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| John Waters receives 'crown of queer royalty' at 27th Lambda literary awards | John Waters receives 'crown of queer royalty' at 27th Lambda literary awards |
| (3 days later) | |
| At the beginning of last night’s Lambda literary awards in New York City, the host and comedian Kate Clinton was introduced as a “one-woman Pussy Riot”. That set the jovial and playful tone of the evening, during which film-maker John Waters accepted an award he described as a “crown of queer royalty”. | |
| The “Lammys”, now in their 27th year, are the highlight of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literary world. Yet steeped as they are in celebrity and ceremony, the Lammys weren’t as stuffy or straight as many LGBT awards shows often are: they were unabashedly, gleefully queer, representing the many facets of queer life. | The “Lammys”, now in their 27th year, are the highlight of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literary world. Yet steeped as they are in celebrity and ceremony, the Lammys weren’t as stuffy or straight as many LGBT awards shows often are: they were unabashedly, gleefully queer, representing the many facets of queer life. |
| They were, as presenter and nominee Alan Cumming put it, “a celebration of queer culture and queer literature”. | They were, as presenter and nominee Alan Cumming put it, “a celebration of queer culture and queer literature”. |
| “It’s extremely important to celebrate queer spaces,” Cumming told the Guardian before the ceremony began, even in a world where same-sex marriage is being rapidly accepted on both sides of the Atlantic. | “It’s extremely important to celebrate queer spaces,” Cumming told the Guardian before the ceremony began, even in a world where same-sex marriage is being rapidly accepted on both sides of the Atlantic. |
| Presenting the awards for transgender fiction and nonfiction alongside Cumming, Justin Vivian Bond spoke about the day’s news of Caitlyn Jenner and said how wonderful it is that transgender writers are finally telling their own stories. | Presenting the awards for transgender fiction and nonfiction alongside Cumming, Justin Vivian Bond spoke about the day’s news of Caitlyn Jenner and said how wonderful it is that transgender writers are finally telling their own stories. |
| Other presenters included cartoonist Alison Bechdel (whose graphic novel Fun Home is the basis of a musical nominated for 12 Tonys this weekend), Redefining Realness author Janet Mock, radio host and It’s Not Over author Michelangelo Signorile, film-maker Barbara Hammer, Four Two Nine editor Kevin Sessums, and novelist Sarah Schulman. | Other presenters included cartoonist Alison Bechdel (whose graphic novel Fun Home is the basis of a musical nominated for 12 Tonys this weekend), Redefining Realness author Janet Mock, radio host and It’s Not Over author Michelangelo Signorile, film-maker Barbara Hammer, Four Two Nine editor Kevin Sessums, and novelist Sarah Schulman. |
| Gloria Steinem presented the Pioneer Award to Rita Mae Brown, introducing her as a “laughing, whole, free, fan-fucking-tastic person” before Brown gave the strangest acceptance speech of the night. | Gloria Steinem presented the Pioneer Award to Rita Mae Brown, introducing her as a “laughing, whole, free, fan-fucking-tastic person” before Brown gave the strangest acceptance speech of the night. |
| Brown, dressed in red, white and blue, began by telling the crowd it would degrade them to speak to them as gay and lesbian people: she would address them as readers instead. She then gave a rambling patriotic speech about the founding fathers and said that the United States is “the only nation created by a single generation”, drawing a singular but piercing laugh in the auditorium. Brown ended her speech saying: “Jefferson dreamed of you.” | Brown, dressed in red, white and blue, began by telling the crowd it would degrade them to speak to them as gay and lesbian people: she would address them as readers instead. She then gave a rambling patriotic speech about the founding fathers and said that the United States is “the only nation created by a single generation”, drawing a singular but piercing laugh in the auditorium. Brown ended her speech saying: “Jefferson dreamed of you.” |
