Year
Author
Title
Publisher
Result
Ref.
1997
Anthony Heilbut
Thomas Mann
Winner
Keith Boykin
One More River to Cross
Finalist
Mark Doty
Heaven’s Coast
Finalist
1998
David Sedaris
Naked
Winner
Daniel Harris
The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture
Finalist
Gabriel Rotello
Sexual Ecology
Finalist
1999
John Loughery
The Other Side of Silence
Winner
Michael Bronski
The Pleasure Principle
Finalist
Richard Rambuss
Closer Devotions
Finalist
2000
Eric Brandt (ed.)
Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality
The New Press
Winner
James M. Saslow
Pictures and Passions
Viking Press
Finalist
John Manual Andriote
Victory Deferred
University of Chicago Press
Finalist
2001
Mark Matousek
The Boy He Left Behind: A Man’s Search for His Lost Father
Riverhead Books
Winner
Beth Loffreda
Losing Matt Shepard
Columbia University Press
Finalist
Ned Rorem
Lies: A Diary 1986–1999
Counterpoint
Finalist
2002
Ricardo J. Brown
The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s
University of Minnesota Press
Winner
Robert Reid-Pharr
Black Gay Man
New York University Press
Winner
Barry Werth
The Scarlet Professor
Doubleday
Finalist
2003
Neil Miller
Sex Crime Panic
Alyson Books
Winner
Colm Tóibín
Love in a Dark Time: And Other Explorations of Gay Lives and Literature
Scribner
Finalist
Richard Bruce Nugent , edited by Thomas H. Wirth
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance
Duke University Press
Finalist
2004
John D’Emilio
Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin
Free Press
Winner
Augusten Burroughs
Dry
St. Martin’s Press
Finalist
Dale Peck
What We Lost
Houghton Mifflin
Finalist
2005
David K. Johnson
The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
University of Chicago Press
Winner
David Carter
Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution
St. Martin’s Press
Finalist
Graham Robb
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century
W. W. Norton
Finalist
2006
Martin Moran
The Tricky Part
Beacon Press
Winner
[ 3]
Neil McKenna
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
Basic Books
Finalist
Thomas Glave
Words to Our Now
University of Minnesota Press
Finalist
2007
Kenji Yoshino
Covering
Random House
Winner
[ 4]
Bernard Cooper
The Bill from My Father
Simon & Schuster
Finalist
Rigoberto González
Butterfly Boy
University of Wisconsin Press
Finalist
2008
Michael Rowe
Other Men’s Sons
Cormorant Books
Winner
[ 5]
Martin Duberman
The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein
Alfred A. Knopf
Finalist
Michael S. Sherry
Gay Artists in Modern American Culture
University of North Carolina Press
Finalist
2009
Kai Wright
Drifting Toward Love
Beacon Press
Winner
[ 6]
Bob Morris
Assisted Loving
Harper/HarperCollins
Finalist
Linas Alsenas
Gay America
Amulet Books/Abrams
Finalist
2010
James Davidson
The Greeks and Greek Love
Random House
Winner
Chad Heap
Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife
University of Chicago Press
Finalist
David Plante
The Pure Lover
Beacon Press
Finalist
2011
Justin Spring
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Winner
[ 7]
R. Tripp Evans
Grant Wood
Alfred A. Knopf
Finalist
Wendy Moffat
A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Finalist
2012
Mark D. Jordan
Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk About Homosexuality
University of Chicago Press
Winner
Martin Duberman
A Saving Remnant: The Radical Lives of Barbara Deming and David McReynolds
The New Press
Finalist
Michael Bronski
A Queer History of the United States
Beacon Press
Finalist
[ 8]
2013
Christopher Bram
Eminent Outlaws
Twelve/Hachette
Winner
[ 9]
Cynthia Carr
Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz
Bloomsbury
Finalist
David M. Halperin
How to Be Gay
Belknap/Harvard University Press
Finalist
Lisa Jarnot
Robert Duncan: The Ambassador from Venus
University of California Press
Finalist
2014
Hilton Als
White Girls
McSweeney’s
Winner
[ 10] [ 11]
Jim Elledge
Henry Darger: Throwaway Boy
Overlook
Finalist
[ 12]
Lori Duron
Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a Fabulous Gender Creative Son
Broadway Books
Finalist
[ 12]
Susana Peña
Oye Loca: From the Mariel Boat Lift to Gay Cuban Miami
University of Minnesota Press
Finalist
[ 12]
2015
Robert Beachy
Gay Berlin
Alfred A. Knopf
Winner
[ 13]
Martin Duberman
Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS
The New Press
