Volume 4, No. 21: Sapphic longing, Anti-Zionist Dreaming, & Queer Theatre Camp

Exciting Queer Releases for the Week of May 28th

Greetings, book and treat people! Before we get into it, some things I’ve been reading and thinking and grieving and holding: Omar Sakr has been sharing devastating, gorgeous poems about the genocide in Gaza on social media; you can now read a folio of them in Mizna. I don’t actually care about Pride, but this is a succinct and useful article about ways to center Palestinian liberation during Pride. Hanif Abdurraqib interviewed Diane Seuss and wow. He also shared this article: ‘ To Know What They Know: On misapprehending Palestinian children’, which is worth a read. Every day I am grateful I get to be in the same timeline as him.

Many thanks to everyone who has subscribed since last week! You can read all about why I’m asking folks to pay and what will happen if I don’t meet my financial goals here. ALSO: There are a few days left in the giveaway I’m running! All you have to do is subscribe (or pledge your support) by May 31st, and you’ll be automatically entered in a raffle to win one of two $30 gift cards to Bookshop.org!

One of the things I’m most excited about—if enough of you subscribe to make it possible—is doing weekly queer new release lists in addition to the regular weekly newsletter. Today, I’m sharing a preview of what those new release roundups will look like.

Here’s a secret: I’m not wild about most new release lists on the internet. On Bookstagram, I often come across huge and uncurated lists, e.g. ‘121 Queer Books Coming Out in June’. These are usually just slides with a bunch of cover images, sometimes sorted by genre. I find them unwieldy and untrustworthy. Why should I care about these particular books? What makes them special? Does the person making this list really have opinions about 100+ queer books?

I prefer smaller, curated lists, but I have yet to find a weekly queer new release roundup I truly love. Most people who put out these lists fall into the ‘plot blurb’ trap. Friends, I can’t stand a plot blurb. Of course I like to know what a book is about—vaguely—and whether it’s poetry or memoir or epic fantasy. But I can find a synopsis easily on my own, thanks.

So many queer books come out every week (magical), and even I cannot read them all. When I’m browsing new release lists, I want to know why someone is excited about a book, what drew them to it. Is it simply on a list because it has a lesbian character? So what? What is it about that book, that character, that’s worth my time?

If the thing doesn’t exist, make it! Here’s what my new release lists will include:

• Queer books (expansively defined) across a range of genres, with a focus on poetry, hybrid/unclassifiable nonfiction, adult fiction, and books from indie and university presses.

• Books I am genuinely excited to read and/or have read and loved!

• Explanations about why each particular book is on the list.

• First/final impressions: If I’ve already read the book, I’ll mention why I loved it. If I haven’t, I’ll do my best to read at least the intro/first chapter/a few poems and share my initial thoughts.

• Links to reviews/interviews/further reading.

• A teaser/giveaway: Whenever possible, I’ll give away an ARC of one of the featured books. Scroll through to the end for info on how to enter this week’s giveaway.

I loved making this list. I hope it leads you to some exciting new books.

---

This week’s books at a glance:

• A trans memoir set in Texas and a gay novel set in Nigeria, both of which I’ve read and loved.

• Two poetry collections!

• A book of magical realist short stories in translation.

• A middle grade graphic novel!

• Two very different works of fiction from two beloved indie presses.

• Two surprise books I’m most excited about: an academic book about botany and empire, and a collection of anti-zionist, abolitionist essays by a queer Arab Jew.

The Curve of Things by Kathy Kremins

The hook: Poetry about loving women, grounded in the body. The publisher’s copy includes the words “these poems feast on queer love”, which sounds delicious.

The genre: Lesbian poetry!

Why I’m excited about it: I am always, always excited about new-to-me poetry from new-to-me indie presses. As far as I can tell, this book is heavily steeped in queer love & loss, bodily geography, and desire. All things I love in poems.

First impressions: I couldn’t get an ARC of this, but I did love the except I read on CavanKerry’s website, from the titular poem ‘The Curve of Things’. It’s full of surprising shapes and images.

The details: CavanKerry Press, 88 pages. Available in paperback.

Further reading: You can read more about this book on the publisher’s website.

The Default World by Naomi Kanakia

The hook: A trans woman living in Sacramento gets caught up in the weird, decadent world of rich tech millennials. Shit happens, I think?

The genre: Contemporary trans fiction.

Why I’m excited about it: See above! Also, while books about the uber-wealthy and their nonsense aren’t usually my thing, I trust The Feminist Press—I don’t think they’ve let to lead me astray with a queer book.

