37th Annual Publishing Triangle Award Winners Announced

Last night, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, the 37th Annual Publishing Triangle Awards lit up The New School in New York City with a celebration of LGBTQ+ literary excellence. With ten categories, nine winning titles, and countless moments of inspiration, this year’s ceremony spotlighted some of the boldest, most powerful voices in queer literature published in 2024.

(Photograph by Andres Otero) from left to right:

Margot Douaihy – Winner of the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ Crime Writing
Blas Falconer – Winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry
Cass Donish – Winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
Rabih Alameddine – Recipient of the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement
Jiaming Tang – Winner of the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction
David Groff – Recipient of the Michele Karlsberg Leadership Award

A Historic Double Win

Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang (Dutton) made history as only the second book to win both the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ+ Fiction and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, following Sara Farizan’s 2014 dual win. Tang’s novel stood out among powerful finalists including Curiosities by Anne Fleming, Hart Island by Gary Zebrun, Indian Winter by Kazim Ali, and There is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes Jr.

Honoring Nonfiction Narratives

The Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction was awarded to Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a profound tribute to an icon. Meanwhile, the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction went to Lucy Hughes-Hallett for The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham (HarperCollins), capturing a life both luminous and tragic.

Poetry with Purpose

In poetry, Cass Donish earned the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry for Your Dazzling Death (Knopf), while Blas Falconer received the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry for Rara Avis (Four Way Books), both collections showcasing lyrical brilliance and emotional depth.

Celebrating Trans and Genre Literature

Charlie J. Stephens took home the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature for their moving debut A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest (Torrey House Press), and Margot Douaihy won the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ+ Crime Writing for her gripping mystery Blessed Water (Zando/Gillian Flynn Books).

Youth, Justice, and Impact

The Jacqueline Woodson Award for LGBTQ+ Young Adult and Children’s Literature was awarded to Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa (Wednesday Books), while Johanna Hedva received the Amber Hollibaugh Award for LGBTQ+ Social Justice Writing for their groundbreaking work How to Tell When We Will Die (Zando-Hillman Grad Books).

Special Honors Announced Earlier This Year