This year has already been one for the books in terms of LGBTQ literature, with a ton of great queer and trans titles coming out in January and February alone. Below, find the queer books —over 65 of ’em! —you should be getting excited about from now through the end of May. A big gay book boom will of course come in June, when publishers love to smush in as many of their LGBTQ releases as possible, but we’re here to remind you that queer books across all genres are coming out all damn year long. If something looks interesting to you, preorder it! Preorders are a tangible way to support queer and trans authors, especially debut authors and any authors facing censorship.

Here at Autostraddle, we aim to have an expansive and genre-inclusive approach to our books coverage to reflect the complex world of queer literature, so the preview list below includes everything from horror to romance to graphic novels to memoirs to essay collections to poetry. The titles come from big publishers, specialized imprints, university presses, and small/indie presses and include translations. Of course, this list is far from exhaustive, though we strived to make it as wide-ranging as possible. If you want to shout out something we’ve missed, please do so in the comments!

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March

Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (March 5)

From the author of the memoir Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk comes a new collection of essays “on what it means to be a proudly queer indigenous woman in the United States today.” LaPointe’s poetry background lends a lyrical quality to these essays, which explore intersections of the environment, ancestral inheritance, cultural displacement, and Indigeneity.

Heroines, by Kate Zambreno (March 5)

Originally published in 2012, Kate Zambreno’s groundbreaking work of literary scholarship is getting a much anticipated re-release from Semiotext(e), featuring a brand new introduction by Jamie Hood.

Ellipses, by Vanessa Lawrence (March 5)

Set in the New York City media world, this debut novel follows young queer Asian writer Lily and Billie, the older woman who becomes her toxic mentor. And listen, toxic mentorship stories are extremely up some of our alleys.

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, by Julia Serano

This is another timely re-release of a seminal text, updated with a new afterword that touches on recent anti-trans backlash in the U.S. Serano originally coined the term transmisogyny in this book, which came out in 2007.

The No-Girlfriend Rule, by Christen Randall (March 5)

In the center of the Venn diagram of Dungeons Dragons gays and readers of queer YA romance, you’ll find this book! Protagonist Hollis Beckwith is a “fat, broke girl with anxiety” whose boyfriend won’t let her play Secrets & Sorcery, the book’s in-universe tabletop roleplaying game, with him. She ends up carving out her own nerdy path, and an in-game crush leads to…something more.

Thirst, by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary (March 5)

This feminist Gothic tale is set in the 19th century as well as present-day Buenos Aires, following an encounter between a woman grappling with her mother’s terminal illness and a vampire. The genre-bending novel in translation promises to explore agency, desire, and motherhood.

Just Another Epic Love Poem, by Parisa Akhbari (March 12)

A classic friends-to-lovers romance, Just Another Epic Love Poem follows besties Mitra Esfahani and Bea Ortega, whose friendship is defined by The Book, a Moleskine notebook the two friends have been co-writing a never-ending love poem in since they were 13. Yep, definitely nothing gay about that! The book unfolds in lyrical prose as well as snippets of poetry in the voices of Mitra and Bea.

these letters end in tears, by Musih Tedji Xaviere (March 12)

This love story between a Christian girl and a Muslim girl takes place in Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal. It’s against this political backdrop that Bessem meets and falls in love with Fatima, which eventually leads to an assault by Fatima’s brother and a police raid on a gay bar in town.

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong, by Katie Gee Salisbury (March 12)

Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star Anna May Wong has long been an icon in the LGBTQ community, and as with a lot of early Hollywood actresses, queer rumors have long swirled around her legacy. This book promises a celebration of her career, which was often stymied, unsurprisingly, by Hollywood’s rampant racism.

Some Strange Music Draws Me In, by Griffin Hansbury (March 12)

Set initially in Massachusetts in 1984, this novel hinges on a meeting between a young trans masc just starting to come to terms with his identity and Sylvia, a strong willed trans woman. The novel then jumps to 2019 after protagonist Max has transitioned. About self discovery as well as familial drama, the trans coming-of-age novel is steeped in the everyday violence of intolerance in a community.

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart, by Izzy Wasserstein (March 12)

Trans woman Dora is at the center of this science-fiction thriller in which Dora’s ex-girlfriend Kay is killed, forcing Dora back to her old commune where everyone is a suspect. The queer, noir technothriller is set in mid-21st-century Kansas City.

Love the World Or Get Killed Trying, by Alvina Chamberland (March 15)

Swedish author Alvina Chamberland’s English language debut follows Alvina, a trans woman about to turn 30 as she journeys through Iceland, Berlin, and Paris, navigating sex, love, and death. “Alvina Chamberland writes with every part of herself. Hers is an honesty in perfect balance with generosity, and reading this book is like receiving an ongoing gift,” says Torrey Peters of the work.

The Palace of Forty Pillars, by Armen Davoudian (March 19)

Davoudian’s debut poetry collection from Tin House touches on gay adolescence as well as living as an Armenian in Iran and an immigrant in America.

This Way to Change: A Gentle Guide to Personal Transformation and Collective Liberation–Poems, Prose, Practices, by Jezz Chung

Neurodivergent, queer, and Korean American writer and artist Jezz Chung presents prose, poetry, and healing practices with the goal of decolonizing and deconstructing various ways of thinking and moving through the world with an emphasis on community-making.

Memory Piece, by Lisa Ko (March 19)

Author of the fantastic award-winning novel The Leavers, Lisa Ko is back with an expansive novel about friendship, moving from the 80s to the 90s to an imagined 2040s. It starts with teen friends Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng and moves into their adulthood, exploring the tech, activism, and art worlds of NYC. Several relationships unfold in the novel, including queer ones.

Who’s Afraid of Gender?, by Judith Butler (March 19)

Judith Butler is back! The author of the pioneering text Gender Trouble returns with new work interrogating and confronting aggressive attacks on gender in recent years. According to the publisher: “The aim of Who’s Afraid of Gender? is not to offer a new theory of gender but to examine how ‘gender’ has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and transexclusionary feminists.” A review on Autostraddle is forthcoming from Stef Rubino.

Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked A Revolution, by Amin Ghaziani (March 19)

It feels like a ton of writing on gay bars is coming out lately, and Amin Ghaziani is the latest to offer an entry to this important historical and archival work. The text draws on over 100 interviews as well as immersive encounters by Ghaziani.

Where Sleeping Girls Lie, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (March 19)

After years of home-schooling and a complicated past, Sade Hussein’s fresh start at an elite English boarding school is threatened when her roommate disappears. From the author of heart-pounding queer YA thriller Ace of Spades, Where Sleeping Girls lie is a mystery about social status, dark legacies, coverups, sapphic tension, and teens solving crimes.

Rainbow Black, by Maggie Thrash (March 19)

This coming-of-age thriller is set against the backdrop of the Satanic Panic in the 1990s. It follows Lacey Bond as a 13-year-old girl whose parents are arrested. A horrific murder forces Lacey to make a terrible choice that comes to haunt her. The book then follows Lacey into adulthood, when she attempts to have a normal life with a job and a girlfriend. It sounds a bit like a gay Dark Places.

The Woods All Black, by Lee Mandelo (March 19)

A work of 1920s Appalachian trans historical horror, The Woods All Black combines romance and revenge to twisted effect. All about the terrors of a small town and the fierce fight for bodily autonomy for its characters, it sounds like a chilling new release from the author of the queer Southern Gothic Summer Sons.

Nest of Matches, by Amie Whittemore (March 22)

Whittemore’s third poetry collection “is a lavish declaration of the beauty of the natural world, queer identity, and of the imagination set free.” It explores all kinda of love: familial, romantic, and a love for place.

Dead Girls Walking, by Sami Ellis (March 26)

This queer YA slasher has Friday the 13th vibes with its summer camp setting. It’s about a girl looking for her deceased mother’s body…at the summer camp that used to be her serial killer father’s home. Upsetting!

