Bisexual activists
Sheela Lambert,
Wendy Curry, and Amy Andre asked the long-running
Lambda Literary Awards to include a category on
bisexual literature but were rebuffed due to
Lambda Literary's perception that there weren't enough bisexual books to support a category. The activists and others searched for bisexual books on the internet until they found enough to start the
Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Literature in 2006. Eventually the award grew to two, but in 2012 it again shrank to one category, and Lambert felt she had to add more options for authors of bisexual literature to be recognized. Previously, Mike Szymanski and other authors had asked Lambert to create an award for the
bi+ community. Lambert organized the awards but recruited judges to help select winners. Though winners for books published in 2021 were supposed to be announced on 28 January 2023, founder Sheela Lambert was hospitalized with
COVID-19 and pneumonia two weeks prior and the awards were put on hold. In April 2024, the Bi Writers Association Facebook page announced that Lambert had died earlier in the year "due to complications from chronic illness"; while the post also expressed desire to award both the 2021 and 2022 awards, this has yet to occur. == Honorees ==