Historical Fiction Archives

cover of The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert. Yellow cursive text over a black and white photo of Paris taken from above.

October 21, 2021 4 min read

In Timothy Schaffert's The Perfume Thief, perfume emerges as a powerful presence in this tale of Nazi Occupied Paris during World War II. Read More

Cover of The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver. Woman in Black and White photo looking at reader.

Read This! Excerpt of The Savage Kind – John Copenhaver’s New Thriller

Samihah Sirajul-Islam

Features Excerpts

October 14, 2021 7 min read

Two teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, become unlikely friends and unravel a dark mystery in The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver. Read More

Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones

Tara Scott

Reviews

February 13, 2020 3 min read

If you’re at all interested in historical fiction, please do yourself a favor and pick up Floodtide Read More

‘Two Wings to Fly Away’ by Penny Mickelbury

Tara Scott

Fiction

September 18, 2019 3 min read

Historical fiction like this doesn’t come around often and it shouldn’t be missed Read More

‘The Stranger from the Sea’ by Paul Binding

Quinn Roberts

Reviews

March 18, 2019 2 min read

The narrator of The Stranger from the Sea inhabits a cultural milieu that suppresses its truths through propriety and etiquette. Read More

‘The Air You Breathe’ by Frances De Pontes Peebles

July Westhale

Reviews

August 19, 2018 1 min read

This beautifully rendered novel maps the epic rise to fame of Sofia Salvador, a samba singer, actress, and dancer Read More

‘Jews Queers Germans’ by Martin Duberman

Dan Lopez

Reviews

May 10, 2017 3 min read

Jews Queers Germans dives headlong into the murky political waters of Weimar Germany, dramatizing anti-Semitism, homophobia, and a pervasive melancholia over an imagined sense of lost national pride that helped transform a progressive country into a Nazi dystopia Read More

‘Cakewalk’ by Rita Mae Brown

July Westhale

Reviews

March 30, 2017 1 min read

Cakewalk, Brown’s newest novel, takes on the monumental task of portraying a town caught in the aftermath of war Read More

‘The Cosmopolitans’ by Sarah Schulman

Sara Rauch

Fiction Reviews

April 14, 2016 2 min read

Sarah Schulman has given us a finely tuned, clever, and remarkably contemporary historical novel Read More

‘The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghost’ by Tiya Miles

Rachel Wexelbaum

Fiction Reviews

August 23, 2015 4 min read

Historians reveal uncomfortable truths and novelists force us to look at them. Perhaps The Cherokee Rose is a nod in support of the New South that recognizes its multicultural past, present, and future. Read More

Reviews

Unearthing Queer Archive in Early 1990’s West Palm Beach, Florida

The Mars House: Science Fiction and the Hazards of Imagination

Maps of Belonging: Italian Trans Geographies

Random

How The Dead Teach the Living: A Dying Reader’s Guide

Features

Unearthing Queer Archive in Early 1990’s West Palm Beach, Florida

Maps of Belonging: Italian Trans Geographies

Dreaming up a Hopeful Future: A Conversation with Grist authors on queer climate fiction

Interviews

Bonds & Boundaries: A Conversation with Dale Corvino

Dreaming up a Hopeful Future: A Conversation with Grist authors on queer climate fiction

“What if it was both and all of the above?”: An interview with CJ Hauser

Excerpts

An Excerpt from Sleep Tight Satellite: Stories by Carol Guess

Read This! Excerpt from the delicacy of embracing spirals by mimi tempestt

Read This! Excerpt from American Gospel by Miah Jeffra

The Perfume Thief: A Story of Queer Bravery in Occupied Paris

Read This! Excerpt of The Savage Kind – John Copenhaver’s New Thriller

Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones

‘Two Wings to Fly Away’ by Penny Mickelbury

‘The Stranger from the Sea’ by Paul Binding

‘The Air You Breathe’ by Frances De Pontes Peebles

‘Jews Queers Germans’ by Martin Duberman

‘Cakewalk’ by Rita Mae Brown

‘The Cosmopolitans’ by Sarah Schulman

‘The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghost’ by Tiya Miles

Unearthing Queer Archive in Early 1990’s West Palm Beach, Florida

The Mars House: Science Fiction and the Hazards of Imagination

Maps of Belonging: Italian Trans Geographies

The High Stakes of Young Adulthood: A Review of Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

People Collide by Isle McElroy: A Review

Reviewing Bad Gays; or how we use the past to shape the future

A Review of Cassandra Khaw’s The Salt Grows Heavy

If property is theft, then what is a photograph? A Review of The Unintended by Monica Huerta