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cover of Innate Magic by Shannon Fay. Black, bold text over a red silhouette on a yellow and blue background.

December’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

Samihah Sirajul-Islam
New In List
9 min read
Samihah Sirajul-Islam

Hello readers and hello December!

We have made it, together, to the end of another year. A year full of so many difficult and complicated, but also beautiful and bright moments. The first snowflakes of the season have begun to fall, and 2022 is just around the corner. It is a time to reflect on how we have grown and changed and to look forward to the hopeful possibility of who we might become. Wherever you are right now, let us keep leaning into each other as a community, and let us keep uplifting each other’s voices.

In this final month of 2021, we at Lambda Literary are so excited to share with you December’s list of upcoming LGBTQIA+ literature.

Please take a look at some of our featured picks for the month including…

  • This eccentric memoir from a lesbian broadcast personality and writer who rose to notoriety in the 50’s.
  • This collection of short stories intimately exploring the lives, friendships, and desires of gay and bisexual Puerto Rican men.
  • This guide for parents to help explore and affirm different gender identities with their children written by a licensed clinical social worker who is Indigenous Two Spirit and trans nonbinary.
  • This nonfiction book which explores art and activism through the lens of Sins Invalid — a San Francisco based performance project.
  • This fake-marriage to lovers rom-com novel about two gay, Black men pretending to be a couple in order to get out of a lawsuit, only to realize they may actually be falling for each other.
  • This historial gay romance set in the AIDS pandemic and written by former Lambda award winning author Lance Ringel.
  • This debut fantasy novel about a human raised by elves and who challenges norms of both gender and race.
  • This sweet anthology of romantic stories featuring a diverse cast written by bestselling authors in the genre and edited by two previous Lambda Literary Award winners.
  • This second installment in a young adult fantasy series about a lesbian witch struggling to keep her coven.
  • This debut poetry collection balancing a range of topics from sex work to socialist politics.
  • This coming-of-age graphic novel about a self-described dyslexic-asexual-lesbian-feminist teenager who learns about reproductive health and deconstructs harmful myths about body changes and sexuality in pop culture.

As always, if our list is missing an author or a book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us with the month of your publication date in the subject line.

P.S. Looking for even more books to read? Check out our Bookshop page with handy lists of previous award winners, finalists, authors featured in our May We Present series, and more!

Cover of Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street by Preston Fassel. The image is of a black and white repeating pattern of a man's portrait on a white background.

Bio/Memoir

Cover of "Tell Me How to Be" by Neel Patel. Yellow text on a red background surrounded by geometric cutouts of photographs and colored patterns.

Fiction

Cover of "Dark Tourist" by Hasanthika Sirisena. Abstract shapes in a navy, teal, and orange color scheme.

Nonfiction

Cover of "Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City" by Gregory Samantha Rosenthal. Multicolored text on a black background. There is also a large lambda symbol in teal.

LGBTQ Studies

Cover of "Read Between the Lines" by Rachel Lacey. Two simply illustrated women lean forward over an open book with their eyes closed and lips puckered. Black cursive text on an orange background.

Romance

Cover of "Fresh Grave in Grand Canyon" by Lee Patton. Blue text in all-caps over an image of a stormy sky above the Grand Canyon.

Mystery/Thriller

Cover of "Where the Rain Cannot Reach" by Adesina Brown. the title text is in a large, black font contained within a fiery, sun red overlayed on top of a sword. The moon is shown behind the hilt of the sun, and the background is black.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror

the cover of "The Coldest Touch" by Isabel Sterling. Two teenage girls stand facing the viewer with a gloomy forest behind them.

Young Adult Literature

Cover of "Just. Like. You." written by Meredith Steiner and illustrated by Avneet Sandhu. Orange text over an illustration of multicultural children playing in a park.

Children’s/Middle Grade Literature

Cover of "A Sentimental Hairpin" by Flower Conroy. Brown text on a cream background surrounded by many thin hairpins.

Poetry/Plays 

Cover of "A Man's Skin" by Hubert and Zanzim. An illustration contained within a picture frame of a feminine figure sitting on a bench and pulling on a man's skin like a glove over their body.

Comics/Graphic Novels

Looking for something to read while waiting for December’s reads to be released? No problem, we got you covered!

November’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

October’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Books

September’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature