Vivek Shraya, Joshua Whitehead among Canadian finalists for Lambda Literary Awards

Vivek Shraya’s I’m Afraid of Men is a finalist in the Transgender Non-fiction category at the Lambda Literary Awards (Arden Wray)

Several Canadian authors have been announced as finalists for the 31st Lambda Literary Awards. The annual awards are presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to the best LGBT books of the year.

Five nominations went to Arsenal Pulp Press books: Amber Dawn’s Sodom Road Exit (Lesbian Fiction), Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu (Lesbian Fiction), Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed (Gay Fiction), Casey Plett’s Little Fish (Transgender Fiction), and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s Sketchtasy (Transgender Fiction).

Other Canadian presses with finalists include Vivek Shraya’s I’m Afraid of Men for Penguin Canada (Transgender Non-fiction), Tess Liem’s Obits. for Coach House Books (Lesbian Poetry), Gwen Benaway’s Holy Wild for Book*hug Press (Transgender Poetry), Jeffrey Round’s The God Game: A Dan Sharp Mystery for Dundurn (Gay Mystery), Marusya Bociurkiw’s Food Was Her Country: The Memoir of a Queer Daughter for Dagger Editions (Lesbian Memoir/Biography), Lindsay Nixon’s nîtisânak for Metonymy Press (Lesbian Memoir/Biography), and Peter Dickinson, C.E. Gatchalian, Kathleen Oliver, and Dalbir Singh’s Q2Q: Queer Canadian Performance Texts (Playwrights Canada Press).

Awards in 24 categories will be presented at a ceremony hosted by Justin Vivian Bond, to be held in New York on June 3. Categories featuring nominated Canadian presses are listed below. The full list of finalists can be found on the Lambda Literary Foundation’s website.

Lesbian Fiction

La Bastarda, Trifonia Melibea Obono, translated by Lawrence Schimel (The Feminist Press at CUNY)
The Evolution of Love, Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Rare Bird Books)
The Fifth Woman, Nona Caspers (Sarabande Books)
Maggie Terry, Sarah Schulman (The Feminist Press at CUNY)
Pretend We Live Here, Genevieve Hudson (Future Tense Books)
Sodom Road Exit, Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp Press)
The Tiger Flu, Larissa Lai (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Two Moons: Stories, Krystal A. Smith (BLF Press)

Gay Fiction

Drapetomania, or the Narrative of Cyrus Tyler and Abednego Tyler, Lovers, John R. Gordon (Team Angelica Publishing)
History of Violence: A Novel, Édouard Louis, translated by Lorin Stein (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The House of Impossible Beauties: A Novel, Joseph Cassara (HarperCollins/Ecco)
Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Luminous Traitor: The Just and Daring Life of Roger Casement, a Biographical Novel, Martin Duberman (University of California Press)
Some Hell: A Novel, Patrick Nathan (Graywolf Press)
Speak No Evil, A Novel, Uzodinma Iweala (HarperCollins/Harper)
State of the Nation, David Jackson Ambrose (The TMG Firm)

Transgender Fiction

Confessions of the Fox: A Novel, Jordy Rosenberg (One World/Random House)
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi (Grove Atlantic/Grove Press)
Invasions, Calvin Gimpelevich (Instar Books)
Little Fish, Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Sketchtasy, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Transgender Non-fiction

Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man, Thomas Page McBee (Scribner)
Histories of the Transgender Child, Julian Gill-Peterson (University of Minnesota Press)
I’m Afraid of Men,Vivek Shraya (Penguin Canada)
Mobile Subjects: Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment, Aren Z. Aizura (Duke University Press)
The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, Joy Ladin (Brandeis University Press)

Lesbian Poetry

Body Work, Emilia Nielsen (Signature Editions)
Each Tree Could Hold a Noose or a House, Nina Puro (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
Evolution, Eileen Myles (Grove Atlantic/Grove Press)
Gaze Back, Marylyn Tan (Ethos Books)
Obits ., Tess Liem (Coach House Books)
Past Lives, Future Bodies, Kristin Chang (Black Lawrence Press)
Surge, Etel Adnan (Nightboat Books)
Who Is Trixie the Trasher? And Other Questions, Jane Miller (Copper Canyon Press)

Transgender Poetry

Heal Your Love, Luna Merbruja (biyuti publishing)
Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway (Book*hug Press)
If the Color Is Fugitive, Sara Mithra (Nomadic Press)
Lo Terciario / The Tertiary, Raquel Salas Rivera, Timeless (Infinite Light)
Some Animal, Ely Shipley (Nightboat Books)

Gay Mystery

Black Diamond Fall, Joseph Olshan (Polis Books)
Boystown 11: Heart’s Desire, Marshall Thornton (Kenmore Books)
Death Checks In, David S. Pederson (Bold Strokes Books)
Dodging and Burning: A Mystery, John Copenhaver (Pegasus Books)
The God Game: A Dan Sharp Mystery, Jeffrey Round (Dundurn)
Late Fees: A Pinx Video Mystery, Marshall Thornton (Kenmore Books)
Somewhere Over Lorain Road, Bud Gundy (Bold Stroke Books)
Survival Is a Dying Art: An Angus Green Novel, Neil S. Plakcy (Samwise Books)

Lesbian Memoir/Biography

Apocalypse, Darling, Barrie Jean Borich (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press)
Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography, Julia Van Haaften (W. W. Norton & Company)
A Certain Loneliness: A Memoir, Sandra Gail Lambert (University of Nebraska Press)
Chronology, Zahra Patterson (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Food Was Her Country: The Memoir of a Queer Daughter, Marusya Bociurkiw (Dagger Editions)
MINE: Essays, Sarah Viren (University of New Mexico Press)
My Butch Career: A Memoir, Esther Newton (Duke University Press)
nîtisânak, Lindsay Nixon (Metonymy Press)