K. Summers , Soft Skull, an imprint of Counterpoint Second Avenue Caper , Joyce Brabner; Art by Mark Zingarelli, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux [Winner] Snackies , Nick Sumida, Youth in Decline LGBT NONFICTION
An American Queer: The Amazon Trail , Lee Lynch, Bold Strokes Books Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS , Martin Duberman , The New Press [Winner] The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, Julie Sondra Decker, Skyhorse Publishing/Carrel Books Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS , Rebecca J. Anderson, McFarland Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor , Hilton Als, Ann Temkin, Claudia Carson, Robert Gober, Paulina Pobocha, Christian Scheidemann, The Museum of Modern Art Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange, How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos , Robert Hofler, It Books/HarperCollins The Transgender Archives: Foundations for the Future , Aaron H Devor, University of Victoria Libraries The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 , Clayton Delery-Edwards, McFarland LGBT SF/F/HORROR
Afterparty , Daryl Gregory, Tor Books
Bitter Waters , Chaz Brenchley, Lethe Press [Winner] Butcher’s Road , Lee Thomas, Lethe Press
Child of a Hidden Sea , A. M. Dellamonica, Tor Books Full Fathom Five , Max Gladstone, Tor Books
FutureDyke , Lea Daley, Bella Books
Skin Deep Magic , Craig Laurance Gidney , Rebel Satori Press LGBT STUDIES
After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba , Noelle M. Stout, Duke University Press Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America , Rachel Hope Cleves, Oxford University Press Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture , Vincent Woodard, Ed. Justin A. Joyce and Dwight McBride, New York University Press [Winner] Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela , Marcia Ochoa, Duke University Press The Queerness of Native American Literature , Lisa Tatonetti, The University of Minnesota Press Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings , Juana Maria Rodriguez, New York University Press The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic , Susan S. Lanser, University of Chicago Press Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene , Bobby Benedicto, University of Minnesota Press TRANSGENDER FICTION
Everything Must Go , La JohnJoseph , ITNA PRESS For Today I Am a Boy , Kim Fu, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab , Shani Mootoo, Doubleday Canada Revolutionary: A Novel , Alex Myers, Simon and Schuster A Safe Girl To Love , Casey Plett, Topside Press [Winner] Transgender Non-Fiction
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man , Thomas Page McBee, City Lights/Sister Spit [Winner] Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More , Janet Mock, Atria Books Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community , Laura Erickson-Schroth, Oxford University Press
Last night’s #Lammys is probs the best book party you ever missed + awesomely diverse wins! @LambdaLiterary http://t.co/P8JAOqcVqX @bustle
— Crystal Paul (@CPLHouse) June 2, 2015
