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

Comics/Graphic Novels
- Gay Giant by Gabriel Ebensperger, Street Noise Books
- M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton, Abrams Comicarts – Surely
- Our Colors by Gengorah Tagame, Translated by Anne Ishii, Pantheon Books
- SLIP by Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya, Algonquin Young Readers
Looking for something to read while waiting for June’s reads to be released? No problem, we got you covered!