sign in

awards The Publishing Triangle presents nine awards each spring, honoring the best in LGBT writing. They are: the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement; the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction; the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction; the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry; the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry; the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature; in conjunction with the Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards, Inc., the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction; and the Publishing Triangle Leadership Award, which is presented not to a writer but to someone else or even an organization for contributions to LGBT letters. All of these literary prizes include honorariums: $3000 for the Whitehead award; $1000 each for the nonfiction, White debut, Ferro-Grumley fiction, and trans/g.v. awards; and $500 each for the poetry and leadership awards. For books being published in 2016: the submission process starts in late September, with a call for submissions. Submissions material will be posted on this website at that time. If you wish to be mailed a hard copy of the submission packet, please email us at publishingtriangle@gmail.com, using the subject “Awards Packet” and giving your mailing address in the body of the email.     The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement     Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction     Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction     The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry     The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry     The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction     The Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature     The Publishing Triangle Leadership Award     The Ferro-Grumley Awards     The Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement     The Publishing Triangle began honoring a gay or lesbian writer for his or her body of work a few months after it was founded in 1989.     The Bill Whitehead Award honors a legendary editor; Bill Whitehead was the editor-in-chief at E. P. Dutton in the early 1980s and ended his career at Macmillan. He worked with such gay and lesbian writers as Edmund White, Robert Ferro, and Doris Grumbach, and with Anne Rice (writing as A. N. Roquelaure) and Lana Turner, among others. He died of AIDS in 1987.     The Bill Whitehead Award is given to a woman in even-numbered years and a man in odd years. Members of the Publishing Triangle nominate both the judges and candidates for the award. The winner receives $3,000.     The winners thus far have been:         2016 — Eloise Klein Healy         2015 — Rigoberto Gonzalez         2014 — Maria Irene Fornes         2013 — John D'Emilio         2012 — Alison Bechdel         2011 — Alan Hollinghurst         2010 — Blanche Wiesen Cook         2009 — Martin Duberman         2008 — Katherine Forrest         2007 — Andrew Holleran         2006 — Karla Jay         2005 — Edward Field         2004 — Lillian Faderman         2003 — Christopher Bram         2002 — Jane Rule         2001 — Michael Nava         2000 — Doris Grumbach         1999 — John Rechy         1998 — M. E. Kerr         1997 — Armistead Maupin         1996 — Joan Nestle         1995 — Jonathan Ned Katz         1994 — Judy Grahn         1993 — Samuel R. Delany         1992 — Audre Lorde         1991 — James Purdy         1990 — Adrienne Rich         1989 — Edmund White     Nonfiction Awards The Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction and The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction     The Publishing Triangle began giving awards for nonfiction in 1997. Each award is for books published in the preceding year in the United States or Canada (i.e., the 2008 awards below honored books published in 2007). The Judy Grahn Award honors the American writer, cultural theorist and activist (b. 1940) best known for The Common Woman (1969) and Another Mother Tongue (rev. ed., 1984). It recognizes works that are by or about lesbians, bisexual women, and/or transwomen, or that have a significant influence upon he lives of queer women.     The Randy Shilts Award honors the journalist whose groundbreaking work on the AIDS epidemic for the San Francisco Chronicle made him a hero to many in the community. Shilts (1951-1994) was the author of The Mayor of Castro Street, And the Band Played On, and Conduct Unbecoming.This award recognizes works that are by or about gay men, bisexual men, and/or transmen, or that have a signifcant influence upon the lives of queer men.     Publishers and others may nominate candidates for these awards using a submission form posted on our website each autumn, for an entry fee of $35.00. Individual members of the Publishing Triangle may nominate one book for free; corporate members may nominate an unlimited amount of books for free. The finalists and the winners are determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Publishing Triangle's awards committee. The winners each receive $1,000.     Past winners are:         Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction         2016 — Marcia M. Gallo, "No One Helped": Kitty Genovese, New York City, and The Myth of Urban Apathy         2015 — Barbara Smith, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks         2014 — Julia M. Allen, Passionate Commitments: The Lives of Anna Rochester and Grace Hutchins         2013 — Alison Bechdel, Are You My Mother?         2012 — Jeanne Córdova, When We Were Outlaws         2011 — Barbara Hammer, Hammer!         2010 — Rebecca Brown, American Romances         2009 — Andrea Weiss, In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain         2008 — Janet Malcolm, Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice         2007 — Alison Bechdel, Fun Home         2006 — Tania Katan, My One-Night Stand with Cancer         2005 — Alison Smith, Name All the Animals         2004 — Lillian Faderman, Naked in the Promised Land         2003 — Terry Wolverton, Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building         2002 — Laura L. Doan, Fashioning Sapphism         2001 — Amber Hollibaugh, My Dangerous Desires         2000 — Hilary Lapsley, Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict: The Kinship of Women         1999 — Judith Halberstam, Female Masculinity         1998 — Margot Peters, May Sarton: A Biography         1997 — Bernadette Brooten, Love Between Women         Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction         2016 — [tie] Barney Frank, Frank: A Life in Politics from the Grat Society to Same-Sex Marriage; and Michelangelo Signorile, It's Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and Winning True Equality         2015 — Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin         2014 — Hilton Als, White Girls         2013 — Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws         2012 — Mark D. Jordan, Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk About Homosexuality         2011 — Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward         2010 — James Davidson, The Greeks and Greek Love         2009 — Kai Wright, Drifting Toward Love         2008 — Michael Rowe, Other Men's Sons         2007 — Kenji Yoshino, Covering         2006 — Martin Moran, The Tricky Part         2005 — David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government         2004 — John D'Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin         2003 — Neil Miller, Sex Crime Panic         2002 — [tie] Ricardo J. Brown, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's; and Robert Reid-Pharr, Black Gay Man         2001 — Mark Matousek, Lost Father         2000 — Eric Brandt, Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays and the Struggle for Equality         1999 — John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence         1998 — David Sedaris, Naked         1997 — Anthony Heilbut, Thomas Mann Poetry Awards     The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and The Thom Gunn for Gay Poetry     The Publishing Triangle instituted its poetry awards 2001. Each award is for books published in the preceding year in the United States or Canada (i.e., the 2009 awards honored books published in 2008).     The Audre Lorde Award honors the American poet, essayist, librarian, and teacher. Lorde (1934-1992) was nominated for the National Book Award for From a Land Where Other People Live and was the poet laureate of New York State in 1991. She received the Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement shortly before her death. Among her other sixteen books are Zami (1982) and A Burst of Light (1989).     The Thom Gunn Award honors Thom Gunn (1929-2004), who was the author of The Man with Night Sweats (1992) and many other acclaimed volumes. Gunn, who was born in Kent, England, lived in San Francisco from 1960 until his death. (In its first four years, including the year Mr. Gunn himself won, this award was known as the Triangle Award for Gay Poetry.)     Publishers and others may nominate candidates for these awards using a submission form posted on our website each autumn, for an entry fee of $35.00. Individual members of the Publishing Triangle may nominate one book for free. The finalists and the winners are determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Publishing Triangle's awards committee. The winners each receive $500.     