Poet Jericho Brown, playwright Jane Wagner, and publisher Brian Lam will all receive special awards at this year’s Lambda Literary Awards, the country’s most prestigious prizes for LGBTQ literature.
Brown will be honored with Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award, given each year to “an extraordinary individual who has broken new ground in the field of LGBTQ literature and culture.” Brown’s latest collection, The Tradition, won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award.
Wagner, best known for her comedy writing for wife Lily Tomlin, will receive the organization’s Visionary Award. Wagner wrote Tomlin’s hit one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and the screenplay for the film The Incredible Shrinking Woman.
Lam, the publisher of Canadian indie press Arsenal Pulp, will receive the Publishing Professional Award. The press is known for publishing LGBTQ writers such as David Watmough, Ivan Coyote, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.
“The Lammys have always celebrated authors who bring necessary, urgent, and artful writing into the world, and Jericho, Jane, and Brian all embody that spirit,” Lambda Literary’s executive director, Sue Landers, said in a statement. “While our ceremony will take a new form this year, we are grateful for their work and excited to be celebrating their achievements.”
Lambda Literary had to call off its awards ceremony this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is planning to announce the winners of the Lammys on June 1.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.