Lambda Literary Award for Poetry

The Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to a LGBTQ+ themed book of poetry.

Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry
Awarded for	Literary award
Sponsored by	Lambda Literary Foundation
Date	Annual
Website	www.lambdaliterary.org

At the first two Lambda Literary Awards in 1989 and 1990, a single award for Poetry was presented, irrespective of gender. Beginning with the 3rd Lambda Literary Awards in 1991, the poetry award was split into two separate awards for Gay Poetry and Lesbian Poetry, which have been presented continuously since then except at the 20th Lambda Literary Awards in 2008, when a merged LGBTQ poetry award was again presented for that year only. In 2016, an award for Transgender Poetry was introduced and has been presented every year since; likewise an award for Bisexual Poetry has been presented since 2019.

In 2024, an award for LGBTQ+ Poetry was again shortlisted, in addition to the 4 newer categories.

Honorees

Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry winners and finalists

Year	Author	Title	Result
1989	Carl Morse and Joan Larkin (eds.)	Gay & Lesbian Poetry in our Time	Winner	[1]
	Josephine Balmer (transl.)	Sappho: Poems and Fragments	Finalist
	James Merrill	The Inner Room
	Paul Monette	Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog
	May Sarton	The Silence Now
1990	Michael Klein	Poets for Life	Winner	[2]
	Cheryl Clarke	Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry	Finalist
	Robert Glück	Reader
	Christian McEwen	Naming the Waves
	Adrienne Rich	Time’s Power: Poems 1985–1988
1991–2007	See separate awards for Gay Poetry and Lesbian Poetry
2008[a]	Henri Cole	Blackbird and Wolf	Winner	[3]
	Dawn Lundy Martin	A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering	Finalist
	Carol Potter	Otherwise Obedient
	Reginald Shepherd	Fata Morgana
	C. Dale Young	The Second Person
	Syd Zolf[b]	Human Resources
2009–2015	See separate awards for Gay Poetry and Lesbian Poetry
2016–2018	See awards for Gay Poetry, Lesbian Poetry and Transgender Poetry
2019–2023	See awards for Gay Poetry, Lesbian Poetry, Transgender Poetry and Bisexual Poetry
2024[c]	Robin Gow	Lanternfly August	Finalist	[4]
	Destiny Hemphill	motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life
	Sam Sax	Pig
	Quinn Carver Johnson	The Perfect Bastard
	Alina Pleskova	Toska

Notes

1. As "Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Poetry"
2. Shortlisted under their deadname
3. In 2024, as well as a combined "Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry", poetry was also shortlisted in the separate categories of Gay Poetry, Lesbian Poetry, Transgender Poetry and Bisexual Poetry.