International lit prize honours Canadian writer Shani Mootoo
Shani Mootoo has won the Lambda's Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, a $5,000 award for established writers who identify as LGBTQ.
The Lambda Literary Award, which was judged by poets Julie Enszer and Reginald Harris, is given annually to writers who have written several books and show "promise to continue publishing high quality work."
Mootoo is the author of Cereus Blooms at Night, which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, now known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize, in 1997. Her most recent novel, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, was on the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist in 2014.
"When we first peeked at the applicants for this award, we both shared a deep appreciation and admiration for Shani Mootoo's novels," said the judges in a press release.
"They are fresh, exciting and tell stories from the perspective of diasporic Caribbean LGBTQ life, an under-examined perspective in contemporary literature. From her first novel to the most recent, Mootoo's work as a novelist continues to present diverse, complex characters rooted in LGBTQ communities in powerful and provocative ways."
New York author James Earl Hardy was the second recipient of the prize. His books include B-Boy Blues and 2nd Time Around.
The Lambda Literary Awards have several more prizes to announce this year. Many Canadian books, including Vivek Shraya's even this page is white and Ma-Nee Chacaby's A Two Spirit Journey are nominated for awards. Winners will be announced on June 12.