Finalist
Philip Gefter
Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe
Liveright/W. W. Norton
Finalist
Richard Blanco
The Prince of Los Cocuyos
Ecco/HarperCollins
Finalist
2016
Barney Frank
Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Winner
[ 14]
Michelangelo Signorile
It’s Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and Winning True Equality
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Winner
[ 14]
Dale Peck
Visions and Revisions: Coming of Age in the Age of AIDS
Soho Press
Finalist
Matthew Spender
A House in St. John’s Wood: In Search of My Parents
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Finalist
2017
David France
How to Survive a Plague
Alfred A. Knopf
Winner
[ 15] [ 16]
Kevin Mumford
Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis
University of North Carolina Press
Finalist
Paul Lisicky
The Narrow Door
Graywolf Press
Finalist
Will Schwalbe
Books for Living
Alfred A. Knopf
Finalist
2018
Eli Clare
Brilliant Imperfection
Duke University Press
Winner
[ 17]
Chike Frankie Edozien
Lives of Great Men
Team Angelica Publishing
Finalist
Peter Gajdics
The Inheritance of Shame
Brown Paper Press
Finalist
Richard A. McKay
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic
University of Chicago Press
Finalist
2019
Alexander Chee
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Winner
[ 18]
Jeffrey C. Stewart
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
Yale University Press
Finalist
[ 19]
Lillian Faderman
Harvey Milk
Yale University Press
Finalist
[ 19]
Robert W. Fieseler
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and Rise of Gay Liberation
Liveright/W. W. Norton
Finalist
[ 19]
2020
Saeed Jones
How We Fight for Our Lives
Simon & Schuster
Winner
[ 20] [ 21]
New York Public Library (ed.)
The Stonewall Reader
Penguin Books
Finalist
[ 22]
David K. Johnson
Buying Gay
Columbia University Press
Finalist
[ 22]
Hugh Ryan
When Brooklyn Was Queer
St. Martin’s
Finalist
[ 22]
2021
Eric Cervini
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Winner
[ 23] [ 24]
John Birdsall
The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard
W. W. Norton
Finalist
Ross A. Slotten
Plague Years: A Doctor’s Journey Through the AIDS Crisis
University of Chicago Press
Finalist
Wayne Koestenbaum
Figure It Out
Soft Skull Press
Finalist
2022
Brian Broome
Punch Me Up to the Gods
Mariner
Winner
[ 25] [ 26]
C. Winter Han
Racial Erotics: Gay Men of Color, Sexual Racism, and the Politics of Desire
University of Washington Press
Finalist
Jeremy Atherton Lin
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out
Little, Brown
Finalist
Rajiv Mohabir
Antiman: A Memoir
Restless Books
Finalist
2023
Ron Goldberg
Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of Act Up New York
Fordham University Press
Winner
[ 27] [ 28]
Gregory D. Smithers
Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal and Sovereignty in Native America
Beacon Press
Finalist
Jenn Budd
Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist
Heliotrope
Finalist
Scott Bane
A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F.O Matthiesen and Russell Cheney
University of Massachusetts
Finalist
2024
Joseph Plaster
Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco's Tenderloin
Duke University Press
Winner
[ 29] [ 30]
Gregory D. Smithers
Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto , by Zachary Zane (, an imprint of Abrams Books)
Abrams Image
Finalist
[ 31]
Greg Marshall
Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It
Abrams Books
Finalist
[ 31]
Mark D. Jordan
Queer Callings: Untimely Notes on Names and Desires
Fordham University Press
Finalist
[ 31]
2025
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Scapegoat
HarperCollins
Winner
[ 32]
Katherine Bucknell
Christopher Isherwood Inside-Out
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Finalist
[ 33]
Will Tosh
Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
Seal Press
Finalist
[ 33]
Brontez Purnell
Ten Bridges I've Burnt
MCD
Finalist
[ 33]
2026
Nicholas Boggs
Baldwin: A Love Story
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Winner
[ 34]
Robert W. Fieseler
American Scare
Dutton
Finalist
[ 35]
Michael Schreiber
Don Bachardy: An Artist's Life
Citadel
Finalist
[ 35]
Daniel Brook
The Einstein of Sex
W. W. Norton
Finalist
[ 35]
Brandy Schillace
The Intermediaries
W. W. Norton
Finalist
[ 35]