| Jefferson probably never dreamed of the winner of the first award of the evening for gay poetry, the “black as hell” poet Danez Smith who authored [insert] boy. Smith thanked black queers in his speech. Their influence on queer literature was well recognized by the many black writers who won throughout the night, including Alexis De Veaux (lesbian fiction) for Yabo , Charles Blow (bisexual nonfiction) for Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and Robert O’Hara (drama) for Bootycandy. (Bootycandy is also the subject of an excellent article last month called Black Gay Theater as Black Gay Think Tank by Charles Stephens, who was also nominated for a Lammy for co-editing Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call.) | Jefferson probably never dreamed of the winner of the first award of the evening for gay poetry, the “black as hell” poet Danez Smith who authored [insert] boy. Smith thanked black queers in his speech. Their influence on queer literature was well recognized by the many black writers who won throughout the night, including Alexis De Veaux (lesbian fiction) for Yabo , Charles Blow (bisexual nonfiction) for Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and Robert O’Hara (drama) for Bootycandy. (Bootycandy is also the subject of an excellent article last month called Black Gay Theater as Black Gay Think Tank by Charles Stephens, who was also nominated for a Lammy for co-editing Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call.) |
| Black influence on queer literature was also apparent from the subject matter of several of the Lammy winning books, including Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (lesbian memoir/biography), Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within US Slave Culture (LGBT studies), and Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill and the Battlefield of AIDS (LGBT nonfiction). | Black influence on queer literature was also apparent from the subject matter of several of the Lammy winning books, including Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (lesbian memoir/biography), Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within US Slave Culture (LGBT studies), and Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill and the Battlefield of AIDS (LGBT nonfiction). |
| The Betty Berzon Emerging Writer award, named for the pioneering psychotherapist who helped make the American Medical Association declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, went to Anne Balay, author of Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Steelworkers, and Daisy Hernandez, author of A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir. | The Betty Berzon Emerging Writer award, named for the pioneering psychotherapist who helped make the American Medical Association declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, went to Anne Balay, author of Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Steelworkers, and Daisy Hernandez, author of A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir. |
| The campiest and most enjoyable moment of the evening was when legendary 92-year-old columnist Liz Smith presented the Excellence in Literature Award to John Waters. | The campiest and most enjoyable moment of the evening was when legendary 92-year-old columnist Liz Smith presented the Excellence in Literature Award to John Waters. |
| The nonagenarian Smith began introducing Waters by saying she wasn’t going to be “bending down to eat anything from the street” like Divine did in Pink Flamingos. Smith said Andy Warhol (whom she knew) would only pretend to be sweet, while “John Waters is the real thing”. She ended by referring to Waters’s library of 8,000 books and his well-known quote that if you go home with someone and they don’t have books, “don’t fuck them”. | The nonagenarian Smith began introducing Waters by saying she wasn’t going to be “bending down to eat anything from the street” like Divine did in Pink Flamingos. Smith said Andy Warhol (whom she knew) would only pretend to be sweet, while “John Waters is the real thing”. She ended by referring to Waters’s library of 8,000 books and his well-known quote that if you go home with someone and they don’t have books, “don’t fuck them”. |
| Waters thanked Smith and Lambda for his award, calling it “the Imperial Margarine crown of queer royalty”. Honored to receive a literary award, Waters said he thinks of himself as a writer, as he’s never directed a movie he didn’t write, and he dedicated his award to the recently deceased owners of the Provincetown Bookshop. | Waters thanked Smith and Lambda for his award, calling it “the Imperial Margarine crown of queer royalty”. Honored to receive a literary award, Waters said he thinks of himself as a writer, as he’s never directed a movie he didn’t write, and he dedicated his award to the recently deceased owners of the Provincetown Bookshop. |
