LGBTQIA+ Studies / topics Books

Book SynopsisDispensing with the patriarchal bullshit, Kirsty Loehr exposes centuries of outrageous straightwashingTrade Review‘I absolutely adored it, quite literally couldn’t put it down once I started and devoured it in one sitting. It was heartfelt and hilarious, and full of so much love for, not just all lesbians, but all walks of the LGBT+ community. A real witty sucker-punch of lesbian history - reading it is like uncovering a secret; it’s shocking, romantic, infuriating, and all of it clawing at the pages with a need to finally be heard.’ -- Connie Glyn'Fast paced, fun, and delightfully filthy.' -- Kate Lister

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Book Synopsis"One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read" (Mary Gaitskill), iconic rock-and-roll musician Adele Bertei's memoir Twist is her harrowing and electric story of transforming trauma through art, pluck, and imagination, as told through the inimitable voice of her young alter ego, Maddie Twist. From iconoclastic writer and musician Adele Bertei comes a wholly original hero's journey that wages war on the cliche of the "misery memoir." Set in a 1960s and '70s American neighborhood rife with poverty and violence, fatherless Irish mothers and Italian mobsters, and women crucified into madness by misogyny, Bertei speaks through her electrically alive avatar Maddie Twist to flip the victim script. Through her unshakable belief in imagination, poetry, music, and community, she transforms trauma into survival. The immediacy of Maddie's voice is a revelation, providing insight into long-enduring systemic problems without the scrim of adult analysis. In an age of lies and obfuscation, Twist is a sharp yet tender arrow to the heart of naked truth. Bertei reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery could be fatal. Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, Catholic saints, West Side Story and Oliver!, poet killers, the abyss of rape, girl-gangsters and faux-pimps, teenage lesbian sex, racial tensions and misconceived divides, a drag family known as the Holy Maudlins, Vietnam vets in dark and light, cabaret, true family, rock and roll. And the ultimate saving grace: love. A compelling personal history of queer culture from a working-class view and a glimpse into worlds yet unseen, Twist is good medicine: for readers who've experienced similar traumas, for teens caught in the foster care system, for the formerly incarcerated looking for hope, for writers grappling with how to tell their own stories. Most of all, it's for everyone seeking transportive experiences in art and on the page.Trade Review"Twist is one of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read-a story of innocence and brutality, of courage and faith and luck. It is the story of an extraordinary woman-child in an extraordinary time, of devils and angels, trolls under the bridge and unexpected helpers. For all the pain and misfortune in the early life of the intrepid narrator, it is most of all about the connective, transformative power of art and soulful community. Twist is strong and strange poetry; while reading it you may hear music in your head-I did." -Mary Gaitskill "Twist is a dark, demented, horrific and hilarious shot to the heart of American girlhood. Adele Bertei was gender fluid before gender even entered the lexicon. Her writing is miraculous, but the bigger miracle may be that the author survived to write it. And lucky for us she did. This is a book to love." -Jerry Stahl "A powerful look at survival and redemption despite extremely challenging obstacles.... [Bertei] narrates with a zest and objectivity probably only possible from a long temporal remove, and she excels at bringing readers deep into the difficult circumstances of her life.... Throughout the book, Maddie comes across as curious, impulsive, and observant, fond of losing herself in books and brought to life by the music she hears-and creates." -Kirkus (starred review) "This raw, vivid work brings readers into a life of poverty, domestic violence, mental illness, war, and trauma . . . Readers travel with her through her coming-of-age experiences, such as being shunned and punished for her attraction to other girls. She also candidly shares her experiences of sexual violence. After aging out of the foster-care system, the author stumbles but finds her footing in the family she forms with her drag-queen neighbors, her boss at the thrift store, and her love for music and writing. VERDICT Bertei's childhood is harrowing, and her memoir does not hold back on the details, which are horrific at times. But the author sounds her voice loudly in this book, and her sense of self is captured throughout the pages. The end result is likely to captivate readers." -Rebekah Buchanan, Library Journal "Fascinating.... Twist is beautifully written in crystalline prose without judgment or stigmatization. What carries her through is music and singing and Bertei writes memorably about both. This is a story about a gay teenager in the 1960s and early 70s at a time, and in institutions, which had little understanding and less tolerance for gay youth. There are episodes of horrifying brutality and violence against Bertei. Yet the great accomplishment of Twist is that it ends on an uplifting and positive note, as Maddie/Bertei becomes herself-the person we know will go on to be a force in the New Wave No Wave scene in New York.... To be placed on your hit parade." -Tom Teicholz, Forbes "Bertei depicts her relationship with her brilliant mother, who was schizophrenic, with uncommon empathy and grace.... Equal parts raucous and harrowing, Twist gives the reader a glimpse of the formation of a singular, uncompromising artist." -Brendan Dowling, Public Library Association "Once 'the Devil ran through' her family, Maddie free falls from institution to institution, growing into her queerness and discovering her fate-that 'God has to be music.' This riveting novel/memoir by underground icon Adele Bertei situates the making of a survivor rebel against the background of the chaotic side of 1960's America. An honest, hard times page turner filled with heart and revelation." -Sarah Schulman "A harrowing voyage through the cultural tornado of America in the latter part of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of a thoroughly 21st century girl. This book gives serious credence to the expression 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' Very inspirational." -Rufus Wainwright

