February's Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

Happy February to all of you lovelies! This is a big month for us writers–not only is it Black History Month and the month of love, but it’s also time for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)’s conference. No matter which you’re celebrating, we’ve got a wonderful list of new releases for you to enjoy this month.

The world of nonfiction is full of Lambda Literary authors! For our memoir lovers, we have Brontez Purnell (whom you may know as the award-winning author of 100 Boyfriends) releasing his second book, Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse, this month, alongside Lambda finalist Shayla Lawson and her upcoming How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir. In nonfiction, we’ve got Tania De Rozario’s Dinner on Monster Island: Essays and Aisha Sabatini Sloan’s Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit: Essays.

Turning to poetry, we have Lambda winner Cyrée Jarelle Johnson’s WATCHNIGHT, where Johnson works within U.S. and his own familial history to craft his second poetry collection.

Another previous poetry winner and 2023 Lambda Literary Retreat faculty, Phillip B. Williams, ventures into speculative fiction this month with his new book Ours. Our Lambda Literary fellow Katie Jean Shinkle, along with co-author Steven Dunn, join Williams with their novel, Tannery Bay.

And, of course, what would a February most anticipated list be without some romance reads? For you spice lovers, look no further than Rachel Kramer Brussel’s new collection of erotic short fiction, Lap Dance Lust. Greta & Valdin: A Novel by Rebecca K. Reilly and Ryan Love’s Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out both take nontraditional approaches to the genre by focusing on a pair of relatives (siblings and grandparent/grandchild respectively) who each find love in their own lives.

So go forth into your local bookstore in your cutest, most mysterious outfit to find these treasures and have your own bookstore meet cute! Maybe you’re reading them leaning against a bookshelf so a stranger can see you and find they now believe in love at first sight? Maybe you reach out for one of these books at the same time as someone reaches for it? Maybe you come up to the counter with your stack of new books and the bookseller gushes about how much they loved one of the books you picked and tells you that you have to come back and tell them what you thought of it? Or, maybe I’m just a hopeless (single) romantic?