New in May: Casey Plett, Tommy Pico, Nicola Griffith, Stephen McCauley, and North Morgan

Author: Edit Team

April 30, 2018

Rejoice! This month brings fresh new LGBTQ books to add to your reading list!

This month we’re looking forward to Little Fish (Arsenal Pulp Press), the debut novel from Casey Plett, author of the Lammy-winning short story collection A Safe Girl to Love.

From the publisher:

It’s the dead of winter in Winnipeg and Wendy Reimer, a thirty-year-old trans woman, feels like her life is frozen in place. When her Oma passes away Wendy receives an unexpected phone call from a distant family friend with a startling secret: Wendy’s Opa (grandfather)–a devout Mennonite farmer–might have been transgender himself. At first she dismisses this revelation, but as Wendy’s life grows increasingly volatile, she finds herself aching for the lost pieces of her Opa’s truth. Can Wendy unravel the mystery of her grandfather’s world and reckon with the culture that both shaped and rejected her? She’s determined to try.

May also brings The Evolution of Love (Rare Bird Books), the new novel from Lucy Jane Bledsoe.

From the publisher:

A devastating earthquake has just hit the San Francisco Bay Area, cutting off the outside world completely. When Lily decides to fly from Nebraska to California and make the treacherous journey into the Bay Area to find her sister, she knows she’s headed for a disaster zone, but nothing prepares her for what she finds.

Poet Tommy Pico also has a new book out this month. Junk (Tin House Books) is the third book in his Teebs trilogy after IRL and Nature Poem (which is nominated for a Lammy this year).

As the publisher describes:

[…] Junk is a breakup poem in couplets: ice floe and hot lava, a tribute to Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. In the static that follows the loss of a job or an apartment or a boyfriend, what can you grab onto for orientation? The narrator wonders what happens to the sense of self when the illusion of security has been stripped away. And for an indigenous person, how do these lost markers of identity echo larger cultural losses and erasures in a changing political landscape?

Another novel coming this month is North Morgan’s Into? (Flatiron Books), which the publisher describes as “Less than Zero with an Instagram account.”

More from the publisher:

Konrad Platt needs to get out of town. Heartbroken after his boyfriend leaves him for another man, Konrad abandons his life in London for the warm sun and blue surf of LA. He occupies a refined world of hard abs, VIP parties, and designer drugs that’s constantly, endlessly documented on social media. You know him from your various feeds – sunkissed, gym ripped and always having a better time than you. Or is he?

In Nicola Griffith’s powerful new novel, So Lucky (FSG), a woman must face a startling new reality when she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis:

Mara Tagarelli is, professionally, the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation; personally, she is a committed martial artist. But her life has turned inside out like a sock. She can’t rely on family, her body is letting her down, and friends and colleagues are turning away—they treat her like a victim. She needs to break that narrative: build her own community, learn new strengths, and fight. But what do you do when you find out that the story you’ve been told, the story you’ve told yourself, is not true? How can you fight if you can’t trust your body? Who can you rely on if those around you don’t have your best interests at heart, and the systems designed to help do more harm than good? Mara makes a decision and acts, but her actions unleash monsters aimed squarely at the heart of her new community.

And finally, for the Stephen McCauley fans who’ve been waiting for his next novel, My Ex-Life (Flatiron Books), is out this month.

From the publisher:

David Hedges’s life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.

The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him.

As always, if we missed an author or book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us.

Fiction

Ánh Sáng by Barry Brennessel, Manifold Press
Into?: A Novel by North Morgan, Flatiron Books
Tomb of the Unknown Racist: A Novel by Blanche McCrary Boyd, Counterpoint
Little Fish by Casey Plett, Arsenal Pulp Press
So Lucky by Nicola Griffith, MCD x FSG Originals
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, Arsenal Pulp Press
Drapetomania: or, the narrative of Cyrus Tyler and Abednego Tyler, lovers by John R Gordon, Team Angelica Publishing
The Smell of Rain by Cameron MacElvee, Bold Strokes Books
The Evolution of Love by Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Rare Bird Books
Night Beast by Ruth Joffre, Grove Press
Small Predators by Jennifer Ilse Black, Arbeiter Ring Publishing
The Monkey Cages by Casey Charles, Lethe Press
Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd, Counterpoint
My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley, Flatiron Books

Nonfiction

50 Queer Music Icons Who Changed the World: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Legends by Will Larnach-Jones, Hardie Grant
Our Witness: The Unheard Stories of Lgbt+ Christians by Brandan Robertson, Cascade Books
Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day by Peter Ackroyd, Abrams Press
Word of Mouth: Gossip and American Poetry by Chad Bennett, Johns Hopkins University Press
Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries edited by Lee Harrington & Tai Fenix Kulystin, Mystic Productions Press
Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms by Michelle Tea, Amethyst Editions
Rainbow Relatives: Real-World Stories and Advice on How to Talk to Kids About LGBTQ+ Families and Friends by Sudi Karatas, Skyhorse Publishing
Pride: The Unlikely Story of the True Heroes of the Miners’ Strike by Tim Tate, John Blake
Queer about Comics edited by Darieck Scott & Ramzi Fawaz, Duke University Press

LGBT Studies

Documents of the LGBT Movement by Chuck Stewart, ABC-CLIO
The Gender Affirmative Model: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Transgender and Gender Expansive Children by Colt Keo-Meier & Diane Ehrensaft, American Psychological Association
LGBTQI Parented Families and Schools: Visibility, Representation, and Pride by Anna Carlile &‎ Carrie Paechter, Routledge
NO BODY: Clinical Constructions of Gender and Transsexuality – Pathologisation, Violence and Deconstruction by Miguel Roselló-Peñaloza, Routledge
Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People: Minding the Knowledge Gaps edited by Andrew King,‎ Kathryn Almack,‎ Yiu-Tung Suen, &‎ Sue Westwood, Routledge
Queer Festivals: Challenging Collective Identities in a Transnational Europe by Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Amsterdam University Press
Queering Digital India: Activisms, Identities, Subjectivities edited by Rohit K. Dasgupta &‎ Debanuj DasGupta, Edinburgh University Press
Understanding Trans Health: Discourse, Power and Possibility by Ruth Pearce, Policy Press
The Annotated Prison Writings of Oscar Wilde, edited by Nicholas Frankel, Harvard University Press
Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities Behind the Magnolia Curtain by Daneel Buring, Routledge
Queers Read This! LGBTQ Literature Now edited by Ramzi Fawaz & Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Duke University Press
Desiring in the Real: From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis by Esther Rapoport, Karnac Books

Young Adult and Children’s Literature

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake, HMH Books for Young Readers
Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro, Tor Teen
Ship It by Britta Lundin, Freeform
Love & Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Nothing Happened by Molly Booth, Disney-Hyperion
The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde, Swoon Reads