Last December when I posted about Punks I noted that the positive response felt almost inconceivable, in no small part because this was a book that I thought might never appear, and whose publishing history was a long and tortured one (until The Song Cave entered the picture). It has, however, continued to garner good reviews, and recently was even nominated for two different awards.
I learned a week ago that it is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and then today, thanks to Reggie H. (thank you!), that it's a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry. In both instances it is in excellent company (and all of the finalists for the Publishing Triangle Award are Black gay writers), and I extend my congratulations and best wishes to all my fellow finalists and nominees. Whatever happens, do read their books if you can, and urge your local libraries and bookstores to order them if they already have not.
2022 Lammy Award finalists in Gay Poetry:
- Tenderness by Derrick Austin
- Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene
- Shoreditch by Miguel Murphy
- Creep Love by Michael Walsh
- Besiege Me by Nicholas Wong
- Shoreditch by Miguel Murphy
- Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene
- The Monster That I Am: Leontine Price and a Life in Verse by Kevin Simmonds
- Mutiny by Phillip B. Williams