April’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

Author: Edit Team

June 2, 2022

Welcome Dear Reader, it’s the return of the most anticipated list of LGBTQIA literature! The bad news? We’re a little belated on welcoming these excellent April new releases into the world. The good news? Books don’t expire!

April is National Poetry Month and it shows. Our poetry list is more robust than the rest this month, with a verse for all. In addition to can’t miss poetry releases from faves and former Lammy Finalists Akwaeke Emezi and Ocean Vuong, check out Janae Johnson’s debut collection Lessons on Being Tenderheaded which weaves coming-of-age, Black queer masculinity, and basketball.

Speaking of basketball, former Lambda Retreat Faculty and Lammy Finalist Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s new autobiographical YA novel offers a glimpse into the early days of Title IX, fifty years ago. Protagonist Louisa asks for a girls’ basketball team at her school and courageously faces the fight that unfolds.

This month in memoir, Lammy winning poet Rigoberto González searches the past to bring a more complete image of his grandmother to light, and JVN brings another dose of his signature sparkle.

Oh, and did we mention? Someone with a handful of Lammy Awards and two handfuls of finalist statuses has a new mystery. Katherine Forrest’s Kate Delafield is BACK. Four years into retirement, loose ends and mistakes come calling, even in the desert.

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!

Would you like your upcoming title considered for a future Most Anticipated list? Email editor@lambdaliterary.org to let us know–be sure to include the publication date for your new release, title, author, genre, and Bookshop.org link if available.

• Abuela in Shadow, Abuela in Light by Rigoberto González, University of Wisconsin Press
• Burn the Page by Danica Roem, Viking
• Deaf Utopia by Nyle DiMarco, William Morrow & Company
• Love That Story by Jonathan Van Ness, HarperOne
• Start Without Me by Gary Janetti, Henry Holt & Company
• This Time for Me: A Memoir by Alexandra Billings, Topple Books

• Dot & Ralfie Amy Hoffman, University of Wisconsin Press
• Little Foxes Took Up Matches by Katya Kazbek, Tin House Books
• Spell Heaven Toni Mirosevich, Counterpoint
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, Grove Press
• Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me John Weir, Red Hen Press

• Gay Liberation After May ’68 by Guy Hocquenghem, translated by Scott Branson, Duke University Press
• It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful by Jack Lowery, Bold Type Books
• Reading Shakespeare Reading Me by Leonard Barkan, Fordham University Press
• Y’All Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia edited by Z. Zane McNeill, PM Press

• The Digital Closet: How the Internet Became Straight by Alexander Monea, MIT Press
• Minoritarian Liberalism: A Travesti Life in a Brazilian Favela by Moisés Lino e Silva, University of Chicago Press
• Queer Carnival: Festivals and Mardi Gras in the South by Amy L. Stone, NYU Press
• Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Sexual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers, Beacon Press
• Selfie Aesthetics:Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art by Nicole Erin Morse, Duke University Press
• SIDE EFFECTS: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad Hil Malatino, University of Minnesota Press

• Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper, Carina Adores
• The Lines of Happiness by Venetia Di Pierro, Bella Books
• Low Key Love by Cheri Ritz, Bella Books
• No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey, Montlake
• The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann, Berkley Books
• The Sign For Home Blair Fell, Atria Books

• Delafield by Katherine V. Forrest, Spinsters Ink Books
• Father Complex by Gregory Ashe, Hodgkin & Blount
• Knock Off the Hat by Richard Stevenson, Bywater Books

• Beheld by Christopher M. Cevasco, Lethe Books
• Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse, Gallery / Saga Press
• Strange Fires by P.M. Biswas, Queer Space
• Spear by Nicola Griffith, TorDotCom 
• The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae, Harper Voyager

• Arden Grey by Ray Stoeve, Amulet Books
• Blaine for the Win by Robbie Couch, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Every Word You Never Said by Jordon Greene, F/K Teen
• No Stopping Us Now by Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Three Rooms Press
• Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk, Versify
• This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke, Knopf Books for Young Readers

• Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff, Dial Books
• In The Key of Us by Mariama Lockington, FSG
• The Meaning of Pride by Rosiee Thor and Sam Kirk, Versify
• The Pronoun Book by Chris Ayala-Kronos and Melita Tirado, Clarion Books

• Beast at Every Threshold by Natalie Wee, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Content Warning Everything by Akwaeke Emezi, Milkweed Press
• Drive by Elaine Sexton, Grid Books
• Emanations by Prathna Lor, Buckrider Books
• Girl’s Guide to Leaving by Laura Villareal, University of Wisconsin Press
• Lessons on Being Tenderheaded: Poems by Janae Johnson, Write Bloody Publishing
• The Necessity of Wildfire by Caitlin Scarano, Blair
• Nothing Will Save Your Life by Nancy Jo Cullen, Buckrider Books
• peep by Danielle Blau, Waywiser Press
• Plenitude by Daniel Sarah Karasik, by Book*hug Press
• Sleeptalking by Antonio Addessi, Rebel Satori Press
• Swollening by Jason Purcell, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Tender Bottoms, by Ryan Tracy, Auntie Press
• Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong, Penguin Press
• Water Lessons by Lisa Dordal, Black Lawrence Press

• Fine by Rhea Ewing, Liveright Publishing
• Flung Out of Space by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer, Harry N. Abrams
• Harley Quinn: Reckoning by Rachael Allen, Random House Books for Young Readers
• Rabbit Chase by Elizabeth Lapensée and KC Oster, Annick Press
• Rave by Jessica Campbell, Drawn & Quarterly