LGBTQ Indigenous anthology Love After The End wins Lambda Literary Award – CBC.ca

Love After The End, an anthology curated by Joshua Whitehead, is one of three Canadian winners of the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards. 

The annual awards celebrate the best in LGBTQ literature from around the world. The 24 winners were selected from more than 1,000 book submissions.

Love After The End won the LGBTQ anthology category.

Love After The End is a speculative fiction collection that showcases a number of new and emerging two-spirit and queer Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail their vivacity and strength throughout its plight in the maw of settler colonialism’s histories.

Contributors include Nathan Adler, Darcie Little Badger, Gabriel Castilloux Calderon, Adam Garnet Jones, Mari Kurisato, Kai Minosh Pyle, David Alexander Robertson, jaye simpson and Nazbah Tom. 

Whitehead is a two-spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation who is currently pursuing his PhD. He is also the author of the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer. His first novel, Jonny Appleseed, won Canada Reads 2021, when it was championed by actor Devery Jacobs.

The other Canadian winners are I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan and The Nerves by Lee Suksi.

I Hope You’re Listening won the LGBTQ mystery category.

I Hope You’re Listening tells the story of a small-town 17-year-old, Delia “Dee” Skinner. Ten years ago, she witnessed the abduction of her best friend. And though she told the police everything she remembered, it wasn’t enough. Upon the disappearance of another girl, Dee is given an opportunity to uncover the truth. She’s about to find out what’s really at stake in unraveling the mystery of the little girls who vanished. 

Ryan is the author of several books for young readers. He spends his time living between Ontario and Nova Scotia.

The Nerves won the LGBTQ erotica category.

Set in an imaginary world where our sense memories tell us who we are, The Nerves is charged with desire, devotion, and creative fantasy. Through a series of joyful encounters, Suksi reminds us that pleasure can be abundant, nuanced and that it can heal. 

Suksi is a writer based in Toronto. Their writing has mostly appeared as texts accompanying exhibitions or read at galleries.

Here’s the list of the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards winners:

• Lesbian fiction: Fiebre Tropical by Juli Delgado Lopera
• Gay fiction: Neotenica by Joon Oluchi Lee
• Bisexual fiction: You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
• Transgender fiction: The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
• Bisexual nonfiction: Wow, No Thank You.: Essays by Samantha Irby
• Transgender nonfiction: The Black Trans Prayer Book by J Mase III & Dane Figueroa Edidi
• LGBTQ nonfiction: The Lonely Letters by Ashon T. Crawley
• Lesbian poetry: Funeral Diva by Pamela Sneed
• Gay poetry: Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral
• Bisexual poetry: Salt Body Shimmer by Aricka Foreman
• Transgender poetry: I love you and I’m not dead by Sade LaNay
• Lesbian memoir/biography: My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland
• Gay memoir/biography: A Dutiful Boy: A Memoir of a Gay Muslim’s Journey to Acceptance by Mohsin Zaidi
• Lesbian romance: Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
• Gay romance: The Ghost and Charlie Muir by Felice Stevens
• LGBTQ anthology: Love After The End, edited by Joshua Whitehead
• LGBTQ children’s/middle grade: King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
• LGBTQ young adult: Flamer by Mike Curato
• LGBTQ comics: Apsara Engine by Bishakh Som
• LGBTQ drama: The Book of Mountains and Seas by Yilong Liu
• LGBTQ erotica: The Nerves by Lee Suksi
• LGBTQ mystery: I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan
• LGBTQ science fiction/fantasy/horror: Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe

Last year’s winners included Samra Habib, who won the lesbian memoir/biography category for her memoir We Have Always Been Here, which won Canada Reads 2020, when it was championed by Amanda Brugel, and Hazel Jane Plante, who won the transgender fiction for The Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian).

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