The 21st Lambda Literary Awards were held in 2009, to honour works of LGBT literature published in 2008.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Pioneer Award | Leslie Feinberg, The Violet Quill |
| Category | Winner | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| Bisexual Literature | Jenny Block, Open |
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| Gay Debut Fiction | Shawn Stewart Ruff, Finlater |
|
| Gay Erotica | Richard Labonté and James Lear, eds., Best Gay Erotica 2009 |
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| Gay Fiction | Scott Heim, We Disappear |
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| Gay Memoir/Biography | Sheila Rowbotham, Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love |
|
| Gay Mystery | Scott Sherman, First You Fall |
|
| Gay Poetry | Mark Doty, Fire to Fire James Allen Hall, Now You're the Enemy |
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| Gay Romance | Larry Duplechan, Got 'til it's Gone |
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| Lesbian Debut Fiction | Magdalena Zurawski, The Bruise |
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| Lesbian Erotica | Radclyffe and Karin Kallmaker, In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip |
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| Lesbian Fiction | Emma Donoghue, The Sealed Letter Chandra Mayor, All the Pretty Girls |
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| Lesbian Memoir/Biography | Maureen Seaton, Sex Talks to Girls: A Memoir |
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| Lesbian Mystery | Josie Gordon, Whacked |
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| Lesbian Poetry | Judy Grahn, love belongs to those who do the feeling |
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| Lesbian Romance | Karin Kallmaker, The Kiss That Counted |
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| LGBT Anthology | Thomas Glave, Our Caribbean |
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| LGBT Children's/Young Adult | Bill Konigsberg, Out of the Pocket |
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| LGBT Drama | Carolyn Gage, The Second Coming of Joan of Arc |
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| LGBT Non-Fiction | Jane Rule, Loving the Difficult |
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| LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror | Nicole Kimberling, Turnskin |
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| LGBT Studies | Regina Kunzel, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality |
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| Transgender Literature | Thea Hillman, Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) |
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