First impressions: The first few pages are snappy and quick—the story feels very rooted in the right now.

The details: The Feminist Press, 264 pages. Available in paperback and ebook.

Further reading: Here’s a nice review from Forward. Kirkus didn’t like it at all.

Pretty by KB Brookins

The hook: A memoir about growing up Black and trans in Texas. Masculinity and its discontents. Navigating messy queer relationships with self and others. Self-discovery & making amends. Loving and struggling with a place.

The genre: Memoir with a splash of poetry.

Why I’m excited about it: I loved Brookins’s poetry collection Freedom House! I’m always looking for more trans memoirs by authors of color!

Final impressions: I enjoyed this, especially the more personal, vulnerable sections. Brookins has a tendency to end chapters with grand statements about the state of queer and trans rights, which felt unnecessary to me. I love their exploration of masculinity and its intersections with sexuality, Blackness, violence, geography, queer & lesbian culture. The poems scattered throughout are wonderful. Overall: it’s good, but not as good as Freedom House.

The details: Knopf, 264 pages. Available in hardcover, ebook, & audio.

Further reading: It’s not a review of this book, but I enjoyed this interview with Brookins about Freedom House (from 2023). I also enjoyed this review in BookPage. And here’s an interview in Vogue!

I'm a Fool to Want You by Camila Sosa Villada, tr. Kit Maude

The hook: Short stories that blend reality and fantasy. Everyday life with a touch of the strange. Queer & trans characters across time and place, with a focus on travesti communities.

The genre: Contemporary short stories with flashes of magical realism.

Why I’m excited about it: I loved Bad Girls, the only other book of Villada’s that’s been translated into English so far. It’s a novel about a group of travestis in Argentina and their brutal, joyful, messy lives. The poetry of her writing stunned me, as did her ability to capture the multiplicity of queer and trans life. I’m so excited to dive into more of her work (and by the same translator—did I mention how gorgeous the prose in Bad Girls is?)

First impressions: I forgot to download my ARC of this before it disappeared, so I only read an except from one story—but it definitely intrigued me! I love the way Villada blends the banal with the extraordinary.

The details: Other Press, 328 pages. Available in paperback and ebook.

Further reading: I haven’t found any reviews yet, but you can read some blurbs by authors I love on the publisher’s website.

Botany of Empire by Banu Subramaniam

The hook: Look, this snippet from the publisher did it for me: “A reckoning and a manifesto, Botany of Empire provides experts and general readers alike with a roadmap for transforming the colonial foundations of plant science.”

The genre: Academic nonfiction.

Why I’m excited about it: The title was enough to hook me—this book feels tailored to so many of my interests. But my friend Surabhi has recommended Subramaniam’s work in the past (specifically Ghost Stories for Darwin, which I have yet to read), so when another friend dropped a link to this one in the Queer Your Year discord, I took note. I mean, a book about how botany has been shaped by imperialism, and how colonial attitudes toward plants have created a reductive, extractive field of study, with violent practical consequences? A book that imagines a different way of doing botany, rooted in feminism and queer and Indigenous philosophies? Sign me up.

First impressions: I read the prologue and a few pages of the introduction and WOW. Subramaniam’s writing is curious, direct, thoughtful, personal. The prologue is full of questions that gave me shivers: “How to tell a mutilated story? How to tell a mutant story? How to tell a shattered story?” In the introduction, she writes that the book “is a retelling of botany through the histories of colonialism.” She goes on to say, “By centering the plant, we see how colonists remade plants in their image, for their needs, consumption, and profit and for empire. While my focus is botany, revealing and resisting the hauntings of colonialism in botany reveals these same fissures in science as a whole.” I can’t wait to read the rest.

The details: University of Washington Press, 256 pages. Available in paperback and ebook.

Further reading: If you’re interested in this subject matter but don’t want to commit to a whole book, guess what? Banu Subramaniam gave the opening lecture at this year’s Smith College Bulb Show! You can watch it here, and it sounds amazing—she talks about a lot of the ideas she explores in the book.

Sex Goblin by Lauren Cook

The hook: A collection of fragments, questions, stories, and interruptions—about sex, the internet, music, pop culture, violence. Multiple interpretations of thorny questions.

The genre: Weird hybrid fiction.

Why I’m excited about it: I love Nightboat Books. They publish so much strange, genre-exploding, undefinable queer work. I love anything told in fragments, anything that doesn’t quite cohere, anything that messes with narrative and queers structure.