Like Happiness, by Ursula Villarreal-Moura (March 26)

Tatum and her partner Vera live in Chile, and Tatum works in an art museum, happy to leave behind her life in NYC where she was tied up with the famous author M. Domínguez. When Domínguez is accused of assault and a reporter calls Tatum looking for corroboration, she’s thrust back into the past she has been so desperate to escape.

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist, by Sophie Gonzales (March 26)

Gonzales is a well-established voice in the queer young adult and romance space. Her latest, a supernatural friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story, finds a protagonist torn between her fantasy man — the TV character she writes fanfic about, somehow come to live — and the ex-girlfriend who’s called in to help her and her best friend deal with the real-life problems caused by this not-so-real guest.

April

A Good Happy Girl, Marissa Higgins (April 2)

Gay chaos reigns in this story of “twisted desires, queer domesticity, and the effects of incarceration on the family,” centered on a jittery attorney with a self-destructive streak who gets involved romantically with a married lesbian couple who crack her world open with their intensity and desire to probe her past. A Good Happy Girl is “interested in worlds without men—and women who will do what they can to get what they want.”

Firebugs, by Nino Bulling (April 2)

From Drawn & Quarterly comes a new graphic novel about trans love and identity. It centers couple Ingken and Lily against a backdrop of climate crisis.

Women! In! Peril, by Jessie Ren Marshall (April 2)

Award-winning playwright Jessie Ren Marshal’s “ferociously feminist” debut short story includes plots like “a sex bot trying to outlast her return policy” and “a skeptical lesbian grappling with her wife’s mysterious pregnancy.” With settings that span the known and unknown universe, her work explores queerness, toxic relationships with a consistent note of total weirdness.

Call Forth a Fox, by Markelle Grabo (April 2)

This romantic folklore novel puts a “sapphic twist on the classic fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red.”

Here We Go Again, by Alison Cochrun (April 2)

Beloved queer romance writer Alison Cochrun’s (Kiss Her Once For Me, The Charm Offensive) latest finds two former childhood friends turned rivals the summer before high school graduation reunited in their thirties, saddled with broken dreams and stuck in the same small town and the same familiar patterns. One is uptight, one is chaotic and impulsive, and both end up forced by the imminent death of their mutual lifelong mentor to take a very gay road trip together that’ll remind them of the bond they once shared.

Every Time You Hear That Song, by Jenna Voris (April 2)

Advertised as “Dumplin’ meets Daisy Jones & the Six,” Every Time You Hear That Song is a split-POV queer coming-of-age story involving an empty time capsule, a scavenger hunt cash-prize contest, country music idols, a flashback to a 1963 lesbian relationship that threatened one star’s future and a romantic road trip.

Like Love: Essays and Conversations, by Maggie Nelson (April 2)

Maggie Nelson’s latest presents a cavalcade of profiles, reviews, remembrances, tributes, and critical essays, all about art and artists. The work spans the timeline of Nelson’s full career, presented in chronological order and touching on “the writing, thinking, feeling, reading, looking, and conversing” that Nelson partook in when working on all of her previous books, including Bluets.

Rough Trade, by Katrina Carrasco (April 9)

A work of historical crime fiction, Rough Trade “reimagines queer communities, the turbulent early days of modern media and medicine, and the pleasures —and price —of satisfying desire.” It’s set in late-1800s Pacific Northwest and is about Alma Rosales and her opium-smuggling crew, who do their drug business by day and then occupy Tacoma’s underground queer scene by night. It’s described by the publisher as a genre- and gender-bending novel.

The Last Love Song, by Kalie Holford (April 9)

If you’ve ever asked the world “where is the queer YA Mama Mia novel I’ve been waiting for all my life?” then have we got big news for you! Set in that transformative summer after high school graduation, this novel follows Mia, the daughter of a country music star who abandoned her family to pursue stardom. Mia’s got no desire to leave her hometown or lose her sorta-girlfriend Britt, but a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting upends all those plans, setting Mia on a journey to discover parts of her town she never knew and chart a course towards a stunning destiny of her own.

