Lambda Literary Awards Honor Myles, Teare

The 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards took place at the School of Visual Arts Theater in NYC last week, and among the winners were Brian Teare (Pleasure, Ahsahta Press) for gay men's poetry, and Eileen Myles, in lesbian fiction, for Inferno (A Poet's Novel) (OR Books). The full list (there are, in total, 24 categories) of award winners is here.

The Lambda ceremony took place during the same week of Book Expo America--the book publishing industry’s biggest annual jamboree--and "brought together over 400 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature." Presenting the Foundation's Pioneer Award to Edward Albee, Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally remarked, “'He has avoided gay subject matter throughout his career that people wonder if he’s gay. Well, I’m here to tell you he is … I picked him up at a party in 1960.' In accepting his honor, Albee remarked 'I’m not a gay writer. I’m a writer who happens to be gay.'"

Dennis Cooper mentioned Myles's win on his blog, in a comprehensive spotlight on Tim Dlugos that includes recollections from others, press, excerpts, videos, and eventually a response to his commenters in braided prose:

Wished I had an XBox so I could play 'LA Noire' because I read a bunch of rave reviews on that game yesterday. Watched a documentary on the Arte channel about the making 'A Clockwork Orange', and that was pretty interesting. Then they showed 'ACO' itself, but the dubbed into French thing was too annoying, so I turned it off. After I went to sleep, my cell phone pinged, but I was too sleepy to wake up and check it, so I did this morning, and it was a friend in NYC texting me to say that my pal Eileen Myles won Best Lesbian Novel at the Lambda Literary Awards last night, so that's good. Anyway, since I already told you I was asleep, I guess that means my report on yesterday is over.