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Book Synopsis''Powerful and provocative'' - Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the Sunday Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist''A MUST read for any white women who consider themselves feminist'' - Scarlett Curtis, author of the Sunday Times bestselling Feminists Don''t Wear Pink ''An explosive and revelatory argument for deconstructing and confronting the entrenched notions of white supremacy and superiority that still reign today.'' - Mireille Harper ''How is it that we have been so conditioned to privilege the emotional comfort of white people?''White tears possess a potency that is rarely acknowledged or commented upon, but they have long been used as a dangerous and insidious tool against people of colour, weaponised in order to invoke sympathy and divert blame. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep ''ownership'' of their slavesTrade ReviewWhat really makes this book excellent is that its focus is on the experience of women of colour...This is a curtain rising on the masses of women of colour who have individually suffered from the same system yet never before been told that their experience is universal, systemised, and wrong. * BadForm Review *

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Book SynopsisA GUARDIAN AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR''Fascinating.'' NEIL TENNANT''The missing story of the heart of pop.'' JOHNNY MARR''Superb.'' Alexis Petridis''Dazzling.'' GUARDIAN''So much spine, spunk and guts.'' NEW STATESMAN''Utterly engrossing.'' THE WIRE''Erudite.'' OBSERVERA monumental history of the LGBTQ influence on popular culture, from the award-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author.An electrifying look at key moments in music and entertainment history between 1955 and 1979, which helped move gay culture from the margins to the mainstream and changed the face of pop forever from the ambiguous sexuality of stars such as Little Richard in the 1950s through to David Bowie, glam rock and Sylvester's You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)'.The Secret Public is a searching examination of the fortitude and resilience of the gay community through the lens of popular music and culture; it reflects on the freedom found in divergence from the norm and reminds us of the need to be vigilant against those seeking to roll back the rights of marginalised groups.

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Book Synopsis"Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex."Outrageous and violent, SCUM Manifesto was widely lambasted when it first appeared in 1968. Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol, self-published the book just before she became a notorious household name and was confined to a mental institution. But for all its vitriol, it is impossible to dismiss as the mere rantings of a lesbian lunatic. In fact, the work has proved prescient, not only as a radical feminist analysis light years ahead of its time-predicting artificial insemination, ATMs, a feminist uprising against underrepresentation in the arts-but also as a stunning testament to the rage of an abused and destitute woman.In this edition, philosopher Avital Ronell's introduction reconsiders the evocative exuberance of this infamous text.Trade ReviewThe SCUM Manifesto is a document of profound vulnerability, written in a voice of profound empowerment. It's a brutal call to arms, written by a woman in a world of hurt. This tension between powerlessness and power makes it an enduring piece of writing. Never have the personal and the political been so mercilessly zipped together, like little steel teeth. -- Claire Dederer * Nation *Solanas is as relevant today as she was in the 1960s, because nothing much has changed for women. -- Julie Bindel * Spectator *You either happen to think this is a work of unadulterated genius, or you dismiss it as the ravings of a loony psycho-bitch, not understanding that this is exactly what makes it so compelling and so charged with insight. -- Suzanne Moore * New Statesman *Valerie Solanas wrote a very angry and very precise portrait of what she considered the male to be: something between a human and an ape; an unresponsive blob only concerned with physical sensation and without the capacity for empathy or self-knowledge or intimacy, and at the same time full of hatred and jealously and shame and guilt. Her description is beautiful and on some level, I think, entirely accurate. -- Nick CaveIts nihilism is a form of utopia for Solanas, a pre-punk aesthete who fearlessly tossed out ideas that people are just now beginning to raise . As a mixture of social philosophy and fine shtick, her work has the rare virtue of seeming at the same time totally insane and totally right. * Los Angeles Times *As Solanas reminds us, revolutionary ideas don't emerge quietly from the elite stratum of a society; they often bloom from its scum. * Dissent *Articulate, angry and funny. * Guardian *Gleefully incoherent, crackling with energy. * Bookslut *