Late Bloomer, by Mazey Eddings (April 16)

Queer romantic comedy Late Bloomer follows an opposites attract trajectory between Opal Devlin and Pepper Boden, set at a flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina.

Dear Wendy, by Ann Zhao (April 16)

Contemporary YA novel Dear Wendy is about two aromantic and asexual college students who are feuding online but unknowingly becoming friends IRL. It sounds cute and offers some aroace representation in the YA space.

Off With Their Heads, by Zoe Hana Mikuta (April 23)

A “Korean-inspired Alice in Wonderland” follows two witches whose lives took very divergent paths after they broke each other’s hearts and served sentences in a forest haunted by Saints for a crime they didn’t commit. One is harvesting ryal Saints in the capital, ignoring the painful, demented experiments her Red Queen is performing, while the other is a hunter, hell-bent on revenge against her ex. It’s the third book from 23-year-old Zoe Hana Mikuta, who previously authored the Gearbreakers duology.

Homebody, by Theo Parish (April 23)

Theo Parish’s graphic memoir is about a nonbinary teen discovering themself. It is being likened to Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer.

Punk Rock Karaoke, by Bianca Xunise (April 23)

This coming-of-age YA graphic novel follows teens in Chicago’s Southside who start a garage punk band adorably called Baby Hares.

If You’re a Girl, by Ann Rower (April 23)

This is a rereleased new expanded edition of Ann Rower’s fantastic collection of stories from 1991. It includes a new introduction by Sheila Heiti.

May

Sluts: Anthology, edited by Michelle Tea (May 7)

A mix of essays, fiction, and hybrid genre work comes together for this anthology all about SLUTS. It includes a bevy of brilliant queer writers, including Vera Blossom, Sam Cohen, Chloe Caldwell, Gabrielle Korn, Kamala Puligandla, Brontez Purnell, Zoe Whitall, and so many more!

Queer Power Couples: On Love and Possibility, by Hannah Murphy Winter and Billie Winter (May 7)

Fourteen LGBTQ power couples are at the heart of this photography book, with words by Hannah Murphy and portraits by Billie Winter. Debbie Millman and Roxane Gay are one of the featured couples!

Gospel of a Whole Sun, by Katerina Jeng (May 7)

Community activist and poet Katerina Jeng pens a collection of poems exploring coming out, navigating anti-Asian violence during the pandemic, and finding a path toward love again.

The Z Word, by Lindsay King-Miller (May 7)

Queer zombie romp The Z Word is about chaotic bisexual Wendy trying to recover after a bad breakup and immersing herself in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, where suddenly there’s a zombie virus breakout. The colorful cast of characters includes a sword lesbian, a pizza delivery stoner, a silver fox, and a drag queen. It sounds campy and fun!

In Universes, by Em North (May 7)

Taking place in a shifting kaleidoscope of parallel worlds that get increasingly weirder, Em North’s debut novel is a sci-fi tale about Raffi, lost in their own research on dark matter, and Britt, a queer sculptor who Raffi is fascinated by.

How it Works Out, by Myriam Lacroix (May 7)

Myriam and Allison meet and fall in love at a punk house show, and their story then spirals out into a series of fantasies and hypotheticals in this truly ambitious sounding and genre-bending debut novel.

Bad Seed, by Gabriel Carle, translated by Heather Houde (May 7)

From Feminist Press comes this debut short story collection in translation full of narratives about being young and queer in Puerto Rico. Descriptions of the stories within sound delightful: “A horny high schooler spends his summer break in front of the TV; a queer love triangle unravels on the emblematic theater steps of the University of Puerto Rico; a group of friends get high and watch San Juan burn from atop a clocktower; an HIV positive college student works the night shift at a local bathhouse.”

