The Lambda Literary Awards, highlighting LGBTQ+ writers across genres, identities, experiences, age ranges, and categories, are the perfect blend of Pride Month and the library, showcasing the best in queer books. The 2026 winners were just announced, and any of these would be great options for your Queer/Trans voices Book Bingo square! With 26 categories to peruse, there are a plethora of amazing titles here; I’ll highlight just a few to check out.
Vampire fiction is big these days, and the Lammys are no exception. Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone, the winner for Lesbian Fiction, is a retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, which also inspired Dracula, but with a sapphic twist. Lenore is a bored aristocratic housewife who, along with her wealthy husband, rescues the victim of a roadside carriage accident, one Carmilla Kernstein. They bring Carmilla back to their mansion and Lenore starts to notice her strange resemblance to the ghostly girl haunting her dreams–and stoking her desire.
SPL hosted Jennifer Finney Boylan last year for her book, Cleavage, which won the Lammy for Transgender Nonfiction. Boylan interrogates gender, sex, and identity, and reflects on her life more than 20 years after transitioning in this memoir-in-essays. Blending introspection and cultural critique, Boylan looks at what has changed in the American landscape of gender and coming out since her 2003 book, She’s Not There, a major work in trans memoir, and what has stayed the same.
Mike Curato won the Lammy for Flamer in 2021 in the Young Adult category; now, five years later, he won again for Gaysians in LGBTQ+ Comics. Gaysians is set in Seattle, following four Asian single 20-something queer folks in the early 2000s. The friends support each other through the ups and downs of identity exploration, romance, hookups, as well as the harder parts of racism, homophobia, and familial alienation. Tender and bighearted, this tale of chosen family reestablishes Curato as a titan in queer comics.
If you’re still looking to fill your Honorable Mention square on Book Bingo, be sure to check out the Lambda Literary Award Finalists!
~posted by Jane S.