Welcome to the 10th Annual POZ Awards, spotlighting the best representatives of HIV and AIDS in media and culture.
The POZ editorial staff selects the nominees, but POZ readers choose the winners.
Eligible nominees were active or were presented, published or produced between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025.
Voting is now closed.
BEST IN LITERATURE
Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns
Outliving Michael, a follow-up to his book A Quilt for David, is a genre mash-up, a memoir told through poetry that tells of Reign’s friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS-related illness in 2000. Hailed as a “disarmingly honest portrait” of a friend lost to the virus, as well as a “stunning elegy,” the book ruminates on the many ways individuals leave lasting marks on our lives long after they are gone.
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline
While many people know the name Marsha P. Johnson, and her significance as a trailblazer in the LGBTQ community, Tourmaline’s biography chronicles the life of Johnson, who was “always in flight, eternally performing and prophetically organizing,” per the LA Review of Books. Part of that history is her co-founding of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), but it also includes her deep call to carework for others, especially during the AIDS crisis. “Marsha really invites abundant exploration,” Tourmaline said of Johnson, who has been the subject of work by the author not only in this biography, but in the film Happy Birthday, Marsha!, as well as other media.
Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter
A single address can hold many memories. These spatial remembrances are at the core of Charlie Porter’s Nova Scotia House, a novel in which the main character Johnny looks back at his 30-year relationship with Jerry, who has recently died from an AIDS-related illness. Once Jerry is gone, Johnny is left alone in their home, prompting retrospection on their lives spent together. Praised as an “extraordinary work of imagination” and “an actual masterpiece,” Nova Scotia House is a debut novel that asks, “How can we live life as fully, optimistically and queerly as possible?”
The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler
How did the years 1986 to 1990 change the trajectory of New York? That’s the question at the center of The Gods of New York, a history of the Big Apple that goes over, in depth, the four final years of Ed Koch’s mayoralty. The book is about much more than Koch, and includes several events that echo in the current moment, including a burgeoning homelessness epidemic, the creation of ACT UP and the rise of Donald Trump.
