Twelve titles by Canadian authors and publishers were named as finalists for the 28th annual Lambda Literary Awards, which recognize the year’s best LGBTQ–authored books.

Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press, which received two nominations last year, received four nods in the best gay fiction, transgender fiction, gay memoir, and lesbian memoir categories.

Other nominations in 24 categories include bestselling authors Miranda July for The First Bad Man, Carrie Brownstein for Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, and Jeanette Winterson for The Gap of Time.

The Canadian finalists are as follows:

Gay Fiction

• Andy Sinclair, Breathing Lessons (Véhicule Press)
• Hasan Namir, God In Pink (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Transgender Fiction

• Sassafras Lowry, Lost Boi (Arsenal Pulp)

Gay Poetry

• Ben Ladouceur, Otter (Coach House Books)

LGBT Non-fiction

•  Robert Lorway, Namibia’s Rainbow Project (Indiana University Press)

Gay Mystery

• Jeffrey Round, After the Horses (Dundurn Press)

Gay Memoir/Biography

• Arsham Parsi and Marc Colbourne, Exiled for Love: The Journey of an Iranian Queer Activist (Roseway Publishing)
• Michael V. Smith, My Body Is Yours (Arsenal Pulp)

Lesbian Memoir/Biography

• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dirty River (Arsenal Pulp)

Gay Erotica

• Miodrag Kojadinovic, Érotiques Suprèmes (Choose the Sword Press)

LGBT Anthology

• Sfé R. Monster, ed.; Taneka Stotts, ass. ed., Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology (Beyond Press)

LGBT Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror

• Kate Sherwood, Sacrati (Riptide Publishing)

The full list of finalists is available on the Lammys website. Winners will be named at a gala ceremony at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on June 6.