NeuStudio
Awards for LGBTQ Children’s Books
Below is a list of awards or lists for children’s books that are friendly and inclusive to LGBTQ people and themes. The Stonewall Awards and the Rainbow Book List are determined by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association. The The Water Dean Myers Award is given by We Need Diverse Books, which includes LGBTQ titles as part of their advocacy for diverse reading materials. The Lammys are well-publicized awards that include categories for children’s and YA titles.
Rainbow Book List
American Library Association (ALA)
The Rainbow Book List Committee creates an annual book list of recommended GLBTQ fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers from birth through age 18. Books on the final bibliography, to be determined at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, are published within the assigned calendar year or between July 1 and December 31 of the previous calendar year. More about the award ▹
Focus
- Children
- LGBTQ
- YA
Stonewall Book Awards, Stonewall Honor Books in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
American Library Association (ALA)
Books have are honored for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience. Publishers, authors, agents, or editors may not nominate their own titles. Published date should be August 1 of the previous year to July 31 of the current year. Submissions accepted year around. Note: award categories are based on the submissions received, so an award for a children’s or YA book is not always given.. More about the award ▹
Focus
- Children
- LGBTQ
- YA
Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature aka "The Walters"
We Need Diverse Books (WNDB)
This award honors authors who celebrate multiculturalism with diverse protagonists as well as themes that address diversity in a meaningful way. The works must be published. Starting in 2018 there will be two categories, Young Adult (ages 13–18) and Middle Grade (ages 9–13). One Walter Award winner and one or two Walter honorees selected in each category. Submission deadline has been November 1. More about the award ▹
Focus
- diversity
- English translation
- LGBTQ
- United States
- YA
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary
Lambda Literary Award submissions are judged principally on literary merit and content relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer lives. The Lammys event brings together attendees to celebrate excellence in LGBTQ publishing. A book may submitted in only one category. More about the award ▹
Focus
- Children
- graphic novel
- LGBTQ
- YA
Why Research Children’s Book Awards?
We’ve designed children’s books that have won numerous awards. While updating our award-winning titles page, I got curious, how many awards for children’s books are there? I put together a spreadsheet of all the awards that books we worked on had won, then all the awards our client publishers had won. And then added more awards as I heard about them. I've categorized the awards with keywords, added links and descriptions. You can see the whole sheet below.
Contact me if you know an award I should include.
Interested in book awards? Get a graphic with clickable links to 85 picture book awards.