33rd Lambda Literary Awards

The 33rd Lambda Literary Awards were announced on June 1, 2021, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, there was no public ceremony; instead, the winners were announced in a livestreamed virtual gala.

Nominees were announced in March 2021.

Special awards

Category	Winner
Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction	Nancy Agabian
Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize	Sarah Gerard, Brontez Purnell
Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award	Taylor Johnson, T Kira Madden
Randall Kenan Prize for Black LGBTQ Fiction	Ana-Maurine Lara

Nominees and winners

Category	Winner	Nominated
Bisexual Fiction	Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much	Elisabeth Thomas. Catherine House C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills Is Gold Sulaiman Addonia, Silence Is My Mother Tongue Talia Hibbert, Take a Hint, Dani Brown
Bisexual Nonfiction	Samantha Irby, Wow, No Thank You.: Essays	Natasha Sajé, Terroir: Love, Out of Place Emma Copley Eisenberg, The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Shayla Lawson, This Is Major: Notes of Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope Alden Jones, The Wanting Was a Wilderness: Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and the Art of Memoir
Bisexual Poetry	Aricka Foreman, Salt Body Shimmer	George Abraham, Birthright Meghan Privitello, One God at a Time Jody Chan, sick S*an D. Henry-Smith, Wild Peach
Gay Fiction	Joon Oluchi Lee, Neotenica	Garth Greenwell, Cleanness Brandon Taylor, Real Life Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain Dennis E. Staples, This Town Sleeps
Gay Memoir/Biography	Mohsin Zaidi, A Dutiful Boy: A Memoir of a Gay Muslim’s Journey to Acceptance	R. Eric Thomas, Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body John Birdsall, The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard François Clemmons, Officer Clemmons: A Memoir
Gay Poetry	Eduardo C. Corral, Guillotine	Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue Justin Phillip Reed, The Malevolent Volume Romeo Oriogun, Sacrament of Bodies Ted Rees, Thanksgiving: A Poem
Gay Romance	Felice Stevens, The Ghost and Charlie Muir	Adriana Herrera, Finding Joy Lance Ringel, Flower of Iowa Erin Colleen McRae and Racheline Maltese, Ink and Ice Cat Sebastian, Two Rogues Make a Right
Lesbian Fiction	Juli Delgado Lopera, Fiebre Tropical	K-Ming Chang, Bestiary Francesca Ekwuyasi, Butter Honey Pig Bread Jennifer Steil, Exile Music Jean Kyoung Frazier, Pizza Girl
Lesbian Memoir/Biography	Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers	Tania De Rozario, And The Walls Come Crumbling Down Lori Soderlind, The Change: My Great American, Postindustrial, Midlife Crisis Tour Tana Wojczuk, Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America’s First Celebrity Nina Kennedy, Practicing for Love: A Memoir
Lesbian Poetry	Pamela Sneed, Funeral Diva	Roya Marsh, dayliGht Sarah M. Sala, Devil’s Lake Mary Jean Chan, Flèche Kimberly Alidio, : once teeth bones coral :
Lesbian Romance	Alexandria Bellefleur, Written in the Stars	Clare Ashton, Finding Jessica Lambert Anna Burke, Nottingham Ali Vali, One More Chance Jae, Wrong Number, Right Woman
LGBTQ Anthology	Joshua Whitehead, Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction	Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement Dave Ring, Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die Jos Twist, Ben Vincent, Meg-John Barker and Kat Gupta, Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities Andrea Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel, We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics
LGBTQ Children's/Middle Grade	Kacen Callender, King and the Dragonflies	Niki Smith, The Deep & Dark Blue Vincent X. Kirsch, From Archie to Zack Phil Bildner, A High Five for Glenn Burke Peter Mercurio, Our Subway Baby
LGBTQ Drama	Yilong Liu, The Book of Mountains and Seas	Jacqueline Goldfinger, Babel Liza Birkenmeier and Jill Sobule, F*ck7thGrade Sarah Einspanier, House Plant R. Eric Thomas, Safe Space
LGBTQ Erotica	Lena Suksi, The Nerves	Sinclair Sexsmith, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 5 Anne Shade, Femme Tales Andrea Purcell, Smut Peddler Presents: Silver Kel Hardy, Tianna Henry and MJ Lyons, Smut Peddlers: Glad Day 50
LGBTQ Comics	Bishakh Som, Apsara Engine	Sophie Yanow, The Contradictions Yao Xiao, Everything Is Beautiful, and I’m Not Afraid: A Baopu Collection Tina Horn, Laurenn McCubbin, Jen Hickman, Alejandra Gutiérrez, Michael Dowling, Steve Wands, Tula Lotay, Katie Skelly and Chris O'Halloran, SFSX (Safe Sex), Vol. 1: Protection Bishakh Som, Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir
LGBTQ Mystery	Tom Ryan, I Hope You’re Listening	A. E. Radley, Death Before Dessert Cheryl A. Head, Find Me When I’m Lost Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead Rosalie Knecht, Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery
LGBTQ Nonfiction	Ashon T. Crawley, The Lonely Letters	Ruth Coker Burks, All the Young Men Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué and Erich Kessel Jr., An Excess of Quiet: Selected Sketches by Gustavo Ojeda, 1979–1989 Marty Fink, Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care Josephine Donovan, The Lexington Six: Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America
LGBTQ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror	Julian K. Jarboe, Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel	Rebecca Roanhorse, Black Sun Zen Cho, The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Silence of the Wilting Skin Aaron A. Reed, Subcutanean
LGBTQ Studies	Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World	Cait McKinney, Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies José Esteban Muñoz, The Sense of Brown Janet R. Jakobsen, The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics Jane Ward, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality
LGBTQ Young Adult	Mike Curato, Flamer	Lev A. C. Rosen, Camp Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish Agnes Borinsky, Sasha Masha Leah Johnson, You Should See Me in a Crown
Transgender Fiction	Zeyn Joukhadar, The Thirty Names of Night	Nino Cipri, Finna Chana Porter, The Seep Vivek Shraya, The Subtweet Lydia Rogue, Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers
Transgender Nonfiction	J Mase III and Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, The Black Trans Prayer Book	Meredith Talusan, Fairest: A Memoir Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, The Freezer Door L Heidenreich, Nepantla Squared: Transgender Mestiz@ Histories in Times of Global Shift Hil Malatino, Trans Care
Transgender Poetry	Sade LaNay, I Love You and I'm Not Dead	Aeon Ginsberg, Greyhound Kay Ulanday Barrett, More Than Organs Maxe Crandall, The Nancy Reagan Collection Jay Besemer, Theories of Performance