June’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

Author: Edit Team

June 2, 2022

The first Pride was a riot and this June, our fight persists. This month, we hope you’ll say gay (bi, lesbian, ace, trans, nonbinary, and more) and we’ve got some titles you can use as a statement.

Hold these books up by the pool or on your daily commute if you want to shout about QUEER JOY, that we’re OUT THERE, want to cast a WET HEX, identify as a GAY GIANT, or just want to keep ’em guessing with COFFEE, SHOPPING, MURDER, LOVE.

As transphobic legislation moves forward and queer and trans book bans persist, these documented LGBTQIA+ histories, personal stories, dreams, imaginings, love stories, pains, and mysteries are potent and vital accounts.

This month, the legendary Jewelle Gomez graces us with poems on legacies. Linda Villarosa’s reporting unearths the health costs of racism. And, Andrew Holleran’s latest novel unveils a candid, darkly humorous reflection on loneliness, death, and human connection.

Lambda Fellows delight with dark humor and brilliance in their latest books: Anna Dorn’s novel for a taste of destiny(?), millenial astrology business, and wit, and C. Russell Price’s poetry book for unstoppable rage and joy in the end times.

Don’t miss the return of fave NEVADA and words in a new genre from Ryan O’Connell. PLUS Vera Kelly returns in a luxurious SoCal caper, back for summer after Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery with a chase that’s close to her heart.

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.

Bio/Memoir

Asylum by Edafe Okporo, Simon & Schuster
(Drag) Queen of Scots by Lawrence Chaney, Bantam Press
Funny Gyal by Angeline Jackson, Dundurn Press

Fiction

Exalted by Anna Dorn, Unnamed Press
Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan, W.W. Norton
God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu, A Public Space
Greenland by David Santos Donaldson, Amistad
Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair by June Gervais, Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin
Just By Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell, Atria Books
The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran, FSG
LOTE by Shola von Reinhold, Duke University Press
NEVADA by Imogen Binnie, Rerelease MCD X Fsg Originals
Paul’s Cat by Jameson Currier, Chelsea Station Editions
So Happy for You by Celia Laskey, Hanover Square Press
Stolen Moments of Joy by Hamour Baika, Unrolling Script

Nonfiction

Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs edited by Brian Alessandro & Tom Cardamone, Rebel Satori Press
Fire Island by Jack Parlett, Hanover Square Press
How You Get Famous: Ten Years of Drag Madness in Brooklyn by Nicole Pasulka
I Feel Love: Notes on Queer Joy edited by Samantha Mann, Read Furiously
Please Wait to be Tasted by Carla Perez-Gallardo and Hannah Black, Princeton Architectural Press
Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa
VIRAL CULTURES: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS by Marika Cifor
What’s the T? by Juno Dawson, Sourcebooks Fire

LGBTQ Studies

Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw, Abrams Press
Hip Hop Heresies: Queer Aesthetics in New York City by Shanté Paradigm Smalls, NYU Press
A History of Milwaukee Drag by Michail Takach and BJ Daniels, History Press
Janelle Monáe’s Queer Afrofuturism: Defying Every Label by Dan Hassler-Forest, Rutgers University Press

Romance

Embracing the Moon by Jeannie Levig, Bold Strokes Books
Forbidden Rome by Mario Dell’Olio, 5310 Publishing
Forever Comes in Threes by D. Jackson Leigh, Bold Strokes Books
A Fox in Shadow by Jane Fletcher, Bold Strokes Books
The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian, Avon
Sol Cycle by Kimberly Cooper Griffin, Bold Strokes Books
Trial and Error by Carsen Taite, Bold Strokes Books

Mystery/Thriller

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling, Poisoned Pen Press
Bad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow, Margaret K. McElderry Books
Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love by Carlos Allende, Red Hen Press
Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan, Bywater Books
Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman, Macmillan
Road Rash by Dharma Kelleher, Dark Pariah Press
Vera Kelly Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht, Tin House Books

Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson, Penguin Books
The Lever by Mark Salzwedel, Rebel Satori Press
Mutopians by SJ Whitby
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen, Zando
We All Fall Down by Rose Szabo, FSG
Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, William Morrow
X by Davey Davis, Catapult

Young Adult Literature

Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan, Little Island Books
Epically Earnest by Molly Horan, Clarion Books
Game of Strength and Storm by Rachel Menard, North Star Editions
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White, Peachtree Teen
The Loophole by Naz Kutub, Bloomsbury YA
Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder by Saundra Mitchell, Inkyard Press
This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron, Bloomsbury YA

Children’s/Middle Grade Literature

ABC Pride by Louie Stowell and Elly Barnes, DK Publishing
Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino, Scholastic Press
The Big Book of Pride Flags by Jem Milton, Jessica Kingsley Publisher
The Civil War of Amos Abernathy Michael Leali, HarperCollins
Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, John Wilson, and Daniel Sousa
My Shadow is Purple by Scott Stuart, Larrikin House US
Timid by Harry Woodgate, Little Bee Books

Poetry

HOAX by Joey De Jesus, Operating System
oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems by C. Russell Price, TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press
Still Water: Poems by Jewelle Gomez, BLF Press
The Trickster Riots by Taté Walker, Abalone Mountain Press
The Wet Hex by Sun Yung Shin, Coffee House Press