The Publishing Triangle Awards were first established in 1989 with the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in the field of LGBTQ literature. The Publishing Triangle itself was formed from an informal group of publishing professionals in 1988 to promote LGBTQ authors, and the group later added additional awards including: the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Non-fiction; the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Non-fiction; the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry; the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry; the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction; and the Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction. Since 1998, the Publishing Triangle Awards have been presented in collaboration with The New School Graduate Writing Program.