This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Monthly Archives: September 2024
Our Music is Our History: a Guest Post by Red Hot + Blue author John S. Garrison
Today on the site I’m thrilled to welcome John S. Garrison, whose contribution to Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, which is dedicated to deep dives into various classic albums, covers Red Hot + Blue, the first major benefit album to fight AIDS. Here’s a little more on the book:
Red Hot + Blue is a meditation on music’s capacity to find us, transform us, and help us make sense of our historical moment. Blending memoir and cultural history, Garrison recalls his coming out at the height of the AIDS crisis alongside the music industry’s first major response to the epidemic. In 1990, a groundbreaking effort by musical artists sought to combat the silence and stigma about the disease. The resulting tribute album to legendary composer Cole Porter was evocatively titled Red Hot + Blue, capturing both the joy and melancholy that accompany love during turbulent times. It re-imagined those iconic songs – including “Don’t Fence Me In,” “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” “Night and Day” – not just to celebrate the composer but also to offer a shared vision for survival. In this book, Garrison reflects on his own life story through the lens of Porter’s life and music to illuminate the emotional landscape we all navigate in the search for love.
Red Hot + Blue returns us to the early 1990s to reveal how the love songs of the past can be revived to speak to new audiences in times of need. The book is the portrait of an album, a pandemic, and a young gay man’s coming of age in the era of both.
And here’s John S. Garrison to talk about the role of music in queer history, and specifically in his own coming out:
Continue reading Our Music is Our History: a Guest Post by Red Hot + Blue author John S. Garrison
Fave Five: Queer Literary Fiction about Grief and Mourning
Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett
Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Some Hell by Patrick Nathan
Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
Bonus: Coming next month, Model Home by Rivers Solomon
New Releases: September 10, 2024
Middle Grade
Splinter & Ash by Marieke Nijkamp
Ash—or Princess Adelisa—is the youngest child of the queen, recently returned to the city of Kestrel’s Haven after spending six years on the other side of the country. Ash was hoping for a joyous reunion, but the reality is far from it. Her mother is holding the kingdom together by a thread; her brother has only taunts and jibes for her; and court is full of nobles who openly mock and dismiss Ash, who uses a cane and needs braces to strengthen her joints.
Splinter is the youngest child of one of Haven’s most prominent families. She’s fierce, determined, and adventurous, and she has her sights set on becoming a knight just like her older brother. Even if everyone says she can’t because she’s not a boy. So what? She’s not a girl, either.
A chance encounter throws Ash and Splinter into each other’s orbits and changes the course of the kingdom’s history. The princess and her new squire will face bullies, snobs, gossips, and their own disapproving families. But when they uncover a shadowy group of nobles plotting to overthrow the queen, they will show everyone how legends are born. Together.
Better Know an Author: Kiersten White
Today on the site, I am absolutely thrilled to be chatting with powerhouse author Kiersten White, whose newest novel, Lucy Undying, releases tomorrow from Del Rey! Lucy Undying is gloriously lush and Gothic lit fic that travels between past and present (slash near future) telling the story of Dracula‘s Lucy Westenra, and before we get to my chat with the author, here’s a little more about the book:
Her name was written in the pages of someone else’s story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula’s first victims.
But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula’s clutches—and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants.
Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in twenty-first-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris’s family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they’ll do anything to stay in power.
Lucy has long believed she would never love again. But she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces. Iris’s mother won’t let go of her without a fight, and Lucy’s past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl once more.
Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness has always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?
And now, to chat with the inimitable Kiersten White!
Fave Five: Queer Fiction About Addiction, Recovery, and/or Sobriety
Getting Clean with Stevie Green by Swan Huntley
A Shot in the Dark by Victoria Lee
All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky
Shae by Mesha Maren
Just By Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell
Exclusive Cover Reveal: Athlete is Agender ed. by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby
Today on the site, I’m thrilled to reveal the cover for Athlete is Agender, an exciting upcoming nonfiction Middle Grade anthology about queer and trans athletes edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby and releasing from Christy Ottaviano Books on May 13, 2025! Here to talk about it are Katherine and Nicole:
Happy National Translation Month 2024!
Join us in celebrating National Translation Month with these queer novels translated into English! Looking for non-English translations of English works? Click here for MG/YA and here for Adult fiction.
Middle Grade
Cross My Heart and Never Lie by Nora Dåsnes, translated from Norwegian by Matt Bagguley
Tuva is starting seventh grade, and her checklist of goals includes: writing out a diary, getting a trendy look, building the best fort in the woods with her BFFs, and much more. But when she starts school, nothing is how she hoped it would be.
Seventh grade has split her friends into rival factions: TEAM LINNEA and the girls who fall in love and TEAM BAO and the girls who NEVER fall in love. Linnea has a BOYFRIEND, Bao hates everything related to love. Worst of all, Linnea and Bao expect Tuva to choose a side!
In this delighfully hand-lettered coming-of-age graphic diary, Tuva gets caught between feeling like a kid and wanting to know HOW to become a teenager. Then Miriam shows up and suddenly Tuva feels as if she’s met her soulmate. Can you fall in love with a girl, keep it from your friends, and survive? For Tuva, it may be possible, but it’s defintely not easy.
New Releases: September 3, 2024
Cool Cat by Jazz Taylor
This is the third book in the Wish series
Nova doesn’t lie — she tells hopes for the future. That’s why she tells her mom she got an A on her math quiz, even though she got a B. It’s also why she doesn’t tell her mom about her secret Instagram that she’s almost old enough to have.
When a viral video of her cat pushes her into the popular crowd, and next to her crush, Lily, Nova tells even more “hopes for the future” to try to fit in.
The more lies she tells, the more everything spins out of control! Nova wants to come clean…but will it mean losing everything?