Sunhead, by Alex Assan (May 7)

This queer coming-of-age graphic novel follows high schooler Rotem, who is steeped in obsessive fandom for a series called Sunrise (making her a “Sunhead”) and who connects with another fan, Ayala, about their deep love for the central romance in the series. Nothing brings queer kids together like obsessive fandom!

The Summer Love Strategy, by Ray Stoeve (May 7)

Best friends Talia and Hayley make a pact to find summer love and help put each other in rom-com movie situations in the latest YA release from Ray Stoeve. They make a list of settings for their potential summer meet-cuts: the beach, Pride, the pool, a MUNA concert, and a party, but of course they end up finding love where they least expect it.

The Brides of High Hill, by Nghi Vo (May 7)

Prolific LGBTQ fantasy novelist Nghi Vo is back with the latest entry in the Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle.

True Love and Other Impossible Odds, by Christina Li (May 14)

Grace develops an algorithm that matches people with their perfect partners in this contemporary queer YA release that explores the idea that love can’t really be determined by a formula.

Grand Slam Romance: Major League Hotties, by Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhous (May 14)

A follow-up to their first Grand Slam Romance softball romance graphic novel, collaborators Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhous are back with the second book in the series that brings back characters from the first and places them in a new magical world.

All Fours, by Miranda July (May 14)

In Miranda July’s second novel, a semi-famous artist in her mid-forties plans a cross-country drive, leaves her husband and child at home, and embarks on a different journey entirely than what she initially sought to do. Sexy and humorous, it’s July’s first novel in a decade. She told Vogue: “I wanted to write a romance. To try and capture that sort of drugged-out, longing feeling when someone’s completely under your skin.”

Road to Ruin, by Hana Lee (May 14)

A royal messenger takes a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland in this gritty fantasy debut from Hana Lee with a tricky, royalty-centric love triangle. Publisher’s Weekly called it “savage, sexy, and deliciously screwed up.”

Oye, by Melissa Mogollon (May 14)

A “rollicking, heartfelt, and utterly unique novel” already generating massive buzz and a star-studded assembly of blurbs, Mogollon’s super-voicey story is focused on sarcastic, spunky Luciana, who expects to spend her senior year of high school skating and meeting girls. But then there’s a hurricane hurtling towards Miami, and her grandmother Abue is facing a dire diagnosis and moves in with Lucinda, bringing with her unpredictable antics, whims and demands, and eventually upending everything Lucinda thought she understood about her family and her future.

I Want You More by Swan Huntley (May 21)

A dark and twisty novel, I Want You More follows aspiring author Zara Pines, who takes a job ghostwriting cooking TV star Jane Bailey’s memoir. The two women begin to merge during the process, yielding a fraught and difficult to define relationship to two women who have to reckon with how little they actually know each other.

But I Don’t Feel Empowered, by Suri Chan (May 21)

Queer poet Suri Chan’s debut poetry collection presents free-verse poems accompanied by illustrations, exploring “themes of heartbreak, womanhood, and trauma from the lens of a queer Asian woman coming of age.”

Have You Seen This Girl, by Nita Tyndall (May 21)

Somehow the second book on this list containing a serial killer dad, this YA thriller is about a nonbinary teen investigating a series of murders targeting young girls in the small town where they live. The murders are copycats of their serial killer dad’s MO. Yikes!

Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir, by Zoë Bossiere

A striking, heartfelt and searing literary memoir with a distinct sense of place, Cactus Country traces Zoë’s life from their family’s move to the Cactus County RV Park in the Sonoran Desert at the age of eleven, as they gradually come to feel more and more like a boy in a place where everybody seems to see them as one. Adolescence brings a deeper understanding of their gender as they grapple with the sexism, racism, substance abuse and violence that surrounds them.They look for answers in a gendered body with androgynous pronouns, a broken heart, and big love.

Cecilia, K-Ming Chang (May 21)

The prolific and expansive author K-Ming Chang pens an erotic novella about a woman named Seven reencountering Cecilia, the woman she has been obsessed with since her school days. Bound to be surreal and sexy like all of Chang’s work, Cecilia is a hotly anticipated release from Coffee House Press.

