New LGBTQ Books: Saeed Jones, Georgia Beers, Andre Aciman, and Jeanette Winterson

Author: Lilia Shrayfer
October 2, 2019
October is here, sweater weather has cast itself upon us, and we’re back with more LGBTQ books, perfect for your autumn night in!
Two-time Lambda Literary Award winner Jeanette Winterson is back with what the New York Times has named “a radical love story for right now.”Frankisstein, longlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, is at once humorous and harrowing in its investigation of gender politics, artificial intelligence, and ethics in medicine.
Here is a synopsis from the publisher (Grove Atlantic):
In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI.Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryonics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life.
But the scene is set in 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes a story about creating a non-biological life-form. ‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.’What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.
If you love the award-winning poetry of Saeed Jones, make sure to check out his debut memoir, How We Fight For Our Lives, out this month from Simon & Schuster.
More from the publisher:
An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.
[…]
Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.
Our next author, Georgia Beers, is a two-time finalist and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Romance. She’s back this October with One Walk in Winter, bound to be a sizzling workplace romance!
Nothing’s ever been handed to Olivia Santini, and she’s proud of her work ethic. After seven years as the assistant manager of the Evergreen Resort and Spa, she has ideas to improve the bottom line and increase reservations. When her manager resigns, Olivia puts in her résumé and waits for the interview. The job is practically hers—all she needs is the paperwork.
Hayley Boyd Markham is the youngest Markham, the only girl, and the most spoiled. An artistic soul in a family of business-minded type As, she’s always felt like a bit of a screwup. After an embarrassing party situation, her father puts a hold on her allowance and gives her an ultimatum: Spend the winter as manager of the Evergreen Resort and Spa and show him it can turn a profit. Only then will he reconsider her future (and her inheritance).
A chance encounter in the woods is filled with chemistry and promise, and though neither Olivia nor Hayley is looking for love, they both feel the possibility. Until they get to work…
In March, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that we would again see Elio and Oliver,the unforgettable characters of Andre Aciman’s book turned Academy Award winning film, Call Me By Your Name. The sequel is Find Me,which publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux says, “brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies.”
More from the publisher:
In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Samuel’s plans and changes his life forever.
Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic.
In poetry, October brings us Goodread’s Choice Award-winning Trista Mateer’s new collection, Aphrodite Made Me Do It (Central Avenue Publishing), which uses the myth of the goddess Aphrodite as a way in to the practice of self-care in the mortal world.
As always, if we missed an author or LGBTQ book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us.
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Fiction
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- Why Didn’t Someone Warn You About Prince Chaming? stories by Jameson Currier, Chelsea Station Editions
- Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis, Knopf
- Find Me by Andre Aciman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- The Foley Artist by Ricco-Villanueva-Siasoco, Gaudy Boy
- Frankisstein by Jeanette Winterson, Grove Atlantic
- False Bingo: Stories by Jac Jemc, Macmillan Publishers
- The Foley Artist: Stories by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, Gaudy Boy
- Continental Divide by Alex Myers, University of New Orleans Press
- Like Wings, Your Hands by Eliabeth Earley, Red Hen Press
- Heroine by Gail Scott, Coach House Books
- I Saw Three Ships: West End Stories by Bill Richardson, Talon Books
- Right After The Weather by Carol Anshaw, Atria Books
- Falling by Trebor Healey, University of Wisconsin Press
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Nonfiction
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- An Army of Lovers by Jamie Anderson, Bella Books
- The Berlin Mission: The American who Resisted Nazi Germany from Within by Richard Breitman, PublicAffairs
- Pride: The LGBTQ+ Rights Movement: A Photographic Journey by Christopher Measom, Sterling
- Letters from Tove Translated by Sarah Death, Sort of Books
- Reading Sedgwick Edited by Lauren Berlant, Duke University Press
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LGBT Studies
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- Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music (New Perspectives on Gender in Music) by Vincent L Stephens, University of Illinois Press
- Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults by Finn V. Gratton, LMFT, LPCC, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
- Queer Intercultural Communication: The Intersectional Politics of Belonging in and across Differences Edited by Shinsuke Eguchi and Bernadette Calafell, Rowman & Littlefield
- Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices Edited by Kevin Manders and Elizabeth Marston, North Atlantic Books
- Medical Entanglements: Rethinking Feminist Debates about Healthcare by Kristina Gupta, Rutgers University Press
- Avidly Reads Making Out by Kathryn Bond Stockton, NYU Press
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Young Adult and Children’s Literature
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- Crier’s War by Nina Varela, HarperCollins Publishers
- Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett, Knopf Books For Young Readers
- Call Me Max by Kyle Lukoff, Illustrations by Luciano Lozano, Reycraft Books
- Freeing Finch by Ginny Rorby, Starscape
- I’m A Gay Wizard by V.S. Santoni, Wattpad Books
- Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor, Scholastic
- Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland, Imprint