Past winners are:         The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry         2016 — Jennifer Perrine, No Confession, No Mass         2015 — Meg Day, Last Psalm at Sea Level         2014 — Angie Estes, Enchantée         2013 — Rachel Rose, Song and Spectacle         2012 — Minnie Bruce Pratt, Inside the Money Machine         2011 — Jen Currin, The Inquisition Yours         2010 — Stacie Cassarino, Zero at the Bone         2009 — Elizabeth Bradfield, Interpretative Work         2008 — Joan Larkin, My Body         2007 — Jennifer Rose, Hometown for an Hour         2006 — Jane Miller, A Palace of Pearls         2005 — Maureen Seaton, Venus Examines Her Breast         2004 — Daphne Gottlieb, Final Girl         2003 — Melanie Braverman, Red         2002 — Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, Mr. Bluebird         2001 — Marilyn Hacker, Squares and Courtyards         The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry         2016 — Rick Barot, Chord         2015 — Jericho Brown, The New Testament         2014 — Charlie Bondhus, All the Heat We Could Carry         2013 — Richard Blanco, Looking for the Gulf Motel         2012 — Henri Cole, Touch         2011 — Michael Walsh, The Dirt Riddles         2010 — Ronaldo V. Wilson, Poems of the Black Object         2009 — Ely Shipley, Boy with Flower         2008 — [tie] Steve Fellner, Blind Date with Cavafy; and Daniel Hall, Under Sleep         2007 — Justin Chin, Gutted         2006 — Richard Siken, Crush         2005 — Carl Phillips, The Rest of Love         2004 — Brian Teare, The Room Where I Was Born         2003 — Greg Hewett, Red Suburb         2002 — Mark Doty, Source         2001 — Thom Gunn, Boss Cupid The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction     Inaugurated in May 2006, this award recognizes outstanding first novels or story collections by LGBT authors. It is unique among the Triangle Literary Awards, in that women and men compete in the same category. The award is open to first-book authors of any age whose work contains queer themes. Writers can have published works of nonfiction, and their short fiction can have previously appeared in a published anthology. The book nominated must be the author's first work of book-length fiction.     This award honors the distinguished Edmund White, who won the very first Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990. White is the author, among many other works, of A Boy's Own Story, States of Desire, A Married Man, Fanny, and Arts and Letters. The winner receives $1,000.     Past winners are:         2016 — Carellin Brooks, One Hundred Days of Rain         2015 — Kim Fu, For Today I Am a Boy         2014 — Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine         2013 — Lysley Tenorio, Monstress         2012 — Lara Fergus, My Sister Chaos         2011 — Katharine Beutner, Alcestis         2010 — Lori Ostlund, The Bigness of the World         2009 — Evan Fallenberg, Light Fell         2008 — Myriam Gurba, Dahlia Season         2007 — Martin Hyatt, A Scarecrow's Bible         2006 — Mack Friedman, Setting the Lawn on Fire The Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature Inaugurated in the spring of 2016, this award recognizes outstanding work from the gender-nonconforming community. Poetry, fiction (including for children), and nonfiction by trans or gender-variant (T/GV) authors is eligible. Nonfictio authored or co-authored by cis authors that is primarily about the T/GV experience or community is also eligible. The winner receives $1,000. Past winners are: 2016 -- Nathanael, The Middle Notebookes  The Publishing Triangle Leadership Award     The Publishing Triangle is proud to honor the best and brightest writers working today. Other people, as well as institutions, contribute to the health, vibrancy, and prestige of LBGT literature. In that light, the Publishing Triangle's Leadership Award puts the spotlight on the contribution of editors, literary agents, and others who have worked tirelessly to see that great books reach avid readers.     Past winners are:         2016 — Christopher Street Magazine         2015 — (no award)         2014 — Sinister Wisdom magazine         2013 — Ira Silverberg         2012 — Frances Goldin         2011 — Gay and Lesbian Review         2010 — Michele Karlsberg         2009 — Carole DeSanti         2008 — Carol Seajay and Richard Labonte         2007 — Nancy Bereano         2006 — Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop         2005 — Lesbian Herstory Archives         2004 — Barbara Gittings         2003 — Jed Mattes         2002 — Michael Denneny The Ferro–Grumley Awards     The Ferro–Grumley Awards were first awarded in 1990. They are made possible by the estates of novelists and lovers Robert Ferro (The Family of Max Desir) and Michael Grumley (Life Studies) and are funded and administered by the Ferro–Grumley Foundation, headed by Stephen Greco.     