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Book SynopsisToo many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and/or dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those 'bad gays' whose un-exemplary lives reveals more than we might expect?Part-revisionist history, part-historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, Imperialists, G-men and architects. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America.Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queers villains and evil twinks in history.Trade ReviewWhy must liberatory history be populated by heroes? And what if it isn't? Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller confront the shadowy side of queer history, a seamy underworld populated by evil twinks and psychopathic villains. Delectable gossip aside, this revelatory book is really an account of toxic power relations, always with an eye to a better, stranger, wilder future. -- Olivia Laing, author of EverybodyA wry, rigorous account of centuries of gay villainy. Lemmey and Miller's historiography sparkles with salacious details and delights in showing us that there is nothing new under the sun. -- Shon Faye, Author of The Transgender IssueA smart, funny (and, just occasionally, catty) tour through the darker side of LGBTQ+ history. Far from being an excoriation, this book is a sign of confidence in a community that no longer has to present its antecedents as saints and martyrs but as real people: some of these gays were well-meaning but flawed; some of them were complicated; and some of them were just bloody awful. -- Juliet Jacques, author of VariationsAn antidote to assumptions that anyone oppressed must be the good guy. -- Catherine Fletcher * History Today, Books of the Year *What a great way to do history/think about identity/consider the history of homosexuality. By turns uncomfortable, outrageous and hilarious, this book, taken from the podcast of the same name, was one of my unputdownables of 2022. Looking forward to the next edition already -- Julia Bell * White Review, Best Books 2022 *In examining the lives of these notorious 'bad gays,' the authors examine the ways queerness has been perceived throughout history, and gives modern-day LGBTQ+ people an opportunity to see what the possibilities are going forward. (Also, everyone loves a villain origin story, so who can resist?!) -- David Vogel * Buzzfeed *The historical perspective is fascinating, and the bits of salty gay humor sprinkled throughout liven the proceedings considerably. * Booklist *Bad Gays succeeds in its goals in every way, offering an infuriating, thoughtful, deliciously judgmental history of the very worst we had to offer. -- Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez * Washington Post *Fascinating-and very funny-deep dives into the lives of the most dastardly queer people in history...Bad Gays offers a riveting look back at historical figures whom the present-day LGBTQ+ community might be less eager to reclaim. -- Liam Hess * Vogue *The authors cruise the wilder and darker side of queer history....Well-researched, humorous, they illustrate how the interpretation of homosexuality itself influenced history. -- E. B. Boatner * Lavender Magazine *A provocative argument, one they put forth in a way that's both thorough and entertaining....a who's who of queer nasties through history. -- Michael Hays * The Gay & Lesbian Review *Succeeds in radically rethinking queer history...Bad Gays is ultimately an act of love-most criticism is, after all-and this is made clear in how compellingly Lemmey and Miller write about their vision for the future. -- Eleni Vlahiotis * PopMatters *Dizzyingly eclectic ... offers a wealth of interesting facts and wide-ranging references -- Sarah Sachs-Eldridge * Socialism Today *