- The Never Tilting World, by Rin Chupeco, Harper Teen
- I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi, Harper Teen
- The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake, Disney Hyperion
- Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebelle-Henry, Soho Teen
- Mooncakes, by Suzanne Walker, Lion Forge
- By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
- Hazel’s Theory of Evolution by Lisa Jenn Bigelow, HarperCollins
- The GayBCs by M.L. Webb, Quirk Books
- High-Five to the Hero: 15 classic tales retold for boys who dare to be different by Vita Murrow, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
- The Best at It by Maulik Pancholy, Balzer + Bray
- I Promise by Catherine Hernandez, Illustrated by Syrus Marcus Ware, Arsenal Pulp Press
- This is Me by Lindsay Taylor, Illustrated by Marnie Maurri, Your Stories Matter
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Romance
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- The Lucky Ones by K.G. MacGregor, Bella Books
- Hammers, Strings, and Beautiful Things by Morgan Lee Miller, Bold Strokes Books
- One Walk in Winter by Georgia Beers, Bold Strokes Books
- 30 Dates in 30 Days by Elle Spencer, Bold Strokes Books
- The Inn at Netherfield Green by Aurora Rey, Bold Strokes Books
- Fire & Ice by Rachel Spangler, Bywater Books
- The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair, Ylva Publishing
- Top of Her Game by M. Ullrich, Bold Strokes Books
- Fish on a Bicycle: Book V, Fish Out of Water by Amy Lane, Dreamspinner Press
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Graphic Novels/Illustrated Books
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- Avatar: The Last Airbender-Imbalance Part III by Faith Erin Hicks, Brian Konietzko, and Michael Dante Dimartino, Dark Horse Books
- Life is Strange Vol. II: Waves by Emma Vieceli, Titan Comics
- The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabei, Seven Seas
- Goodbye, My Havana: The Life and Times of a Gringa in Revolutionary Cuba by Anna Veltfort, Stanford University Press
- That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura, VIZ Media
- The High School Life of Fudanshi: Vol 5 by Michinoku Atami, Seven Seas
- CosmoKnights: Book One by Hannah Templer, Top Shelf Productions
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Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
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- Blood and Roses by MB Panichi, Bella Books
- Hunter’s Descent by Lise MacTague, Bella Books
- salt slow by Julia Armfield, Flatiron Books
- Master of Restless Shadows Book I by Ginn Hale, Blind Eye Books
- Anais Nin at the Grand Guignol by Robert Levy, Lethe Press
- The Shoreless Sea: Liminal Sky Book III by J. Scott Coatsworth, Dreamspinner Press
- Homesick: Stories by Nino Cipri, Dzanc Books
- Unfinished Business: Tales of the Dark Fantastic by Catherine Lundoff, Queen of Swords Press
- Vanished by Eden Darry, Bold Strokes Books
- The Forbidden Stars: Book III of the Axiom by Tim Pratt, Angry Robot
- Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather, Tor.com
- Blood Sex and Violence, A Vampire’s Rebuttal: The Rabbit Saga Collection by Emil Jersey, Rabbit Run Books
- Stories to Sing in the Dark by Matthew Bright, introduction by Christopher Barzak, Lethe Press
- The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács, introduction by Charlie Jane Anders, Lethe Press
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Mystery/Thriller
- Leading the Witness by Carsen Taite, Bold Strokes Books
- Finding Sky by Cass Sellars, Bold Strokes Books
- Carved in Bone: A Henry Rios Novel by Michael Nava, Persigo Press
- Heart of a Killer by Yolanda Wallace, Bold Strokes Books
- Unfinished Business by Catherine Lundoff, Bold Strokes Books
- No Experience Required by Kimberly Cooper Griffin, Bold Strokes Books
- Baby by Annaleese Jochem, Scribe Publications (US)
- Midnight at the Orpheus by Alyssa Linn Palmer, Bold Strokes Books
- Stay by Mildred Gail Digby, Regal Crest
- ChoirMaster by Michael Craft, Questover Press
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Bio/Memoir
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- Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon, Grand Central Publishing
- How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones, Simon & Schuster
- Toil & Trouble by Augusten Burroughs, St. Martin’s Press
- A Wild and Precious Life by Edie Windsor with Joshua Lyon, St. Martin’s Press
- Happier as a Woman: Transforming Freindships, Transforming Lives by Martina Giselle Ramirez & Alicia Partnoy, Cleis Press
- Disasterama!: Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977 to 1997 by Alvin Orloff, Three Rooms Press
- The Boy Who Listened to Paintings by Dean Kostos, Spuyten Duyvil
- A Year Without a Name by Cyrus Grace Dunham, Little, Brown and Company
- Angry, Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali, University of Regina Press
- Out Loud by Mark Morris and Wesley Stace, Penguin Press
- Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz, Algonquin Books
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Poetry
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- The Book of Daniel by Aaron Smith, University of Pittsburgh Press
- Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry Edited by Amber Dawn & Justin Ducharme, Arsenal Pulp Press
- Almost Home by Madisen Kuhn, Gallery Books
- Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer, Central Avenue Publishing
- Crossfire: A Litany for Survival by Staceyann Chin, foreward by Jacqueline Woodson, Haymarket Books
- Space Struck. by Paige Lewis, Sarabande Books
- HULL by Xandria Phillips, Nightboat Books
- Let it Ride by Timothy Liu, Saturnalia Books
- The Revisionist & The Astropastorals: Collected Poems by Douglas Crase, Nightboat Books
- A Choir of Honest Killers by Buddy Wakefield, Write Bloody Publishing
- Vancouver for Beginners by Alex Leslie, Book*hug Press
- Let Out the Djinn by Jane Aldous, Arachne Press
- Ganymede’s Dog by John Emil Vincent, McGill-Queen’s University Press
- Leave Smoke by Jeff Walt, Gival Press
- The Problem of the Many Timothy Donnelly, Wave Books
- Have You Seen This Man? The Castro Poems of Karl Tierney by Karl Tierney, Edited by Jim Cory, Sibling Rivalry Press
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