The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...

, presented by

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards pro ...

and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers

Robert Ferro Robert Ferro (October 21, 1941 – July 11, 1988) was an American novelist whose semi-autobiographical fiction explored the uneasy integration of homosexuality and traditional American upper middle class values. Biography He was born in Cranford ...

and Michael Grumley. It was co-founded in 1988 by Stephen Greco who continues to direct it as of 2022. First awarded in 1990, separate awards were presented for

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

fiction until 2008 when the awards were merged into a single award. On two occasions, the award has been won by works that were not conventional literary fiction. In 1994, journalist

John Berendt John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Biography Ber ...

won the award for his

non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwi ...

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and follows the story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. Subtitled ''A Savannah S ...

'', and in 2009, cartoonist

Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir ''Fun Home'', which ...

won the award for her

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

anthology '' The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For''.

Awards

Gay male fiction

* 1990 —

Dennis Cooper Dennis Cooper (born January 10, 1953) is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist. He is best known for the ''George Miles Cycle'', a series of five semi-autobiographical novels published between 1989 and 2000 and describ ...

, ''Closer'' * 1991 —

Allen Barnett Allen M. Barnett (born June 20, 1940) was a research professor of electrical engineering at the University of Delaware. He was the principal investigator of the DARPA-funded Consortium for Very High Efficiency Solar cells. Barnett was the founde ...

, ''The Body and Its Dangers'' * 1992 —

Melvin Dixon Melvin Dixon (May 29, 1950 – October 26, 1992) was an American Professor of Literature, and an author, poet and translator. He wrote about black gay men. Early life Melvin Dixon was born on May 29, 1950, in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a B ...

, ''Vanishing Rooms'' * 1993 —

Randall Kenan Randall Kenan (March 12, 1963 – August 28, 2020) was an American author. Born in Brooklyn, New York, at six weeks old Kenan moved to Duplin County, North Carolina, a small rural community, where he lived with his grandparents in a town named ...

, ''Let the Dead Bury Their Dead'' * 1994 —

, ''

'' * 1995 —

Mark Merlis Mark Merlis (March 9, 1950 – August 15, 2017 Felice Picano Felice Picano (born February 22, 1944) is an American writer, publisher, and critic who has encouraged the development of gay literature in the United States. His work is documented in many sources. Life Felice Picano graduated ''cum laude'' fro ...

, ''Like People in History'' * 1997 —

Andrew Holleran Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber (born 1944), an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Flori ...

, ''

The Beauty of Men ''The Beauty of Men'' is a 1996 novel by Andrew Holleran, about Lark, a 47-year-old single gay man, who has moved to Florida to help care for his mother, who became paralyzed after a fall. Story The novel is set in the mid-1980s when AIDS was ra ...

'' * 1998 —

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...

, ''

The Story of the Night ''The Story of the Night'' is a Bildungsroman by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín. The novel interweaves the personal story of Richard Garay, a gay Argentinian man with an English mother, and the political history of Argentina through the late 1970s ...

'' * 1999 —

Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lectur ...

, '' The Hours'' * 2000 — Paul Russell, ''

The Coming Storm ''The Coming Storm'' is a 1999 novel by Paul Russell. ''The Coming Storm'' (the book), Paul Russell, 2000, 384 pages, , pp. 125, 350; web: BooksG-EC ''The Coming Storm'' is set on the campus of a boys' University-preparatory school i ...

'' * 2001 —

Edmund White Edmund Valentine White III (born 1940) is an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer and an essayist on literary and social topics. Since 1999 he has been a professor at Princeton University. France made him (and later ) de l'Ordr ...

, ''The Married Man'' * 2002 —

David Ebershoff David Ebershoff is an American writer, editor, and teacher. His debut novel, ''The Danish Girl'', was adapted into an Academy Awards, Academy Award-winning The Danish Girl (film), film of the same name in 2015, while his third novel, ''The 19th ...

, ''The Rose City'' * 2003 —

Jamie O'Neill Jamie O'Neill (born 1 January 1962) is an Irish author. His critically acclaimed novel, ''At Swim, Two Boys'' (2001), earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent praise as the natural successor to James Joyce, Flan ...

, ''

At Swim, Two Boys ''At Swim, Two Boys'' (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie O'Neill. The title is a punning allusion to Flann O'Brien's ''At Swim-Two-Birds''. The book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which has led to favourable comparisons to ...

'' * 2004 —

Trebor Healey Trebor Healey is an American poet and novelist. He was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle, and studied English and American Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He spent his twenties in San Francisco, where he was acti ...

, ''Through It Came Bright Colors'' * 2005 — Adam Berlin, ''Belmondo Style'' * 2006 —

Barry McCrea Barry McCrea (born 15 October 1974) is an Irish people, Irish writer and academic. He grew up in Dalkey, County Dublin, and was educated at the Jesuit Gonzaga College, and Trinity College, Dublin (1993–1997) where he studied French and Spanish ...

