MISSION
The mission of the Ferro-Grumley Award is to give an annual literary prize for the year’s best LGBTQ-themed novel or collection of short stories to raise funds to support the prize and to expose the general public to high-quality LGBTQ fiction through public readings and discussions..



CRITERIA

Is it good enough?

Is it a fully-developed, accomplished piece of writing?


Is it LGBTQ enough?

Whether in content, imagination, and/or spirit?


Is it important enough to LGBTQ culture?

Is it reflecting some of the most broadly resonant LGBTQ thinking during the current year, the sort of book you would expect to help drive LGBTQ culture during years to come and be noticed in the culture at large?




THE AWARD

Winners of the Ferro Grumley Award are given

a cash prize of $1,000


NOMINATE / DONATE

Information about nominating books for the Ferro-Grumley Award is available at www.publishingtriangle.org.

For further information, or to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Ferro-Grumley Award, please contact Stephen Greco at ferrogrumley@earthlink.net.


SOCIAL

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The Ferro-Grumley Literary Award

@robertferroauthor



Robert Ferro (right) was born in Cranford, New Jersey in 1941. He went to college at Rutgers University and received a Master's Degree from the University of Iowa where he met his longtime companion, Michael Grumley, (b.1941) who was also a novelist. Ferro later lectured at Adelphi University and was a founding member of The Violet Quill group along with Edmund White and Felice Picano. Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley lived in Rome, Italy and New York City as well as at the Ferro family beach home in Sea Girt, New Jersey. The family beach house featured prominently in his fiction as well as personal life.
Ferro died of AIDS on July 11th, 1988, only a few months after his partner, Michael Grumley. They are buried together under the Ferro Grumley memorial in Rockland Cemetery in Sparkill, NY.

Aside from their independent literary work, Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley published one non-fiction novel together in 1970 titled "Atlantis: The Autobiography of a Search" about their true-life adventure from Rome, Italy through to New Jersey and onward to the Caribbean aboard their boat, "The Tana" in search of the Lost City, which they claim to have discovered.

Shortly after their deaths, the literary award was founded to not only honor their legacy but to identify and reward works of fiction that champion LGBTQ themes and carry on the spirit of their life's work.




VISIT

The Ferro-Grumley monument is located in Rockland Cemetery in Sparkill, NY. An important LGBT site, the stone was designed by Robert Ferro shortly before his death. The cemetery was chosen because of the sweeping views of the Hudson river as well as the location of the obelisk-tomb of Henry Honeychurch Gorringe, who notably engineered the transportation of Cleopatra’s needle from Egypt to Central park, a key theme in one of Robert Ferro’s novels.


"A quick resolution to any problem in life is to simply re-arrange the furniture"

— Robert Ferro





past winners of the ferro-grumley award



• 1989 Ruthann Robson, Eye of the Hurricane Dennis Cooper, Closer
 • 1990 Allen Barnett, The Body and Its Dangers Cherry Muhanji, Her
 • 1991 Blanche McCrary Boyd, The Revolution of Little Girls Melvin Dixon, Vanishing Rooms
 • 1992 Randall Kenan, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina
 • 1993 Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
 • 1994 Mark Merlis, American Studies Heather Lewis, House Rules
 • 1995 Sarah Schulman, Rat Bohemia Felice Picano, Like People In History
 • 1996 Persimmon Blackbridge, Sunnybrook Andrew Holleran, The Beauty of Men
 • 1997 Colm Toibin, The Story of the Night Elana Dykewoman, Beyond the Pale
 • 1998 Michael Cunningham, The Hours Patricia Powell, The Pagoda
 • 1999 Judy Doenges, What She Left Me Paul Russell, The Coming Storm
 • 2000 Sarah Waters, Affinity Edmund White, The Married Man
 • 2001 David Ebershoff, The Rose City Emma Donoghue, Slammerkin
 • 2002 Carol Anshaw, Lucky in the Corner Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys
 • 2003 Trebor Healey, Through It Came Bright Colors Nina Revoyr, Southland
 • 2004 Stacey D’Erasmo, A Seahorse Year Adam Berlin, Belmondo Style
 • 2005 Barry McCrea, The First Verse Patricia Grossman, Brian in Three Seasons
 • 2006 Lisa Carey, Every Visible Thing Christopher Bram, Exiles In America
 • 2007 Peter Cameron, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You Ali Liebegott, The IHOP Papers
 • 2008 Alison Bechdel, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
 • 2009 Sebastian Stuart, The Hour Between
 • 2010 Michael Sledge, The More I Owe You
 • 2011 Paul Russell, The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov
 • 2012 Trebor Healey, A Horse Named Sorrow
 • 2013 Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine
 • 2014 Bernardine Evaristo, Mr. Loverman
 • 2015 Michael Golding, A Poet of the Invisible World
 • 2016 Cathleen Schine, They May Not Mean To, But They Do
 • 2017 Alistair McCartney, The Disintegrations
 • 2018 John R. Gordon, Drapetomania • 2019 Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous • 2020 Juli Delgado Lopera, Fiebre Tropical • 2021 Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties • 2022 James Hannaham, Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta • 2023 Helen Elaine Lee, Pomegranate


CREDITS 
Top photo by Stephen Greco, Collage by TM Davy, Timothy Hull and Paul Mpagi Sepuya Photo of Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley by Robert Giard Bottom photo and website by Timothy Hull