‘The Terrible We’ by Cameron Awkward-Rich Named Finalist for 35th Annual Lambda Literary Awards

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“The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment” by Cameron Awkward-Rich, assistant professor in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, has been named a finalist in the Transgender Nonfiction category for the 35th Annual Lambda Literary Awards.

The finalists were selected by a panel of over 65 literary professionals from more than 1,350 book submissions. These selections represent the best of LGBTQ literature this year.

"I have been so honored by the positive attention that ‘The Terrible We’ has garnered, especially from other trans/queer writers and institutions like Lambda,” Awkward-Rich says. “The book was published into a very different political climate for trans people than the one I had in mind when the project was initially conceived; for that reason, I was (and still am!) quite nervous about how it would be received. I'm grateful to know that this book—about the role of disability and bad feeling in trans studies and expressive culture—is, for at least some people, useful and/or generative."

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A poet and scholar of trans theory/expressive culture in the U.S., Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of two collections of poetry, “Sympathetic Little Monster” and “Dispatch,” both finalists for a Lambda Literary award.  His writing has appeared, in various forms, in American Quarterly, Transgender Studies Quarterly, Signs, The Paris Review, Poetry and elsewhere, and his work has been supported by fellowships from Cave Canem, The Watering Hole, The Lannan Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.

The Lambda Literary Awards were established in 1989 to garner national visibility for LGBTQ books, which had established a foothold through a nascent network of lesbian and gay publishers and bookstores. Today, the awards—also known as the Lammys—celebrate more than 150 LGBTQ+ writers across 25 categories and include several cash prizes for writers at all stages in their careers. The Lammys are awarded each June at a ceremony in New York City.