The phrase "awkward state" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation or condition that is uncomfortable or difficult, often in a social or emotional context.
Example: "After the argument, there was an awkward state between them that made it hard to continue the conversation."
Alternatives: "uncomfortable situation" or "tense atmosphere".
It's an awkward state of affairs.
The basketball program will operate in an awkward state.
This is an awkward state of limbo, and the province of Khuzistan reflects it.
Whatever "The World" meant to the Chinese, it appeared to outsiders as a melancholy satire of China in an awkward state of transition between Communism and capitalism.
All of which leaves Orange County's glitterati, and the arts center, in an awkward state, halfway through a $200 million fund-raising campaign.
In fact, Bush has been compelled to seek international assistance because of the very complexities that the international community had warned about, an awkward state of affairs that he still can't — or won't — acknowledge.
But an enduring constraint is even more awkward: a state that makes a big claim on a poor country's resources but then uses them badly.In this section What's holding India back?
Revisiting that option would be awkward: the state's lotteries have since been privatised.
"The awkward position state Medicaid programs are in is trying to figure out what kinds of medical care should be available for emergency conditions," said Douglas Porter, assistant secretary for the Washington Health and Recovery Services Administration.
If you must have a historical analogy, my choice would be the Boer war, where you had a large, heavily armed imperial power trying to eradicate the threat from an awkward regional state which happened to control an important raw material.
This awkward 'tween state marks the end of pre-history - the sunset of an ecologically illiterate civilization.