The Publishing Triangle is proud to have been associated with the Ferro–Grumley Awards since 1994.     The purpose of these awards is to honor culture-driving fiction from LGBT points of view. Through 2008, two awards have been given each year, in the categories of "women" and "men," to the authors of the most significant novels and collections and short stories. Going forward, the structure of the awards are being modified to honor one book per year, irrespective of gender.     Each award listed is for a book published in the preceding year in the United States or Canada (i.e., the 2008 awards honored books published in 2007). Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards, Inc., and the Publishing Triangle have collaborated in soliciting submissions for awards and in hosting an awards ceremony since 1994. Publishers and others may nominate candidates for the award using a submission form posted on the Publishing Triangle website each autumn, for an entry fee of $35.00. Individual members of the Publishing Triangle may nominate one book for free. The finalists and the winners are determined by a panel of judges appointed by the Ferro-Grumley Foundation. Winners receive $1000.     Past winners are:         The Ferro–Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction         2016 — Michael Goldman, A Poet of the Invisible World         2015 — Bernardine Evaristo, Mr. Loverman         2014 — Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine         2013 — Trebor Healey, A Horse Named Sorrow         2012 — Paul Russell, The Unreal Life of Sergei Nabakov         2011 — Michael Sledge, The More I Owe You         2010 — Sebastian Stuart, The Hour Between         2009 — Alison Bechdel, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For         The Ferro–Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction         2008 — Ali Liebegott, The IHOP Papers         2007 — Lisa Carey, Every Visible Thing         2006 — Patricia Grossman, Brian in Three Seasons         2005 — Stacey D'Erasmo, A Seahorse Year         2004 — Nina Revoyr, Southland         2003 — Carol Anshaw, Lucky in the Corner         2002 — Emma Donoghue, Slammerkin         2001 — Sarah Waters, Affinity         2000 — Judy Doenges, What She Left Me         1999 — Patricia Powell, The Pagoda         1998 — Elana Dykewoman, Beyond the Pale         1997 — Persimmon Blackbridge, Sunnybrook         1996 — Sarah Schulman, Rat Bohemia         1995 — Heather Lewis, House Rules         1994 — Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body         1993 — Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina         1992 — Blanche McCrary Boyd, The Revolution of Little Girls         1991 — Cherry Muhanji, Her         1990 — Ruthann Robson, Eye of the Hurricane         The Ferro–Grumley Award for Gay Fiction         2008 — Peter Cameron, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You         2007 — Christopher Bram, Exiles in America         2006 — Barry McCrea, The First Verse         2005 — Adam Berlin, Belmondo Style         2004 — Trebor Healey, Through It Came Bright Colors         2003 — Jamie O'Neill, At Swim Two Boys         2002 — David Ebershoff, The Rose City         2001 — Edmund White, The Married Man         2000 — Paul Russell, The Coming Storm         1999 — Michael Cunningham, The Hours         1998 — Colm Toibin, The Story of the Night         1997 — Andrew Holleran, The Beauty of Men         1996 — Felice Picano, Like People in History         1995 — Mark Merlis, American Studies         1994 — John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil [nonfiction]         1993 — Randall Kenan, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead         1992 — Melvin Dixon, Vanishing Rooms         1991 — Allen Barnett, The Body and Its Dangers         1990 — Dennis Cooper, Closer The Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting     The Robert Chesley Award for Lesbian and Gay Playwriting honors the memory of playwright Robert Chesley. For many years, these awards were presented at our awards ceremony.     The Chesley Foundation has taken its awards program in another direction, one that does not involve a public presentation. For more information about the foundation, and its awards, please contact Victor Bumbalo.     Past winners are:         2007 — Eric Bentley, Chris Weikel         2006 — Kathleen Warnock, Megan Terry         2005 — Michael Kearns, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas         2004 — Rebecca Ranson, Jane Shepard         2003 — H.M. Koutoukas, Rev. Alvin Carmines Jr.         2002 — Christopher Shinn, Shelia Callaghan         2001 — Maria Irene Fornes         2000 — Jeff Weiss         1999 — Madeleine Olnek         1998 — Chay Yew         1997 — Paula Vogel         1996 — Robert Patrick, Susan Miller         1995 — Victor Lodato         1994 — Lisa Kron, Doric Wilson