February’s Most Anticipated

Author: Suzi Garcia
February 4, 2023
February is the shortest month, but it’s packed full of new books. Two of my favorite established writers, Camonghne Felix and Carl Phillips, have new books out, and there are also some amazing debuts by Lambda Literary Fellows Lamya H and Katie Jean Shinkle. Take some time out to focus on yourself and read some amazing new writing to center yourself.
Bio/Memoir
- Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H, Dial Press*
- Collect Call to My Mother: Essays on Love, Grief, and Getting a Good Night’s Sleep by Lori Horvitz, New Meridian Arts
- Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation by Camonghne Felix, OneWorld
- Messy Bitch Magic by Ani Ferlise, Numinous Books
Fiction
- Sing with Me at the Edge of Paradise: Stories by Joe Baumann, Texas Tech University Press
- Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly, Algonquin Books
- The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes, William Morrow & Company
- Thick City by Katie Jean Shinkle
- Sanctuaries by Vince Sgambati
- Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner, Graywolf Press
Nonfiction
- Believable: The Portraits of Lola Flash by Lola Flash, New Press
- You’re That Bitch: & Other Cute Lessons about Being Unapologetically Yourself by Bretman Rock, Harper
- Who Does That Bitch Think She Is?: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag by Craig Seligman, Public Affairs
- Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives by Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, Duke University Press
LGBTQ Studies
- Circuits of the Sacred: A Faggotology in the Black Latinx Caribbean by Carlos Ulises Decena, Duke University Press
- Crip Colony: Mestizaje, Us Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines by Sony Coráñez Bolton, Duke University Press
- The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Transgender Studies by J. E. Sumerau, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Romance
- The 30-Day Engagement by Waverly Decker, Calhoun Howard
- Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns, DoubleDay Books
- Before She Was Mine by Emma L. McGeown, Bold Strokes Books
- Maybe, Probably by Amanda Radley, Bold Strokes Books
- For Her Consideration: An Enchanting and Memorable Love Story by Amy Spalding, Kensington Publishing Corporation
- Always the Almost by Edward Underhill, Wednesday Books
Mystery/Thriller
- Up with the Sun by Thomas Mallon, Knopf Publishing Group
- Amid Secrets by Stacy Lynn Miller, Bella Books
- Chaos Agent by Lee Winter, Ylva publishing
Speculative Fiction
- Aphrodite’s Sister: The Goddess of Emotion by Kelly Balch, Goulden Publishing
- A Transcendental Habit by James Callan, Rebel Satori
- Frontier by Grace Curtis, Solaris
- Meru by S. B. Divya, 47north
- Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy a Snyder, Tor Nightfire
Young Adult Literature
- Out of Character by Jenna Miller, Quill Tree Books
- I’ll Take Everything You Have by James Klise, Algonquin Young Readers
- The Girls of Fall by Jessica Minyard, Centurion Books
- Once More with Chutzpah by Haley Neil, Bloomsbury YA
- The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa, Random House Books for Young Readers
- And Other Mistakes by Erika Turner, Feiwel & Friends
- Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Monstersona by Chloe Spencer, Tiny Ghost Press

Children’s/Middle Grade Literature
- Like a Hurricane by Jonathan Bécotte, Orca Book Publishers
- No One Owns the Colors by Gianna Davy, Collective Book Studio
- Ring of Solomon by Aden Polydoros, Inkyard Press
- The House That Whispers by Lin Thompson, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Freddie Mercury by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, Frances Lincoln Ltd
Poetry
- I’m Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss by Joseph Lezza
- Scrape the Velvet from Your Antlers: Poems by Kelly McQuain, Texas Review Press
- Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Particles of a Stranger Light by Anthony Sutton, Veliz Books
- Auto/Body by Vickie Vértiz,University of Notre Dame Press
Comics/Graphic Novels