Lambda Literary Awards: Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain, Samantha Irby's Wow, No Thank You featured in finalists' lists

New York: Fiction by Garth Greenwell and Douglas Stuart and nonfiction by author-comedian Samantha Irby are among this year’s nominees for the Lambda Literary Awards, given for the best of LGBTQ writing. Greenwell’s Cleanness and Stuart’s Shuggie Bain, winner of the Booker Prize last fall, are contenders for best gay fiction, along with Joon Oluchi Lee’s Neotenica, Brandon Taylor’s Real Life and Dennis E Staples’ This Town Sleeps. The finalists for best lesbian fiction are K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary, Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread, Jennifer Steil’s Exile Music, Juli Delgado Lopera’s Fiebre Tropical and Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl. Talia Hibbert’s Take a Hint, Dani Brown is a nominee for best bisexual fiction, with other finalists including Elisabeth Thomas’ Catherine House, C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Sulaiman Addonia’s Silence Is My Mother Tongue and Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much. The transgender fiction nominees were Nino Cipri’s Finna, Chana Porter’s The Seep, Vivek Shraya’s The Subtweet, Zeyn Joukhadar’s The Thirty Names of Night and Lydia Rogue’s Trans-Galactic Bike Ride. Finalists in 24 categories, ranging from science fiction to poetry to memoir/autobiography, were announced on 15 March by the nonprofit Lambda Literary organisation. Other nominees include Irby’s essay collection Wow, No Thank You for best bisexual nonfiction, Jenn Shapland’s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers for best lesbian memoir/biography and Eduardo C Corral’s Guillotine for gay poetry. Winners will be announced during a virtual ceremony on 1 June. The Lambda awards, also known as the “Lammys,” were established in 1989. Previous winners include Edmund White, Dorothy Allison, Bryan Washington and Carmen Maria Machado.