Shae, by Mesha Maren (May 21)

This intense and intimate queer coming-of-age novel set in small-town West Virginia begins with 16-year-old Shae’s new friendship with Cam, which quickly becomes more. Shae gets pregnant and Cam starts wearing Shae’s old clothing and using female pronouns. As Shae struggles with opioid addiction after a traumatic C-section and Cam continues their transition, both women are challenged to raise their daughter and carve out a fully realized future in rural America.

Exhibit, by R.O. Kwon (May 21)

The always dazzling bestselling author R.O Kwon’s latest novel starts with a spark between Jin Jan, a photographer facing career and marital dilemmas, and Lidija Jung, a ballerina on hiatus with a mysterious path. After meeting at a lavish San Francisco party and staying up all night, a forbidden revelation between them risks everything, and their ongoing relationship uncovers unexpected shared desires.

Perfume & Pain, by Anna Dorn (May 21)

An homage to lesbian pulp of the 1950s, Anna Dorn’s latest work of sapphic chaos is about mid-list and recently canceled author Astrid Dahl gets tied up with some sexy new distractions, including Ivy, a grad student researching lesbian pulp novels. Dorn’s acerbic sense of humor is sure to perfume this tale of LA-set lesbian drama.

Here for the Wrong Reasons, by Annabel Paulsen & Lydia Wang (May 21)

Krystin wants a great man and a nice horse and she’s joined the cast of Hopelessly Devoted to obtain both. But she finds herself mysteriously drawn to Lauren, a contestant who’s definitely there for the wrong reasons —chasing the social media clout to live the life she’s always dreamed of out of the closet. If you read Never Ever Getting Back Together and wanted to read something very similar immediately, then this lesbian rom-com is just the ticket.

A Great Gay Book: Stories of Growth, Belonging & Other Queer Possibilities, by Ryan Fitzgibbon (May 21)

This book dips into the archives of Hello Mr. magazine, presenting a curated series of art, essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, profiles, and photography. The indie mag started in 2012 and had a ten-issue run.

In the Shallows, by Tanya Byrne (May 21)

A fantasy YA romance with a mermaid twist, In the Shallows promises second-chance romance and a paranormal story marked by memory loss.

Susanne Bartsch Presents: Bartschland, by Susanne Bartsch with foreward by RuPaul (May 28)

by Susanne Bartsch with foreword by RuPaul (May 28)

Bartsch’s legendary parties from the late 1980s until the present day reflect the precise spirit of the moment with an eccentric mix of extraordinary people —artists, cabaret stars, drag queens, sex workers, Harlem ball dancers, bodybuilders, twinks, lipstick lesbians. Alongside pals like RuPaul and Amanda Lepore, Bartschland is an opulent window into the moments that shaped her legacy as the city’s “patron saint of transformation and inclusion.”

House Mates, by Emma Copley Eisenberg (May 28)

Author of the brilliant work of nonfiction The Third Rainbow Girl Emma Eisenberg makes her novel debut with House Mates, about, well queer housemates! Set in Philly, the novel tracks the intense friendship that develops between housemates Bernie and Leah, who road trip together to rural Pennsylvania.

The Land is Holy, by noam keim (May 28)

This collection of lyrical essays is an anti-zionist and abolitionist project by queer Arab Jewish writer noam keim. Hanif Abdurraqib describes it as a “collection overrun with generosity.”

The Default World, by Naomi Kanakia (May 28)

This trans novel centers on Jhanvi, who left San Francisco to get sober and is working a job at a grocery co-op to save for surgeries. But she returns to San Francisco with plans to marry her friend Henry for the healthcare benefits. From publisher Feminist Press: “A trans woman sets out to exploit a group of wealthy roommates, only to fall under the spell of their glamorous, hedonistic lifestyle in tech-bubble San Francisco.” Sign us up!