The Publishing Triangle has honored outstanding LGBTQ writers for their bodies of work since 1989.
The Bill Whitehead Award commemorates pioneering editor Bill Whitehead (d. 1987), one of the first openly gay editors in mainstream publishing. Rising to editor in chief at E. P. Dutton and later serving as editor at large at Macmillan, he worked across literary and commercial genres and edited major LGBTQ authors including Edmund White, Robert Ferro, and Doris Grumbach, as well as notable works like Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty trilogy and Lana Turner’s autobiography.
Each year, a jury selects an LGBTQ author whose lifetime of work has made a significant contribution to queer culture. Formerly alternating between male- and female-identified authors, the award has—since 2020—been open to writers across the full LGBTQ spectrum.
The winner receives $3,000, one of the largest prizes in LGBTQ literature.
Past winners are:
2025 — Rabih Alameddine
2024 — Dorothy Allison
2023 — Patrick Califia
2022 — Cherríe Moraga
2021 — Cheryl Clarke
2020 — Eileen Myles
2019 — Jaime Manrique
2018 — Sarah Schulman
2017 — Michael Bronski
2016 — Eloise Klein Healy
2015 — Rigoberto González
2014 — María Irene Fornés
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