The Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation, that awards LGBT-themed nonfiction books whose intended audience is "general readers, as opposed to those targeted primarily to scholarly audiences." Anthologies and memoirs are not included as they have their own categories (i.e., Anthology, Gay Memoir, Lesbian Memoir, Bisexual Literature, and Transgender Literature).
Recipients +Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction winners and finalists Year Contributor(s) Title Result 2006Words to Our NowWinnerBeyond the Down LowFinalistGore Vidal's AmericaRaising Boys without MenWomen Together/Women Apart2007 and Stuart TimmonsGAY L.A.WinnerBehind the Mask of the MattachineFinalistDifferent DaughtersHello, Cruel WorldUnspeakable Love2008Gay Artists in Modern American CultureWinnerBetween WomenFinalistImagining TransgenderOther Men's SonsPink Harvest2009Loving The DifficultWinnerBeyond (Straight & Gay Marriage)FinalistDishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861-2003Drifting Toward LoveIf I Could Write This in FireMe as Her Again2010The Greeks and Greek LoveWinner, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Eds.)I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre LordeFinalist (Ed.)The Golden Age of Gay FictionTies That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its ConsequencesUnfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America2011King Kong TheoryWinner (Ed.)Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish CommunityFinalist, Ed.D.Ex-Gay No Way: Survival and Recovery from Sexual AbuseInseparable: Desire Between Women in LiteratureThe Right to Be Out: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in America's Public Schools2012A Queer History of the United StatesWinnerGay in America: Portraits by Scott PasfieldFinalistGod vs. Gay?: The Religious Case for Equality and Tirza True LatimerSeeing Gertrude Stein: Five StoriesThe H.D. Book2013Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. TexasWinnerCommunists and Perverts under the Palms: The Johns Committee in Florida, 1956-1965FinalistEminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed AmericaFar From The Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity (Ed.)I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in LettersIsrael/Palestine and the Queer International, Mark Thompson, and Bo YoungOut Spoken: A Vito Russo Reader Reel One and Reel TwoReal Man Stories2014White GirlsWinnerLiving Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender MuslimsFinalistMeet Grindr: How One App Changed The Way We ConnectPlane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight AttendantsRadical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War IIThe Queer Limit of Black Memory Black Lesbian Literature and Irresolution, Tom Bianchi, and Edmund WhiteTom Bianchi: Fire Island Pines. Polaroids 1975-1983, Ann Pellegrini, and Michael AmicoYou Can Tell Just By Looking: And 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People2015An American Queer: The Amazon TrailWinnerHold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDSFinalistNevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS, Ann Temkin, Claudia Carson, Robert Gober, Paulina Pobocha, and Christian ScheidemannRobert Gober: The Heart Is Not a MetaphorSexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange, How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the TaboosThe Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to AsexualityThe Transgender Archives: Foundations for the FutureThe Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 19732016No One Helped: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban ApathyWinner and Michael BronskiConsidering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and PoliticsFinalistFading Scars: My Queer Disability HistoryModern Families: Stories of Extraordinary Journeys to KinshipNamibia's Rainbow ProjectThe Gay Revolution: The Story of the StruggleWhat Color Is Your Hoodie? Essays on Black Gay Identity2017How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDSWinnerConflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of RepairFinalist with Stephen ViderGay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New YorkGhost Faces: Hollywood and Post-Millennial MasculinityPride & Joy: Taking the Streets of New York CitySpill: Scenes of Black Feminist FugitivityThe Estrangement PrincipleThe Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability2018How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River CollectiveWinnerAfter SilenceFinalistBlack Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the ImpossibleBody Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, JokesBorn Both: An Intersex LifeMeanOut for Queer Blood: The Murder of Fernando Rios and the Failure of New Orleans Justice and Todd OldhamQueer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community2019Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine HansberryWinnerButch HeroesFinalistHas the Gay Movement Failed?Ladies LazarusNo Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT KansasResistance: The LGBT Fight Against Fascism in WWIIThe Boys of Fairy Town: Sodomites, Female Impersonators, Third-Sexers, Pansies, Queers, and Sex Morons in Chicago's First CenturyUnapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements2020In the Dream HouseWinnerA Year Without a NameFinalistBloodflowers: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Photography, and the 1980sDying to Be Normal: Gay Martyrs and the Transformation of American Sexual PoliticsHoneypot: Black Southern Women Who Love WomenThe Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and Their AfterlivesWhen Brooklyn Was Queer: A HistoryWhy Karen Carpenter Matters2021The Lonely LettersWinnerAll the Young MenFinalist and Erich Kessel, Jr.An Excess of Quiet: Selected Sketches by Gustavo Ojeda, 1979–1989Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of CareThe Lexington Six: Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America2022Let the Record ShowWinnerGirlhoodFinalistDear SenthuranDeep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer FuturesNorthern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water 2023WinnerHow Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea CreaturesFinalistVirology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in BetweenAnd the Category Is...: Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community2024 Hi Honey, I'm HomoWinner Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America Finalist Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City Otherwise , LMFT Out: A Parent's Guide to Supporting your LGBTQIA+ Kid Through Coming Out and Beyond2025WinnerFierce DesiresFinalist and Michelle JurkiewiczGender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative WorldLong Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a RevolutionQueer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between2026Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle EastWinnerFinalistBaldwin: A Love StoryQueer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and HomemakersThank You for Calling the Lesbian Line
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