April Queer Books Include Many Celebrating Stonewall at 50

April has arrived and a slew of new queer books are coming out this month, with some real treats celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots which sparked the modern LGBTQ rights movement being released including Penguin Classics publishing The Stonewall Reader, which gathers together first person accounts, diaries and reportage on Stonewall with a forward by noted gay writer Edmund White. There’s also a children’s picture book coming out: Rob Sanders and Jamey Christoph’s Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution(Random House Books for Young Readers) and a gorgeous coffee table book, Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989,  chronicling the effect of Stonewall on queer art and the art world. It’s from Rizzoli, so you know it’s fabulous.

Speaking of gorgeous and fabulous, there’s also the memoir from Gigi Gorgeous, the transgender media star coming out this month. He Said, She Said: Lessons, Stories, and Mistakes from My Transgender Journey explores Gigi’s transformation from a dorky Canadian named Greg to the fabulousness that is Gigi Gorgeous. 

And, Academy Award winning writer Dustin Lance Black is also releasing his memoir, Mama’s Boy: A Story from Our Americas (Knopf) which focuses on his relationship with his mother and his coming out process. 

More on Mama’s Boy:

And, for fans of graphic novelist/artist Jaime Hernandez and local comic/graphic novel publishers Fantagraphics, there’s the release of  Is This How You See Me? this month, his latest “Love & Rockets” book which has been chronicling the lives of a huge cast of Chicano/Chicana characters, (gay and straight) over the last 30+ years. 

In Love and Rockets, Jaime Hernandez has followed the lives of his queer, Chicano cast of characters for over 30 years of romance, heartbreak, and the self-awareness that comes with age. Is This How You See Me? hones in on Jaime’s two most beloved characters, Maggie and Hopey, flashing backward and forward in time to reveal how the passage of time has molded these young LA punks into complex, middle-aged women. An intimate look at how people change and drift apart, yet remain deeply affected by their formative years, Is This How You See Me? brings Hernandez’s L&R series full circle.

Via Lambda Literary, a list of all the April queer books being released:

Fiction

• Clio Rising by Paula Martinac, Bywater Books
• Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard, Algonquin Books
• Crossing by Pajtim Statovci, Pantheon
• The Editor by Steven Rowley, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
• Grievous by H. S. Cross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia edited by Jeff Mann and Julia Watts, West Virginia University Press
• Lie With Me by Philippe Besson, translated by Molly Ringwald, Scribner
• The Melting Queen by Bruce Cinnamon, NeWest Press
• Murmur by Will Eaves, Bellevue Literary Press
• Naamah by Sarah Blake, Riverhead Books
• The Riddle of the Sphinx by Alexandre Montagu, Persepolis Press
• Saints + Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival 2019, edited by Tracy Cunningham & Paul J Willis, Bold Strokes Books
• The Spectators by Jennifer duBois, Random House
• Stella Maris: And Other Key West Stories by Michael Carroll, Turtle Point Press

Nonfiction

• The A-Z of Gender and Sexuality: From Ace to Ze by Morgan Lev Edward Holleb, Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• American Boys by Soraya Zaman, Daylight Books
• Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989, edited by Jonathan Weinberg, Rizzoli Electa
• Crashing Cathedrals: Edmund White by the Book by Tom Cardamone, Itna Press
• Ethan James Green: Young New York by Ethan James Green, Aperture
• The Hub of the Gay Universe: An LGBTQ History of Boston, Provincetown, and Beyond by Russ Lopez, Shawmut Peninsula Press
• Scorpio Rising: A Queer Film Classic by R.L. Cagle, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Sister Stories: In Their Own Words by Heather Jacks & Benjamin Benoit, Noise Beneath the Apple
• The Stonewall Reader by the New York Public Library, Penguin Classics
• White by Bret Easton Ellis, Knopf

