Readers, good morning and welcome back. Shake off those last dregs of Lang Syne daze caught in the rafters and rub away the indents on your nose, fresh from the heft of those numeral glasses, fashionably bold… It’s 2022, and you’ve made it aboard! Of course, each month brings a new beginning, but the first of the year, when the ripe sun drops into endlessly dark waters, is a potent time for re-evaluation, reflection, and course correction for the quiet nights to come. Have you your sexton and nightlamp, brave reader? Because we’ve laid out the treasure map for this month’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature, and like always, the tales of queer lit are vast and take many forms.
From a novel on twins doomed to fall to an ancestral curse, to a deep re-imagining of sissiness in our modern understandings of race and gender, to teen love between hockey players that’s literally too hot to handle, to poems textured with mountains and folkloric goddesses asking “what name / do you crown yourself,” this is the first chapter to a saga defined by ample brains, bravery, and dare we say… booty for all to share. 🗺 👑 📚 ✨
As always, enjoy the treasures, and 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!
Bio/Memoir
- Crazy, Cracked, Warm, and Deep by Susan Clarke, Two Hummingbird Press
- Damn Shame: A Memoir of Desire, Defiance and Show Tunes by David Pevsner, Random House Canada
- High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez, Soft Skull
- Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz, Random House
- People Change by Vivek Shraya, Penguin Canada
Fiction
- All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman, Overlook Press
- Call Me Cassandra by Marcial Gala and Anna Kushner, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Defenestrate by Renee Branum, Bloomsbury Publishing
- Getting Clean with Stevie Green by Swan Huntley, Gallery Books
- Go Back at Once by Robert Aickman, And Other Stories
- Manywhere: Stories by Morgan Thomas, MCD
- Perpetual West by Mesha Maren, Algonquin Books
- A Previous Life by Edmund White, Bloomsbury Publishing
- To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara, Doubleday
Nonfiction
- And the Category Is…: Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker, Beacon Press
- Outrageous!: The Story of Section 28 and Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education by Paul Baker, Reaktion Books
- Queer Life, Queer Love by Matt Bates, Golnoosh Nour, and Sarah Beal, Muswell Press
- Queering Law and Order: LGBTQ Communities and the Criminal Justice System by Kevin Leo Yabut Nadal, Lexington Books
- Supporting Trans People of Colour: How to Make Your Practice Inclusive by Sabah Choudrey, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
- To Look at the Sea Is to Become What One Is: An Etel Adnan Reader by Etel Adnan, Nightboat Books
LGBTQ Studies
- Gendered Lives: Global Issues by Nadine T. Fernandez and Katie Nelson, State University of New York Press
- Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum by Paula Greathouse and Henry Cody Miller, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action by Kevin Guyan, Bloomsbury Academic
- Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness by Marlon B. Ross, Duke University Press
- Uncommon Sense: Jeremy Bentham, Queer Aesthetics, and the Politics of Taste by Carrie D. Shanafelt, University of Virginia Press
Romance
- Always by Kris Bryant, Bold Strokes Books
- D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins, Carina Adores
- Exes and O’s by Joy Argento, Bold Strokes Books
- Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly, Forever
- Paris Rules by Jaime Maddox, Bold Strokes Books
- The Seductress Trap by Jac Sherry, Bella Books
- Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall, Montlake
- The Wedding Setup by Charlotte Greene, Bold Strokes Books
- Wildflower Words by Sam Ledel, Bold Strokes Books
Mystery/Thriller
- Act of Darkness by Francis King, Valancourt Books
- Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly, Thomas & Mercer
- Despite Chaos by Stacy Lynn Miller, Bella Books
- Fadeout by Joseph Hanson, Soho Syndicate
- Shadow Dancers by Suzie Clarke, Bold Strokes Books
- Survivor’s Guilt by Robyn Gigl, Kensington Publishing Corporation
Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror
- One Verse Multi by Sander Santiago, Bold Strokes Books
- The Raven and the Banshee by Carolyn Elizabeth, Bella Books
- Velocity by Gun Brooke, Bold Strokes Books
Young Adult Literature
- Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden, Page Street Kids
- The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder, Razorbill
- Hopepunk by Preston Norton, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Icebreaker by A. L. Graziadei, Henry Holt & Company
- In a Heartbeat by Markus Harwood-Jones, Lorimer Children & Teens
- Into the Midnight Void by Mara Fitzgerald, Little, Brown Brown Books for Young Readers
- The Love Code by Mette Bach, Lorimer Children & Teens
- Love Somebody by Rachel Roasek, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes, Bloomsbury YA
- The Temperature of Me and You by Brian Zepka, Disney-Hyperion
- Walk this Way by Tony Correia, Lorimer Children &Teens
Children’s/Middle Grade Literature
- Find Out About: Families by Mandy Archer, Rodale Kids
- It’s a Hit! by Arin Cole Barth and Marika Barth, Flamingo Rampant
- The Light of You by Trystan Reese, Biff Chaplow, and Van Binfa, Flamingo Rampant
- The Lock-Eater by Zack Loran Clark, Dial Books
- Love, Violet by Charlotte Sullivan Wild and Charlene Chua, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- The Magic Shell by Jillian Christmas and Diana G. A. Mungaray, Flamingo Rampant
- Noodin’s Perfect Day by Ansley Simpson and Rhael McGregor, Flamingo Rampant
Poetry
- Arrhythmia: Poems by Emily Van Kley, Persea Books
- How to Identify Yourself with a Wound by KB Brookins, Kallisto Gaia Press
- Like a Tree, Walking by Vahni Capildeo, Carcanet Press
- Return Flight by Jennifer Huang, Milkweed Editions
- Sandalwood-Scented Skeletons by Rhea Dhanbhoora, Finishing Line Press
- Sea Nettles: New and Selected Poems by Sue Ellen Thompson, Grayson Books
Comics/Graphic Novels
- Coming Back by Jessi Zabarsky, Random House Graphic
- The Croaking Volume 1 by Megan Grey, Rocketship Entertainment
- Crema by Johnnie Christmas, Dante Luiz, and Ryan Ferrier, Dark Horse Books
- Heartopper: Volume 4 by Alice Oseman, Graphix
Looking for something to read while waiting for December’s reads to be released? No problem, we got you covered!
December’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature
