Queer Africa 2: New Stories, a short story collection edited by The JRB Patron Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin, has been announced as a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards, in the category LGBTQ Anthology.
Lambda Literary is the United States’s oldest and largest literary arts organisation advancing LGBTQ literature.
Queer Africa 2 contains twenty-six stories that foreground the politics of sexuality on the African continent and in the diaspora. Writers in the collection hail from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda and the USA.
‘Celebrating our thirtieth year of Lambda Literary Award finalists is to recognise that this organisation has been at the centre of contemporary queer literature for decades,’ Lambda Literary executive director Tony Valenzuela says. ‘This year is no different with another stellar list of authors demonstrating through their work that LGBTQ books tell richly textured stories about who we are in all our incredible diversity.’
Queer Africa 2 is published by MaThoko’s Books, an imprint of Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), in collaboration with the independent feminist press Modjaji Books.
This year’s Lambda Award finalists were chosen from nearly 1,000 submissions and over 300 publishers. Submissions came from major mainstream publishers and from independent presses, from long-established and new LGBTQ publishers, as well as from emerging publish-on-demand technologies.
The Lambda Literary Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, 4 June 2018 in New York City.
2018 Lambda Literary Awards finalists
LGBTQ Anthology
¡Cuéntamelo! Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants, Juliana Delgado Lopera, Aunt Lute Books
Greetings from Janeland: Women Write More About Leaving Men for Women, Candace Walsh & Barbara Straus Lodge, Cleis Press
Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, edited by Cat Fitzpatrick & Casey Plett, Topside Press
Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology, Joamette Gil, P&M Press
Queer Africa 2: New Stories, Makhosazana Xaba & Karen Martin, Modjaji Books
To My Trans Sisters, Charlie Craggs, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Trans Homo…Gasp! Gay FTM and Cis Men on Sex and Love, Avi Ben-Zeev and Pete Bailey, Transgress Press
Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A Stanley, and Johanna Burton, The MIT Press
Lesbian Fiction
Difficult Women, Roxane Gay, Grove Press
Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado, Graywolf Press
Marriage of a Thousand Lies, SJ Sindu, Soho Press
Not One Day, Anne Garréta, Deep Vellum Press
Something Better than Home, Leona Beasley, Eleven Light City Press
Things to Do When You’re Goth in the Country, Chavisa Woods, Seven Stories Press
We Were Witches, Ariel Gore, Feminist Press
The Year of Needy Girls, Patricia A Smith, Kaylie Jones Books
Gay Fiction
After the Blue Hour, John Rechy, Grove Press
The Clothesline Swing, Ahmad Danny Ramadan, Nightwood Editions
The End of Eddy, Édouard Louis, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Fimí Sílè Forever, Nnanna Ikpo, Team Angelica
The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne, Hogarth
Less, Andrew Sean Greer, Lee Boudreaux Books
Outside Is the Ocean, Matthew Lansburgh, University of Iowa Press
This Is How It Begins, Joan Dempsey, She Writes Press
Bisexual Fiction
The Gift, Barbara Browning, Coffee House Press
Homecoming Queens, JE Sumerau, Sense Publishers
Next Year, for Sure, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Scribner
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, Andrea Lawlor, Rescue Press
The Penalty for Holding, Georgette Gouveia, Less Than Three Press
Transgender Fiction
The Black Emerald, Jeanne Thornton, Instar Books
Long Black Veil, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Crown
Nerve Endings: The New Trans Erotic, Tobi Hill-Meyer (ed), Instar Books
Resilience: Surviving in the Face of Everything, Amy Heart, Sugi Pyrrophyta, and Larissa Glasser (eds), Heartspark Press
Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, Bogi Takács (ed), Lethe Press
LGBTQ Nonfiction
After Silence, Avram Finkelstein, University of California Press
Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible, Malik Gaines, NYU Press
Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Curbside Splendor
Born Both: An Intersex Life, Hida Viloria, Hachette Books
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Haymarket Books
Mean, Myriam Gurba, Coffee House Press
Out for Queer Blood: The Murder of Fernando Rios and the Failure of New Orleans Justice, Clayton Delery, Exposit Books
Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, John Chaich and Todd Oldham, AMMO Books
Bisexual Nonfiction
Hunger, Roxane Gay, HarperCollins
Truth Be Bold: Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, Julene Tripp Weaver, Finishing Line Press
What the Mouth Wants, Monica Meneghetti, Dagger Editions
Transgender Nonfiction
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, C Riley Snorton, University of Minnesota Press
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray, Rosalind Rosenberg, Oxford University Press
Lou Sullivan: Daring to Be a Man Among Men, Brice Smith, Transgress Press
Surpassing Certainty, Janet Mock, Atria Books
What About the Rest of Your Life, Sung Yim, Perfect Day Publishing
Lesbian Poetry
Blind Girl Grunt, Constance Merritt, Headmistress Press
Common Place, Sarah Pinder, Coach House Books
Good Stock Strange Blood, Dawn Lundy Martin, Coffee House Press
Kohnjehr Woman, Ana-Maurine Lara, Red Bone Press
My Ariel, Sina Queyras, Coach House Books
Rock | Salt | Stone, Rosamond S King, Nightboat Books
Rummage, Ife-Chudeni A Oputa, Little A
Silk Poems, Jen Bervin, Nightboat Books
Gay Poetry
Don’t Call Us Dead, Danez Smith, Graywolf Press
Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, Charif Shanahan, Crab Orchard Series in Poetry
Nature Poem, Tommy Pico, Tin House Books
Proprietary, Randall Mann, Persea Books
Royals, Cedar Sigo, Wave Books
So Far Afield, Frederick Speers, Nomadic Press
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, Chen Chen, BOA Editions Ltd.
While Standing in Line for Death, CA Conrad, Wave Books
Transgender Poetry
a place called No Homeland, Kai Cheng Thom, Arsenal Pulp Press
Full-Metal Indigiqueer, Joshua Whitehead, Talon Books
Mucus in My Pineal Gland, Juliana Huxtable, Wonder / Capricious
Of Mongrelitude, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Wave Books
recombinant, Ching-In Chen, Kelsey Street Press
Lesbian Mystery
A Quiet Death, Cari Hunter, Bold Strokes Books
Fever in the Dark, Ellen Hart, Minotaur
The Girl on the Edge of Summer, M Redmann, Bold Strokes Books
Huntress, E Radley, Heartsome Publishing
The Last First Time, Andrea Bramhall, Ylva Publishing
Murder Under the Fig Tree: A Palestine Mystery, Kate Jessica Raphael, She Writes Press
Odd Numbers, Anne Holt, Scribner
Repercussions, Jessica L Webb, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Mystery
Boystown 10: Gifts Given, Marshall Thornton, Kenmore Books
Long Shadows, Kate Sherwood, Riptide Publishing
Love is Heartless, Kim Fielding, Dreamspinner Press
The Mystery of the Curiosities, CS Poe, DSP Publications
Night Drop, Marshall Thornton, Kenmore Books
Ring of Silence, Mark Zubro, MLR Press
Street People, Michael Nava, Korima Press
Tramps and Thieves, Rhys Ford, Dreamspinner Press
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
Abandon Me: Memoirs, Melissa Febos, Bloomsbury, Inc.
Afterglow, Eileen Myles, Grove Press
The Fact of a Body, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Flatiron Books
Kiss Me Again, Paris: A Memoir, Renate Stendhal, IF SF Publishing
The Pox Lover: An Activist’s Decade in New York and Paris, Anne-christine d’Adesky, The University of Wisconsin Press
Gay Memoir/Biography
A Sinner in Mecca: A Gay Muslim’s Hajj of Defiance, Parvez Sharma, BenBella Books
Creep: A Life, a Theory, an Apology, Jonathan Alexander, Punctum Books
House Built on Ashes, José Antonio Rodríguez, University of Oklahoma Press
In the Province of the Gods, Kenny Fries, University of Wisconsin Press
Keeping On Keeping On, Alan Bennett, BBC Books
Lives of Great Men: Living and Loving as an African Gay Man, Chike Frankie Edozien, Team Angelica Publishing
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir, Victor Corona, Soft Skull Press
The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, TS Eliot, DH Lawrence, EM Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature, Bill Goldstein, Henry Holt and Company
Lesbian Romance
Close to Home, Rachel Spangler, Bywater Books
Crescent City Confidential, Aurora Rey, Bold Strokes Books
Goldenrod, Ann McMan, Bywater Books
Tailor-Made, Yolanda Wallace, Bold Strokes Books
Vagabond Heart, Ann Roberts, Bella Books
Venus and Lysander, Yoshiyuki Ly, Solstice Publishing
Wishing on a Dream, Julie Cannon, Bold Strokes Books
You Make Me Tremble, Karis Walsh, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Romance
At the Corner of Rock Bottom & Nowhere, LA Witt, Self-Published
Come to The Oaks: The Story of Ben and Tobias, Bryan T Clark, Cornbread Publishing Inc.
Love and Other Hot Beverages, Laurie Loft, Riptide Publishing
Midlife Crisis, Audra North, Riptide
Six Neckties, Johnny Diaz, Amazon CreateSpace
Stealing Home, Tom Mendicino, Kensington Publishing / Lyrical Press
Wild, Adrienne Wilder, Self-Published
Working It, Christine d’Abo, Riptide Publishing
LGBTQ Children’s/Young Adult
Ashes to Asheville, Sarah Dooley, Putnam
Autoboyography, Christina Lauren, Simon & Schuster
Dreadnought: Nemesis – Book 1, April Daniels, Diversion Books
Girls Like Me, Nina Packebush, Bedazzled Ink
Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing, Kay Haring (Author) & Robert Neubecker (Illustrator), Dial Books
Like Water, Rebecca Podos, Balzer + Bray
The Sidekicks, Will Kostakis, Harlequin Teen
We Now Return to Regular Life, Martin Wilson, Dial Books
LGBTQ Drama
Composure, Scott C Sickles, Produced by the Workshop Theater
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Tom MacRae, Jonathan Butterell & Dan Gillespie Sells, Samuel French
The Gulf, Audrey Cefaly, Samuel French
How Black Mothers Say I Love You, Trey Anthony, Playwrights Canada Press
Indecent, Paula Vogel, Theater Communications Group
LGBTQ Erotica
His Seed, Steve Berman, Unzipped Books
The Master Will Appear, LA Witt, Self-Published
Mistletoe Mishap, Siri Caldwell, Brussels Sprout Press
Unspeakably Erotic, DL King, Cleis Press
Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms, Sacchi Green, Cleis Press
LGBTQ Graphic Novels
Condo Heartbreak Disco, Eric Kostiuk Williams, Koyama Press
Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home, Nicole J. Georges, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner
My Brother’s Husband, Volume 1, Gengoroh Tagame, Pantheon
My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris, Fantagraphics Books
Spinning, Tillie Walden, Macmillan/First Second Books
LGBTQ SF/F/Horror
Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly, Tor Books
An Excess Male, Maggie Shen King, HarperCollins
An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon, Akashic Books
Autonomous, Annalee Newitz, Tor Books
I Stole You, Kristen Ringman, Handtype Press
Night Visitors, Owen Keehnen, OutTales Publishing
The Lost Daughter Collective, Lindsey Drager, DZANC Books
The Prey of the Gods, Nicky Drayden, HarperCollins
LGBTQ Studies
Behind the Mask, Alfredo Mirandé, University of Arizona Press
The Ethics of Opting Out, Mari Ruti, Columbia University Press
Lavender and Red, Emily Hobson, University of California Press
Punishing Disease: HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness, Trevor Hoppe, University of California Press
Time Slips, Jaclyn Pryor, Northwestern University Press
Unmaking Love, Ashley T Sheldon, Columbia University Press
The War on Sex, David M Halperin and Trevor Hoppe, Duke University Press
Welcome to Fairyland, Julio Capó, University of North Carolina Press
“Celebrating our 30th year of Lambda Literary Award finalists is to recognize that this organization has been at the center of contemporary queer literature for decades,” said Lambda Literary Executive Director Tony Valenzuela. “This year is no different with another stellar list of authors demonstrating through their work that LGBTQ books tell richly textured stories about who we are in all our incredible diversity. ” Now in their thirtieth year, the Lambda Literary Awards celebrate achievement in LGBTQ writing for books published in 2017.