| 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][13] |
| Lori Duron |
Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a Fabulous Gender Creative Son |
Broadway Books |
Finalist |
[13] |
| Susana Peña |
Oye Loca: From the Mariel Boat Lift to Gay Cuban Miami |
University of Minnesota Press |
Finalist |
[13] |
| 2015 |
Robert Beachy |
Gay Berlin |
Alfred A. Knopf |
Winner |
[14] |
| 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 |
[15] |
| Michelangelo Signorile |
It's Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and Winning True Equality |
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Winner |
[15] |
| 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 |
[16][17] |
| 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 |
[18] |
| 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 |
[19] |
| Jeffrey C. Stewart |
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke |
Yale University Press |
Finalist |
[20] |
| Lillian Faderman |
Harvey Milk |
Yale University Press |
Finalist |
[20] |
| Robert W. Fieseler |
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and Rise of Gay Liberation |
Liveright/W. W. Norton |
Finalist |
[20] |
| 2020 |
Saeed Jones |
How We Fight for Our Lives |
Simon & Schuster |
Winner |
[21][22] |
| New York Public Library (ed.) |
The Stonewall Reader |
Penguin Books |
Finalist |
[23] |
| David K. Johnson |
Buying Gay |
Columbia University Press |
Finalist |
[23] |
| Hugh Ryan |
When Brooklyn Was Queer |
St. Martin's |
Finalist |
[23] |
| 2021 |
Eric Cervini |
The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America |
Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Winner |
[24][25] |
| 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 |
[26][27] |
| 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 |
[28][29] |
| 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 |
[30][31] |
| Gregory D. Smithers |
Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto, by Zachary Zane (, an imprint of Abrams Books) |
Abrams Image |
Finalist |
[32] |
| Greg Marshall |
Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It |
Abrams Books |
Finalist |
[32] |
| Mark D. Jordan |
Queer Callings: Untimely Notes on Names and Desires |
Fordham University Press |
Finalist |
[32] |
| 2025 |
Lucy Hughes-Hallett |
The Scapegoat |
HarperCollins |
Winner |
[33] |
| Katherine Bucknell |
Christopher Isherwood Inside-Out |
Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Finalist |
[34] |
| Will Tosh |
Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare |
Seal Press |
Finalist |
[34] |
| Brontez Purnell |
Ten Bridges I've Burnt |
MCD |
Finalist |
[34] |
| 2026 |
Nicholas Boggs |
Baldwin: A Love Story |
Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Winner |
[35][36][37] |
| Robert W. Fieseler |
American Scare |
Dutton |
Finalist |
[38] |
| Michael Schreiber |
Don Bachardy: An Artist's Life |
Citadel |
Finalist |
[38] |
| Daniel Brook |
The Einstein of Sex |
W. W. Norton |
Finalist |
[38] |
| Brandy Schillace |
The Intermediaries |
W. W. Norton |
Finalist |
[38] |