2024 Lambda Literary Award Finalists

The Wicked Bargain

By: Gabe Cole Novoa
Narrated by: Vico Ortiz
Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

“LOVED the queer Pirates of the Caribbean feel!!! Great for fans of Our Flag Means Death and adventure stories. Read more

Dear Mothman

By: Robin Gow
Narrated by: Dani Martineck
Length: 5 hours 1 minute

"A ­triumphant coming-of-age story about gender identity, strength, and friendship,as well as the different ways that people ­discover who they are."—School Library Journal, starred review
A moving middle-grade novel in verse, about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favorite cryptid, Mothman
Halfway through... Read more

Ellie Engle Saves Herself

By: Leah Johnson
Narrated by: Rocky Anicette
Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

From award-winning YA author Leah Johnson comes her middle grade debut: a laugh-until-you-cry, cry-until-you-laugh story about friendship, change, and the power we have to love ourselves. Ellie Engle doesn't stand out. Not at home, where she's alone with her pet fish since her dad moved away and her mom has to work around the clock . Not at the... Read more

Just Lizzie

By: Karen Wilfrid
Narrated by: Dorothy Dillingham Blue
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

In this beautifully written contemporary middle grade debut, an eighth grader's study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy. For readers of Alex Gino and Ashley Herring Blake.There’s the part of me that doesn’t understand kissing or... Read more

Matteo

By: Michael Leali
Narrated by: Mark Sanderlin, Ferdelle Capistrano, Gary Tiedemann & Sura Siu
Length: 6 hours 33 minutes

A 2024 LAMBDA AWARD FINALIST""This enchanting, modern homage to Pinocchio reminds us anything is possible if we're true to ourselves."" —Cynthia Leitich Smith, award-winning author of Ancestor Approved and Sisters of the NeverseaEleven-year-old Matteo has never felt like one of the other boys. He’s sure that will change when he joins the Blue... Read more

The Beautiful Something Else

By: Ash Van Otterloo
Narrated by: Em Grosland
Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

“Great novel about a nonbinary person who is torn between their new-found freedom to be themself and their longing for their mother, with whom they cannot be themself. Fortunately, however, it comes to a happy ending for everyone. Read more

Creep

Accusations and Confessions

By: Myriam Gurba
Narrated by: Myriam Gurba
Length: 11 hours 11 minutes

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE FINALIST * A LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER

“Quite simply one of the best books of the decade.” —Los Angeles Review of Books * “The mother of intersectional Latinx identity.” —Cosmopolitan * “Brilliant…a hopeful book…rooted in the steadfast belief other worlds are possible.” —The New York Observer * “Witty,... Read more

Transland

Consent, Kink, and Pleasure

By: Mx. Sly
Narrated by: Sebastian Marziali
Length: 8 hours 30 minutes

A memoir of transformation and self-discovery that explores fetish communities from a gender diverse perspective. Transland is a fiery and revealing memoir that delves into what happens when a non-binary person goes looking for self-worth and a sense of belonging in fetish subculture, only to find that fetish communities come with just as... Read more

Black on Black

On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America

By: Daniel Black
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 6 hours 45 minutes

*From the Viral Clark Atlanta University Commencement Speaker*
*From the Georgia Author of the Year Award Winner*
*A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of 2023*
*A "Next Big Idea Club" Must-Read Book for January*
*An Essence "Books by Black Authors to Read This Winter" Pick*
*An Ebony Entertainment "Required Reading" Book for January*
*A Lambda... Read more

Glitter and Concrete

A Cultural History of Drag in New York City

By: Elyssa Maxx Goodman
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free & Natalie Duke
Length: 12 hours 10 minutes

*The Millions Most Anticipated List of 2023*
*A Vogue Best LGBTQ+ Book of 2023*

"Deeply researched and featuring a cast of characters who can truly be described as fabulous, Glitter and Concrete is urban history on fire." —Thomas Dyja, author of New York, New York, New York

An intimate, evocative history of drag in New York City exploring its... Read more

Hi Honey, I'm Homo!

Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture

By: Matt Baume
Narrated by: Matt Baume
Length: 6 hours 41 minutes

For decades, amidst the bright lights, studio-audience laughs, and absurdly large apartment sets, the real-life story of American LGBTQ+ liberation unfolded in plain sight in front of millions of viewers, most of whom were laughing too hard to mind. From flamboyant relatives on Bewitched to closely-guarded secrets on All in the Family, from... Read more

Bang Bang Bodhisattva

By: Aubrey Wood
Narrated by: Adi Cabral
Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

Someone wants trans girl hacker-for-hire Kiera Umehara in prison or dead—but for what? Failing to fix their smart toilet?



It's 2032 and we live in the worst cyberpunk future. Kiera is gigging her ass off to keep the lights on, but her polycule's social score is so dismal they're about to lose their crib. That's why she's out here chasing cheaters... Read more

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

A Novel

By: Marisa Crane
Narrated by: Bailey Carr
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Dept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance stateIn a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third,... Read more

The Archive Undying

The Downworld Sequence: Book #1

By: Emma Mieko Candon
Narrated by: Yung-I Chang
Length: 16 hours 28 minutes

“The Archive Undying has everything you want in a science fiction novel—giant robots, conscious AI cities, a tech-ed out post-apocalyptic desert—but goes so much further than that. It was the stunning prose that first grabbed me, but I stayed for the deeply-flawed but lovable protagonist, the astoundingly unique world-building, and a plot that... Read more

The Saint of Bright Doors

By: Vajra Chandrasekera
Narrated by: Sid Sagar
Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

“This weird (complimentary), description-defying book is rife with complex characters in a beautifully written world. I cannot stop thinking about this story and the questions it poses about freedom, relationships, and choice. The narration by Sid Sagar is immersive and only added to the experience. Read more

The Thick and the Lean

By: Chana Porter
Narrated by: Kamali Minter, Suehyla El-Attar Young & Deepti Gupta
Length: 11 hours 57 minutes

In Lambda Award finalist Chana Porter’s “decadent and richly imagined” (Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine) novel, an aspiring chef, a cyberthief, and a kitchen maid each break free of a society that wants to constrain them.

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But... Read more

Couplets

A Love Story

By: Maggie Millner
Narrated by: Maggie Millner
Length: 1 hour 29 minutes

“A beautiful story of self-discovery and new love, told in rhyme. Maggie Millner performs this short audiobook with a spare, confessional, and self-questioning style that gives shape to the transformation of her self-identity. Read more

Homeland of My Body

New and Selected Poems

By: Richard Blanco
Narrated by: Richard Blanco
Length: 4 hours 50 minutes

A rich, accomplished, intensely intimate collection with 2 full sections of new poems bookending Blanco’s selections from his 5 previous volumes

“An engineer, poet, Cuban American . . . his poetry bridges cultures and languages—a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future—reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still... Read more

Trace Evidence

By: Charif Shanahan
Narrated by: Charif Shanahan
Length: 1 hour 25 minutes

A Chicago Review of Books Most Anticipated Chicago Book of 2023



"A truly magical achievement." —Ocean Vuong



In Trace Evidence, the urgent follow-up to his award-winning debut Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing, Charif Shanahan continues his piercing meditations on the intricacies of mixed-race identity, queer desire, time, mortality, and the... Read more

Pig

Poems

By: Sam Sax
Narrated by: Sam Sax
Length: 1 hour 15 minutes

From the brilliantly talented National Poetry Series and James Laughlin Award winner comes a third collection of poems that uses the humble pig as a lens to explore the body, faith, desire, and power.

This imaginative and singular poetry collection interrogates the broadest ideas surrounding the humble pig—farm animal, men/masculinity, police and... Read more