, ''The First Verse'' * 2007 —

Christopher Bram Christopher Bram (born February 22, 1952) is an American author. Bram grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia (outside Norfolk), where he was a paperboy and an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1974 (B.A. in English) ...

, ''Exiles in America'' * 2008 — Peter Cameron, '' Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You''

Lesbian fiction

* 1990 —

Ruthann Robson Ruthann Robson is a professor of law and University Distinguished Professor. As well as her writings in legal scholarship and theory, she has also published fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Her novel ''Eye of a Hurricane'' was a finalist ...

, ''Eye of the Hurricane'' * 1991 —

Cherry Muhanji Cherry Muhanji is the pen name of Jeannette Delaine Washington (born April 26, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan), an American writer.

, ''Her'' * 1992 — Blanche McCrary Boyd, ''The Revolution of Little Girls'' * 1993 —

Dorothy Allison Dorothy Allison (born April 11, 1949) is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of a ...

, '' Bastard Out of Carolina'' * 1994 —

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

, ''

Written on the Body Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender polar ...

'' * 1995 — Heather Lewis, ''House Rules'' * 1996 —

Sarah Schulman Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at College of Staten Island (CSI) and a Fellow a ...

, ''Rat Bohemia'' * 1997 — Persimmon Blackbridge, ''Sunnybrook'' * 1998 —

Elana Dykewomon Elana Dykewomon (; October 11, 1949 – August 7, 2022) was an American lesbian activist, author, editor, and teacher. She was a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. Early life and education Dykewomon was born Elana Mich ...

, ''Beyond the Pale'' * 1999 — Patricia Powell, ''The Pagoda'' * 2000 — Judy Doenges, ''What She Left Me'' * 2001 —

Sarah Waters Sarah Ann Waters (born 21 July 1966) is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as ''Tipping the Velvet'' and '' Fingersmith''. Life and education Early life Sara ...

, ''

Affinity Affinity may refer to: Commerce, finance and law * Affinity (law), kinship by marriage * Affinity analysis, a market research and business management technique * Affinity Credit Union, a Saskatchewan-based credit union * Affinity Equity Par ...

'' * 2002 —

Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue (born 24 October 1969) is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel ''Room'' was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel '' Hood'' ...

, ''Slammerkin'' * 2003 — Carol Anshaw, ''Lucky in the Corner'' * 2004 — Nina Revoyr, ''

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...

'' * 2005 —

Stacey D'Erasmo Stacey D'Erasmo (born 1961) is an American author and literary critic. Biography D'Erasmo was born in 1961 in New York City. She received a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.A. from New York University in English and American literature. From 19 ...

, ''A Seahorse Year'' * 2006 — Patricia Grossman, ''Brian in Three Seasons'' * 2007 — Lisa Carey, ''Every Visible Thing'' * 2008 — Ali Liebegott, '' The IHOP Papers''

Merged award

* 2009 —

, '' The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For'' * 2010 — Sebastian Stuart, ''The Hour Between'' * 2011 — Michael Sledge, ''The More I Owe You'' * 2012 — Paul Russell, ''The Unreal Life of Sergei Nabokov'' * 2013 —

, ''A Horse Named Sorrow'' * 2014 —

Sara Farizan Sara Farizan is an American writer of young adult literature. Her debut novel, ''If You Could Be Mine'', won the Ferro-Grumley Award,

, ''

If You Could Be Mine ''If You Could Be Mine'' is a 2013 young adult novel by Sara Farizan. The book tells the story of Sahar, an Iranian teenage girl who is willing to go through sex reassignment surgery so she can marry her best friend, Nasrin. The book was received ...

'' * 2015 —

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Black ...

, ''

Mr. Loverman "Mr. Loverman" is a song by Jamaican dancehall artist Shabba Ranks. It was written by Ranks, Mikey Bennett and Hopeton Lindon. The song was released in 1992 and 1993 as a single, reaching number 40 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number th ...

'' * 2016 — Michael Golding, ''A Poet of the Invisible World'' * 2017 —

Cathleen Schine Cathleen Schine (born 1953) is an American novelist. Her first book was ''Alice in Bed'' (1983), which was followed by ''To the Birdhouse'' (1990), ''Rameau's Niece'' (1993), ''The Love Letter'' (1995) and ''The Evolution of Jane'' (1998). '' ...

, ''They May Not Mean To, But They Do'' * 2018 — Alistair McCartney, ''The Disintegrations'' * 2019 — John R. Gordon, ''Drapetomania'' * 2020 —

Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong (born , ; October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. Vuong is a recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T.S. Eliot Pr ...

, ''

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous ''On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'' is the debut novel by Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterat ...

'' * 2021 — Juli Delgado Lopera, ''Fiebre Tropical'' * 2022 — Anthony Veasna So, ''Afterparties''"Anthony Veasna So wins posthumous award for LGBTQ fiction"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', May 11, 2022.

References

External links

Publishing Triangle Awards
{{LGBT fiction Triangle Awards American fiction awards Awards established in 1990