Eileen Myles & Hilton Als Honored At The 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards

On Monday, June 6, Lambda Literary will honor Eileen Myles with the Lambda's Pioneer Award, and Hilton Als will receive the Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature at the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards ("Lammys"). Myles and Als will be honored along with the winning authors of 25 separate LGBT literary categories as determined by over 90 judges.

"This year's special honorees, Eileen Myles and Hilton Als, have made a deep impact, not just on LGBT culture, but on American culture, inspiring a new generation of writers, critics, and artists," said Tony Valenzuela, executive director. "We are privileged to celebrate their tremendous contributions at this year's Lammy Awards."

The Lammys bring together over 500 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature, making it the most glamorous and prestigious LGBT literary event in the world. The awards will be hosted for a fifth year by comedienne�Kate Clinton in New York City at the NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, followed by an after party at Le Poisson Rouge.

Previous Lammy finalist and Pioneer Award recipient, comedienne Clinton returns to reprise her role as master of ceremonies with her signature brand of topical, political comedy.�Clinton will share the stage with a glittering line-up of awards presenters who hail from the worlds of literature, publishing, theater, politics, film, civil rights activism, and television.

Eileen Myles, the Pioneer Award honoree,�is the author of nineteen books including�"I Must Be Living Twice: New & Selected Poems," and a 2015 reissue of her highly acclaimed novel�"Chelsea Girls." She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, four Lambda Literary Awards, and the Shelley Prize from the Poets Society of America. In 2016 Myles received a Creative Capital grant and the Clark Prize for excellence in art writing.

Myles will be introduced by Cherry Jones, who starred on Broadway most recently in the revival of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," and is the winner of two Tony Awards ("The Heiress," "Doubt"), and an Emmy Award for Fox network's "24." On the 2015 season of Amazon's hit television show "Transparent," Jones played Leslie Mackinaw, a character based on Eileen Myles.

Hilton Als, the honoree for Excellence in Literature, is the author of "The Women" and most recently, "White Girls," a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award. Als became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1994 and a theater critic in 2002. He is the recipient of a�Guggenheim Fellowship�in creative writing, the George Jean Nathan�Award for Dramatic Criticism and the 2016 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in nonfiction. He has co-curated exhibitions at La MaMa Gallery, the VeneKlasen/Werner gallery in Berlin, and the Metropolitan Opera's Gallery Met. Als will be introduced by writer Tavi Gevinson, the editor-in-chief�of Rookie, an online magazine for teenage girls. Gevinson starred in the Tony-nominated 2014�revival of�Kenneth Lonergan's�"This Is Our Youth," and�returns�to Broadway this year�in Arthur Miller's�"The Crucible."
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Other guests include comedian and writer Joel Kim Booster; grand dame of trans theory and theater, gender outlaw Kate Bornstein; Jonathan Burnham, HarperCollins publisher; Diana Cage, professor and author of six books, one of which "The Lesbian Sex Bible" was a Lammy winner last year; poet and essayist of numerous titles, R. Erica Doyle, a NYFA Poetry Fellow, as well as Cave Canem fellow; David Ebershoff, author of novels "The Danish Girl" and the New York Times bestselling "The 19th Wife;" writer, musician, producer, and Le Tigre band member Johanna Fateman; Tim Federle, an award-winning American novelist and librettist whose works include the novel "Better Nate Than Ever" and the forthcoming Broadway musical adaptation of "Tuck Everlasting;" author and journalist Laura Flanders of the eponymous "Laura Flanders Show," and host and founder of GRITtv; the Department of Education's first-ever LGBT liaison for NYC's public schools, Jared Fox.

Also present will be the executive editor and president of Farrar Straus & Giroux, Jonathan Galassi, who is also a poet, translator, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient; Silas Howard, formerly of Tribe8, who is the first trans director of the hit TV show "Transparent;" fiction writer Brian Leung, author of two novels, and recipient of the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize from Lambda Literary; artist, writer, and punk singer Cristy C. Road, author of the graphic memoir "Spit and Passion"; Rakesh Satyal, author of the Lammy Award-winning "Blue Boy," and a recipient of the NYFA Fiction Fellowship; poet, performance artist, actress, activist, and teacher Pamela Sneed, the author of "Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery" and "KONG and Other Works"; Carmelita Tropicana, performance artist, playwright and actor, the recipient of Anonymous Was a Woman award and an Obie Award.

A complete list of finalists of the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards can be found at
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/28th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists/

"Our stellar group of presenters includes not only Broadway stars, but familiar names from the New York�literati," said Lambda Literary board president KG MacGregor. "A Big Apple celebration of the best in LGBTQ literature."

The 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, June 6, 2016 at the NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place, New York, NY 10012. The Red Carpet and exclusive VIP cocktail reception begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the ceremony at 7 p.m. An After-Party at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, will immediately follow the ceremony.

Tickets for the Lambda Literary Award VIP cocktail reception, ceremony and after-party can be purchased via http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/