LGBT Studies

• America through Transgender Eyes by J. E. Sumerau & Lain A.B. Mathers, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Lesbian Cinema after Queer Theory by Clara Bradbury-Rance, Edinburgh University Press
• Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience by Hilary Malatino, University of Nebraska Press
• Queer Times, Black Futures by Kara Keeling, NYU Press
• Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies by Ann Marie Rasmussen, University of Notre Dame Press
• Romantic Love in America: Cultural Models of Gay, Straight, and Polyamorous Relationships
  by Victor C. de Munck, Lexington Books
• Today’s Transgender Youth: Health, Well-being, and Opportunities for Resilience, edited by Ryan J. Watson & Jaimie F. Veale, Routledge

Young Adult and Children’s Literature

• Belly Up by Eva Darrows, Inkyard Press
• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman, Disney-Hyperion
• The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance by Lynn Curlee, Charlesbridge Teen
• Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
• How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom by S.J. Goslee, Roaring Brook Press
• Love & Other Curses by Michael Thomas Ford, HarperTeen
• Maiden & Princess by Daniel Haack, Isabel Galupo, & Becca Human, little bee books
• A Mark on My Soul by Jordon Greene, Franklin/Kerr Press
• The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown, HarperTeen
• The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston, Quirk Publishing
• The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu, Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Starworld by Audrey Coulthurst & Paula Garner, Candlewick
• Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution by Rob Sanders & Jamey Christoph, Random House Books for Young Readers
• Where the Heart Is by Jo Knowles, Candlewick
• Yay! You’re Gay! Now What?: A Gay Boy’s Guide to Life by Riyadh Khalaf, Lincoln Children’s Books

Romance

• Dangerous Curves by Larkin Rose, Bold Strokes Books
• Knight & Dai by Kay Bigelow, Sapphire Books
• Love’s Portrait by Anna Larner, Bold Strokes Books
• Model Behavior by MJ Williamz, Bold Strokes Books
• Painted Over by Sofi Keren, Bella Books
• Pretending in Paradise by M. Ullrich, Bold Strokes Books
• Recipe for Love: A Farm-to-Table Romance by Aurora Rey, Bold Strokes Books
• Reinventing Lindsey by Maggie Brown, Bella Books
• Smile Number Seven by Melissa Price, Bella Books
• Uninvited by Jane C. Esther, Bold Strokes Books

Graphic Novels/Illustrated Books

• Cannonball by Kelsey Wroten, Uncivilized Books
• Is This How You See Me? by Jaime Hernandez, Fantagraphics Books
• Live Oak, with Moss by Walt Whitman & Brian Selznick, Abrams ComicArts
• Moth & Whisper Vol. 1 by Ted Anderson & Jen Hickman, Aftershock Comics
• A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities by Mady G. & J.R. Zuckerberg, Limerence Press

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

• Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly, Tor Books
• The Book of Flora by Meg Elison, 47North
• A Lover’s Mercy by Fiona Zedde, Ylva Publishing
• Riley Parra: Mere Mortals: Season Three by Geonn Cannon, Supposed Crimes, LLC

Mystery/Thriller

• The Fourth Courier by Timothy Jay Smith, Arcade
• The House by Eden Darry, Bold Strokes Books
• State University of Murder: A Nick Hoffman Mystery by Lev Raphael, Perseverance Press
• Stealth Glasses by Christopher Church, Dagmar Miura
• Survivor’s Guilt and Other Stories: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Greg Herren, Bold Strokes Books
• Wild Justice by Priscilla Royal, Poisoned Pen Press

Bio/Memoir

• 45 Thought Crimes: New Writing by Lynn Breedlove, Manic D Press, Inc.
• A Body in the O: Performances and Stories by Tim Miller, University of Wisconsin Press
• Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma, Penguin Books
• He Said, She Said: Lessons, Stories, and Mistakes from My Transgender Journey by Gigi Gorgeous, Harmony
• Mama’s Boy: A Story from Our Americas by Dustin Lance Black, Knopf
• Native Country of the Heart: A Memoir by Cherríe Moraga, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity by Micah Rajunov & A. Scott Duane, Columbia University Press
• Second Lives, Second Chances: A Surgeon’s Stories of Transformation by Donald R. Laub, ECW Press