Literature

A short story collection of queer Gen Z women in Michigan navigating their twenties. A novel about an Irish woman in Copenhagen who receives an unexpected visit from an ex from her pre-transition life. Stories following the hopes, dreams, and struggles of a group of Black queer and trans friends in Montreal. A novel exploring

Pop culture feeds on romantic couplings, but we all know the truth about who keeps us alive. Our friends, what would ever we do without them? It is passionate platonic friendship that concerns Lilly Dancyger in her second book, First Love: Essays on Friendship. A collection of personal and critical essays, First Love began when

Emma Copley Eisenberg’s novel Housemates begins with a heartbreaking address from The Housemate, a 70-year-old lesbian who grieves her beloved and who, like so many queers throughout history, has been erased from the public record of the person she built her life with. Through imaginative leaps, The Housemate follows Leah and Bernie, two twenty-something queers

When I first started what became my novel The Witches of Bellinas, there were no witches, no witchcraft at all. I had wanted to write about a beautiful village that seemed perfect but had  hidden secrets after spending a summer in a beautiful, remote area near San Francisco that I later learned had a reputation

If the sea is the master metaphor for the depths of the individual and collective subconscious, the creatures within implicitly represent so much about our desires, fears, instincts, memory, and perceived connections to both the womb and the afterlife. What’s down there? seems to be a question we’ve always been asking. Look back to The

“How to Build a Father” by Danny Goodman Things I use to reconstruct my father: Merit cigarettes, brown-yellow pack Red Datsun 310 GX, driving around Danbury, Toto IV on the radio  Mustache, naturally perfect, in the style of Don Mattingly New York Jets Garan, Inc. t-shirt, circa 1988 Butterscotch Krimpets, Tastykake  I could add to

In the past few years, books written by and about queer characters have become more visible to the general reading public. Gradually, straight, cisgender readers are discovering the pleasure of reading books by authors whose identities are different from their own. This is true in the mystery and thriller reading world as well.  In my

When Sign Language United the Hearing and the Deaf M.V.S.L. (Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language) Click to enlarge and scroll. Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven’t read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. YOUR INBOX IS LIT Enjoy strange, diverting work from

In my twenties, I was convinced I had a dream job. For five years I worked as a social media manager for a media non-profit that sent me around the world to cover its conferences online. The keg in the office kitchen became the center of my social life, and I regularly worked late as

When my sixth-grade crush told me she didn’t want to partner up with me for a class project, I was quietly heartbroken. I didn’t yet know I was queer, but I knew I was devastated. Reeling from the loss of my closest friend (and imagined future wife), I did what I always do in times

I feel like we look to fiction books to either uplift us and make us feel great about life and the world, or to devastate us and make us feel poopy about it. Personally, I believe that even in the latter instance that poopiness is meant to uplift us in how we go about living

The Board Will Decide If I’m Qualified to Live in the Basement Elif Batuman Share article The Board by Elif Batuman The broker hadn’t arrived yet when I arrived at the address of the listing. A cold, fine rain was falling. Glancing up and down the street, I took in a series of garbage cans

Alexander Sammartino’s debut novel Last Acts opens on David Rizzo, owner of a failing firearms store located in an Arizona strip mall, en route to the hospital to retrieve his estranged son Nick, an addict who has just briefly experienced death in the form of a drug overdose. Grappling with what to do with his

As Asian American Pacific Islander Month comes to end, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Asian American identity is more than just race or shared affinity. Born out of political activism and the anti-war movement to protest and rally against injustice, warfare, imperialism, and colonization, it’s a call for unity, for liberation, and for

Serkan Görkemli’s Sweet Tooth, a sweeping collection of connected stories about queer characters in Turkey, is his debut work of fiction—but he’s no newcomer to the subject matter. Aside from his own background growing up in a small, industrial town in northwestern Turkey, he’s been a scholar of queer life in Turkey for years. An

Being a mother, for me, has had the effect of raising the ceiling on most feelings. My children (now eleven and seven years old) have carried me to new heights of hilarity and joy, but in the midst of these feelings I’m aware too of their corollary: the understanding, which arrived suddenly right after each

How much are you willing to sacrifice for your desire? This is a central question of R.O. Kwon’s recent novel, Exhibit. Written in urgent and lyrical prose, Exhibit follows two Korean American women—Jin, a photographer, and Lidija, a ballerina—as they push towards artistic ambition. When they are introduced, Jin has been in a long-term relationship

Think about whether it was rape for a long time. When people tell you they are pretty sure you were raped, say, “But I took the drugs.” (See: “A Brief History of Assault”) Wonder if the lies he tells you about yourself that you know are not true are, in fact, true. Wonder if he