| But asked by the Guardian after the ceremony if he’d ever actually walked out on having sex with someone who didn’t have books, Waters said: “That’s so old! I said that years ago! And I’m a liar.” | But asked by the Guardian after the ceremony if he’d ever actually walked out on having sex with someone who didn’t have books, Waters said: “That’s so old! I said that years ago! And I’m a liar.” |
| Waters admitted his quote so famous it graces refrigerator magnets is a lie: no books doesn’t mean no sex. | Waters admitted his quote so famous it graces refrigerator magnets is a lie: no books doesn’t mean no sex. |
| “If they’re cute enough, you make exceptions,” he said with a wry smile beneath his signature pencil-thin moustache. | “If they’re cute enough, you make exceptions,” he said with a wry smile beneath his signature pencil-thin moustache. |
| 2015 Lammy Winners | 2015 Lammy Winners |
| Bisexual fiction | Bisexual fiction |
| Give It to Me, by Ana Castillo | Give It to Me, by Ana Castillo |
| Bisexual non-fiction | Bisexual non-fiction |
| Fire Shut Up In My Bones, by Charles M Blow | Fire Shut Up In My Bones, by Charles M Blow |
| Gay erotica | Gay erotica |
| The King, by Tiffany Reisz | The King, by Tiffany Reisz |
| Gay general fiction | Gay general fiction |
| I Loved You More, by Tom Spanbauer | I Loved You More, by Tom Spanbauer |
| Gay memoir/biography (two winners) | |
| Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John LahrThe Prince of Los Cocuyos, by Richard Blanco | |
| Gay mystery | Gay mystery |
| Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery, by Katie Gilmartin | Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery, by Katie Gilmartin |
| Gay poetry | Gay poetry |
| [insert] boy, by Danez Smith | [insert] boy, by Danez Smith |
| Gay romance | Gay romance |
| Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, by Jeff Mann | Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War, by Jeff Mann |
| Lesbian erotica | Lesbian erotica |
| Lesbian Sex Bible, by Diana Cage | Lesbian Sex Bible, by Diana Cage |
| Lesbian general fiction | Lesbian general fiction |
| Yabo, by Alexis De Veaux | Yabo, by Alexis De Veaux |
| Lesbian memoir/biography | Lesbian memoir/biography |
| Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith | Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith |
| Lesbian poetry | Lesbian poetry |
| Mysterious Acts by My People, by Valerie Wetlaufer | Mysterious Acts by My People, by Valerie Wetlaufer |
| Lesbian romance | Lesbian romance |
| The Farmer’s Daughter, by Robbi McCoy | The Farmer’s Daughter, by Robbi McCoy |
| LGBT anthology | LGBT anthology |
| Understanding and Teaching US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History by Leila J Rupp & Susan K Freeman | Understanding and Teaching US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History by Leila J Rupp & Susan K Freeman |
| LGBT children’s/young adult | LGBT children’s/young adult |
| Five, Six, Seven, Nate!, by Tim Federle | Five, Six, Seven, Nate!, by Tim Federle |
| LGBT debut | LGBT debut |
| The Walk-In Closet, by Abdi Nazemian | The Walk-In Closet, by Abdi Nazemian |
| LGBT drama | LGBT drama |
| Bootycandy, by Robert O’Hara | Bootycandy, by Robert O’Hara |
| LGBT graphic novels | LGBT graphic novels |
| Second Avenue Caper, by Joyce Brabner, illustrated by Mark Zingarelli | Second Avenue Caper, by Joyce Brabner, illustrated by Mark Zingarelli |
| LGBT non-fiction | LGBT non-fiction |
| Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS, by Martin Duberman | Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS, by Martin Duberman |
| LGBT sf/f/horror | LGBT sf/f/horror |
| Bitter Waters, by Chaz Brenchley | Bitter Waters, by Chaz Brenchley |
| LGBT studies | LGBT studies |
| Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture, by Vincent Woodard, edited by Justin A Joyce and Dwight McBride | Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture, by Vincent Woodard, edited by Justin A Joyce and Dwight McBride |
| Transgender fiction | Transgender fiction |
| A Safe Girl to Love, by Casey Plett | A Safe Girl to Love, by Casey Plett |
| Transgender non-fiction | Transgender non-fiction |
| Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man, by Thomas Page McBee | Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man, by Thomas Page McBee |
| • This article was amended on 5 June 2015. An earlier version omitted one of the two winners in the gay memoir/biography category, Richard Blanco’s book, and said incorrectly – because of an editing error – that John Waters’ award was the final one of the evening. |