New in April: Edmund White, Mariko Tamaki, Jonathan Corcoran, S. Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle
Author: Edit Team
April 7, 2016
April is here, bringing with it a slew of new books to enjoy.
This month, Bloomsbury is releasing Our Young Man by Edmund White, a novel that explores the joys and pitfalls of living a life dedicated to physical beauty.
From the publisher:
Our Young Man follows the life of a gorgeous Frenchman, Guy, as he goes from the industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand to the top of the modeling profession in New York City’s fashion world, becoming the darling of Fire Island’s gay community. Like Wilde’s Dorian Grey, Guy never seems to age; at thirty-five he is still modeling, still enjoying lavish gifts from older men who believe he’s twenty-three–though their attentions always come at a price. Ambivalently, Guy lets them believe, driven especially by the memory of growing up poor, until he finds he needs the lie to secure not only wealth, but love itself. Surveying the full spectrum of gay amorous life through the disco era and into the age of AIDS, Edmund White (who worked at Vogue for ten years) explores the power of physical beauty–to fascinate, to enslave, and to deceive–with sparkling wit and pathos.
Editors S. Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle provide a much needed accounting of contemporary Black lesbian literature in the new collection Lez Talk (BLF Press):
A necessary and relevant addition to the Black LGBTQ literary canon, which oftentimes overlooks Black lesbian writing, Lez Talk is a collection of short stories that embraces the fullness of Black lesbian experiences. The contributors operate under the assumption that “lesbian” is not a dirty word, and have written stories that amplify the diversity of Black lesbian lives.
At once provocative, emotional, adventurous, and celebratory, Lez Talk crosses a range of fictional genres, including romance, speculative, and humor. The writers explore new subjects and aspects of their experiences, and affirm their gifts as writers and lesbian women. Beginning with Sheree L. Greer’s “I Can’t Turn it Off,” a short, powerful tale imbued with socio-political undercurrents, the collection also includes work from Claudia Moss, LaToya Hankins, Lauren Cherelle, K.A. Smith, S. Andrea Allen, Faith Mosley, and Eternity Philops.
This month sees the release of The Rope Swing: Stories (Vandalia Press), a new short story collection from writer Jonathan Corcoran. The book provides a series of humane and indelible portraits of a group of citizens from a small West Virginia town:
A once-booming West Virginia rail town no longer has a working train. The residents left behind in this tiny hamlet look to the mountains that surround them on all sides: The outside world encroaches, and the buildings of the gilded past seem to crumble more every day.
These are the stories of outsiders—the down and out. What happens to the young boy whose burgeoning sexuality pushes him to the edge of the forest to explore what might be love with another boy? What happens when one lost soul finally makes it to New York City, yet the reminders of his past life are omnipresent? What happens when an old woman struggles to find a purpose and reinvent herself after decades of living in the shadow of her platonic life partner? What happens to those who dare to live their lives outside of the strict confines of the town’s traditional and regimented ways?
The characters in The Rope Swing—gay and straight alike—yearn for that which seems so close but impossibly far, the world over the jagged peaks of the mountains.
Sometimes being an outsider gives you the opportunity to truly shine. Author Mariko Tamaki’s off-beat young adult novel Saving Montgomery Sole (Roaring Brook Press) explores the travails and triumphs of a perennial outsider:
Montgomery Sole is a square peg in a small town, forced to go to a school full of jocks and girls who don’t even know what irony is. It would all be impossible if it weren’t for her best friends, Thomas and Naoki. The three are also the only members of Jefferson High’s Mystery Club, dedicated to exploring the weird and unexplained, from ESP and astrology to super powers and mysterious objects.
Then there’s the Eye of Know, the possibly powerful crystal amulet Monty bought online. Will it help her predict the future or fight back against the ignorant jerks who make fun of Thomas for being gay or Monty for having lesbian moms? Maybe the Eye is here just in time, because the newest resident of their small town is scarier than mothmen, poltergeists, or, you know, gym.
Thoughtful, funny, and painfully honest, Montgomery Sole is someone you’ll want to laugh and cry with over a big cup of frozen yogurt with extra toppings.
As always, if we missed an author or book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us.