First impressions: Once again I failed to download my ARC in time, but the excerpt I read has the quality of poetry I love: a series of one-liners and paragraphs that are only vaguely related. Cook jumps between images and ideas, making connections (or not) between disparate things. It reminded me of A Queen in Bucks County by Kay Gabriel.

The details: Nightboat Books, 184 pages. Available in paperback and ebook.

Further reading: This review in the Chicago Review of Books made me even more excited to get my hands on a copy!

Upstaged by Robin Easter

The hook: A middle grade graphic novel about queer besties at theatre camp in their last summer before high school. Tween angst! Queer crushes! Theater nerdiness!

The genre: Middle grade graphic fiction.

Why I’m excited about it: I honestly love middle grade fiction and don’t read enough of it. I’m always looking for fun and easy graphic novels to read in one sitting when I’m slumping.

First impressions: It’s sweet! I like the art! The main character, Ash, draws and doodles in their trusty sketchbook, and I love graphic novels with sketchbook pages included.

The details: Little, Brown, 256 pages. Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook.

Further reading: More info from the publisher here.

The Land is Holy by noam keim

The hook: Keim is a queer Arab Jew born to a settler family in occupied Palestine and raised across continents. These anti-zionist essays are about kinship and belonging. Stories of survival and healing from the world of plants. Home and its infinite meanings.

The genre: Lyrical essays.

Why I’m excited about it: Do I need to explain? This book feels like everything I need right now. Also, though I mostly ignore blurbs, Hanif Abdurraqib and Kai Cheng Thom both blurbed this one. I am powerless in the face of such praise.

First impressions: The first essay braids together two stories of movement: migrating storks and the turbulent migrations of keim’s family. It’s stark and quiet and full of questions about place, ancestral lineages, homelands, what it is to be complicit, memory, nature. More please.

The details: Radix Media, 180 pages. Available in paperback.

Further reading: Wow, there are so many events on this book tour I want to go to! Keim will be in conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib on June 7th (online!) and in conversation with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on June 1st (Philly). The launch event also sounded amazing—I’m hoping it was recorded.

A Hundred Lovers by Richie Hoffman

The hook: The publisher describes it as “an erotic journal in poems,” which sounds pretty good to me.

The genre: Gay poetry!

Why I’m excited about it: This came out in 2022 in hardcover and has been out of print—now it’s getting a paperback release and I think that’s super neat. Yay for making more poetry more accessible!

First impressions: I couldn’t get a full ARC of this, but I did read a few poems. They’re short snippets, little moments, vivid descriptions of sexual and romantic encounters. They feel stark, abrupt (in a good way). This line stunned me: “How easily the earth closes / its cavities.”

The details: Knopf, 80 pages. Available in paperback, ebook, and audio.

Further reading: A great review in the LA Review of Books.

Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh (Bonus & Giveaway!)

The hook: A gay coming-of-age novel set in mid-2000s Nigeria. It follows Obiefuna from his boyhood, through his traumatic years at a religious all-boys school, to his young adulthood and coming-into-self as a queer person living in a homophobic society.

The genre: Contemporary fiction.

Why I’m excited about it: Everything about this book is in my wheelhouse.

Final impressions: I love this book. It’s joyful, complicated, nuanced, and full of tenderness. It broke me—but the world breaks me, too. The characterization is incredible and the pacing is masterful. There is so much richness and depth, in the way Ibeh looks steadily at the world and its monsters.

The details: Doubleday (PRH), 288 pages. Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio.

Further reading: You can read my review in BookPage here! This novel reminded me a lot of God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu—an underrated gem, also about gay men in Nigeria, also incredibly tender & truthfully heartbreaking.

Giveaway: Blessings is out next week and I have an ARC to give away! To enter, make a donation (in any amount) to one of the Palestinian families on the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet. Send a screenshot to queerbooksandbakes@gmail.com (or DM me on Insta). I’ll randomly select a winner on June 5th. US only, and you must be willing to share your mailing address.

If you enjoyed this new release roundup and would like to receive one in your inbox every week, the only way to make it happen is to subscribe (or pledge your support). Once you’ve done that, come talk to me in the comments! Which of these books are you most excited about?

And Beauty

As always, a little bit of beauty to send you on your way: I took a rainy swim with some geese and their collection of goslings over the weekend, and it was perfect.

Catch you next week, bookish friends!