Writing alum Aaron H. Aceves '20 was awarded the 2025 Judith A. Markowitz Award for an Exceptional New LGBTQ Writer from Lambda Literary, a non-profit dedicated to amplifying LGBTQ+ stories for over thirty-five years. The Judith A. Markowitz Award recognizes two early-career writers with a $1,500 cash prize annually.
According to the prize's judges, “Aaron Aceves has a marvelous way with words. His writing, coupled with his advocacy efforts for the queer and people of color communities, with a particular emphasis in bisexual and Latine intersectionality, makes him a deserving winner of this award. His focus on representing and advocating for historically underrepresented experiences, both within his community work and his writing, is courageous and uplifting.”
In a video Aceves posted on Instagram as an acceptance speech, he said “To any young, queer people who might be watching, I have personally never believed that ‘it gets better,’ because I don’t think that’s always the case. But I do believe that it gets different, and that’s enough reason to stick around.”
Aceves's writing has been published in Passages North, The Florida Review, Epiphany, and elsewhere. His debut YA novel, This is Why They Hate Us, was published in August of 2022.