 |
 |
Fiction
- From Up River and For One Night Only by
- How To Whistle: Stories by Gregg Shapiro, Lethe Press
- In Case of Emergency, Break Glass by Sarah Van Arsdale, Queen’s Ferry Press
- Lez Talk edited by S. Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle, BLF Press
- Now and Then by William Corlett, Lethe Press
- Our Young Man by Edmund White, Bloomsbury USA
- The Rope Swing: Stories by Jonathan Corcoran, Vandalia Press
- Saints +Sinners 2016 edited by Paul Willis and Amie Evans, Bold Strokes Books
 |
Nonfiction
- Gayellow Pages USA 2016-2017, edited by Frances Green, Renaissance House
- Miss Vera’s Cross Gender Fun for All by Dr. Veronica Vera, Greenery Press
- Out and About: The LGBT Experience in the Legal Profession by The American Bar Association, The American Bar Association
- She’s Just Not That Into You: The Fab Femme’s Guide to Love and Dating by Aryka Randall, Dragon Fruit
- The Women We Love: Gay Writers on the Fierce and Tender Females Who Inspire Them by Jason Howard, Cleis Press
 |
LGBT Studies
- Against Citizenship: The Violence of the Normative by Amy L Brandzel, University of Illinois Press
- Beyond the Binary: Thinking about Sex and Gender by Shannon Dea, Broadview Press
- Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society: 2016/1: Gender, Nationalism, and Citizenship in Anti-Authoritarian Protests in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine edited by Julie Fedo, Samuel Greene, and Andre Härtel, ibidem Press
- LGBTQ Voices in Education: Changing the Culture of Schooling edited by Veronica E. Bloomfield and Marni E. Fisher, Routledge
- Masculinity, Class and Same-Sex Desire in Industrial England, 1895-1957 by Helen Smith, Palgrave Macmillian
- Queer Philologies: Sex, Language, and Affect in Shakespeare’s Time by Jeffrey Masten, University of Pennsylvania Press
- Since Time Began: The Truths and the Myths of Sexual Orientation by Virginia Schroeder Burnham and William H. Hampton, Sunstone Press
- The EU Enlargement and Gay Politics: The Impact of Eastern Enlargement on Rights, Activism, and Prejudice by Koen Slootmeackers, Heleen Touquets, and Peter Vermeersch, Palgrave Macmillian
- The Feminist Philosophy Collection edited by Elizabeth Potter, Springer
- Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Women’s Human Rights by Eileen Hunt Botting, Yale University Press
 |
 |
Young Adult
- Drag Teen by Jeffery Self, Push
- South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf, AW Teen
- Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki, Roaring Brook Press
- Original Fake by Kristin Cronn-Mills and E. Eero Johnson, Putnam
 |
Romance
- Along Came The Rain by , Sapphire
- Black Dust, Lynn Charles, Interlude Press
- The Better to Kiss You With by Michelle Osgood, Interlude Press
- Built to Last by Aurora Rey, Bold Strokes Books
- Capsized by Julie Cannon, Bold Strokes Books
- Heartscapes by MJ Williamz, Bold Strokes Books
- Men in Love edited by Jerry Wheeler, Bold Strokes Books
- A Reunion to Remember by TJ Thomas, Bold Strokes Books
- Rewriting the End by Hp Tune, Ylva
- Selfie by Amy Lane, Riptide Press
- Tangled Mark by Becky Harmon, Bella books
- Taken at the Flood by Nene Adams, Bella Books
 |
Erotica
- From Top to Bottom: Lesbian Stories of Dominance and Submission by Harper Bliss, Ladylit
- Manties in a Twist by J.A. Rock, Riptide Publishing
 |
Speculative Fiction/Horror
- The Gilda Stories: Expanded 25th Anniversary Editon by Jewelle Gomez, City Lights Books
- Necromantia by Sheri Lewis Wohl, Bold Stroke Books
 |
Mystery/Thriller
- Death Comes Darkly by David S. Pederson, Bold Strokes Books
- Girls with Guns by Michelle Grubb, Ali Vali, Carsen Taite, Bold Strokes Books
- Murder in the Rocks by Clara Nipper, Bold Strokes Books
 |
Bio/Memoir
- Anyway… by Andy White, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- How I Met My Son by Yolanda Bogert, Affirm Press
- Life Gives Me Gas: Tales from the Fat Side by Dawn Authier, GWS Press
- Nine Lives of Morris: Great Tales One Cool Cat by Morris Taylor, Arts & Antiques
- Saving Delancy by Keston Ott-Dahl and Andrea Ott-Dahl, Cleis Press
- The Salome Ensemble: Rose Pastor Stokes, Anzia Yezierska, Sonya Levien, and Jetta Goudal by Alan Robert Ginsberg, Syracuse University Press
- True Homosexual Experiences: Boyd McDonald and Straight to Hell by William E. Jones, We Heard You Like Books
- You Only Live Twice: Death, Sex, and Transition by Mike Hoolboom and Chase Joynt, Coach House Books
 |
Poetry
- In the Empire of the Air: The Poems of Donald Britton edited by Philip Clark, Nightboat Books
- Journal of Ugly Sites and Other Journals by Stacy Szymaszek, Fence Books
- Lifeline, Heartline: Ten Poems by Lesbian and Gay Poets by Jo Brookes and Mandy Ross, Candlestick Press
- The Kiss of Walt Whitman Still on My Lips by Raymond Luczak, Squares & Rebels
- Trouble the Water by Derrick Austin, BOA Editions Ltd
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Cooper Canyon Press