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Book SynopsisThe Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a beloved queer utopian text written by Larry Mitchell with lush illustrations by Ned Asta, published by Calamus Press in 1977. Part-fable, part-manifesto, the book takes place in Ramrod, an empire in decline, and introduces us to the communities of the faggots, the women, the queens, the queer men, and the women who love women who are surviving the ways and world of men. Cherished by many over the four decades since its publication, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions offers a trenchant critique of capitalism, assimilation, and patriarchy that is deeply relevant today. This new edition will feature essays from performance artist Morgan Bassichis, who adapted the book to music with TM Davy in 2017 for a performance at the New Museum, and activist filmmaker Tourmaline.Trade ReviewOppression births art, hatred inspires love, and revolutions bring change. It would be easy to say that these are the main ideals Larry Mitchell had in mind when he created the astounding, dangerous, oppressive, and fantastical world of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions—but there is so much more to discover inside the book’s pages, including playful, erotic illustrations by Ned Asta.—Interview Magazine Inspired by Mitchell and Asta’s life in communes such as Lavender Hill in Ithaca, New York, the book feels like a small treasure, a care package from another era providing a witty blueprint in creating chosen family and world-making outside of dominant institutions. Though it was out-of-print for years, The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions was certainly never out of circulation, exchanged between friends and lovers throughout the years.—Filthy Dreams "Beauty is currency; sexuality is sustenance. But more valuable than that is friendship—which usually involves some degree of sexual intimacy. Pleasure will keep you going. So will humor, possibly more effectively."—Slate "First published in 1977 by Mitchell’s own Calamus Press, The Faggots has circulated in PDF form in recent years, shared across the Internet as both queer consolation and fuel for fighting. Nightboat Books has now brought it back into print with introductory essays by filmmaker Tourmaline and performer Morgan Bassichis. Not quite speculative fiction, not quite allegory, and not quite polemic, The Faggots surveys a dystopian empire called Ramrod in its twilight years, where state agents struggle to enforce heteropatriarchal discipline as their kingdom crumbles around them."—The Nation"For years, the book remained out of print, living only as a PDF shuffled between friends. Nightboat Books reprinted the cult classic in 2019. This is a book to read when it’s time to act."—Electric Lit "It’s 1977. The faggots, the women, the fairies and the queens have each other for love, sex and inspiration. They have the natural world, music, the body, feelings, crannies of cities in which to be, believe, touch, dance, dream, fuck, and grow. This was the liberation vision of Larry Mitchell from another time, another consciousness. With this new edition of The Faggots and Their Friends we can remember the collectivity of fun and pleasure and the necessary faith of silly hope as part of our legacy and wish for survival."—SARAH SCHULMAN "Oh! This book is so delicious and timeless! Open the pages, enter the fantastical, familiar empire of Ramrod, and hear someone whisper to you: here are the ways to survive. This is how we have always survived, swallowing every aspect of each other, holding on to each other, becoming more fabulous together. This book instantly awakens in the reader our inner faggots, strong women, queens, queers, fairies...even our men. We are held accountable for how free we are being in our lives, and then we are invited, no, required! to open even more to our own power, our own pleasures, our own revolution. This cult classic is in the lineage of pleasure activism - you must read it and then pass it along to someone who needs to be reminded that their freedom is necessary for all of us. This is a guide and an escape, whimsical and practical. Hit this pipe. Again."—ADRIENNE MARIE BROWN "Arrayed so earthly and erotically against the men, and the Man, and his world; but also before them, and beside them, to show them how to be beside themselves beside the women, the faggots & their friends fuck and style and till and dig so deep down through the sterile danger between revolutions that revolution comes to flower every day, before and after itself, as absolute embrace, a continual folding and holding in their arms. Just imagine what’s real: that there is such a time and place. The faggots & their friends say right here, right now. Larry Mitchell says, say it again!"—FRED MOTEN "We need this book so badly. The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions invites and models the deep grieving, mutual care, love, play, commitment to pleasure, and frivolity that is so essential right now, as we face existential political and environmental crises, increasing numbness, and disconnection. Faggots & Their Friends brings to life the spirit of collective, mirthful invention in the face of dire circumstances that characterized radical experiments of the 1970's, and brings longed-for inspiration to today's fruits and nuts. Best of all, this book is fun, and moving, and sexy. It cultivates our imaginations for surviving the current disasters and creating ways of being together that we desperately crave. This gift from the past is arriving right on time, right when we need it."—DEAN SPADE

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Book SynopsisElizabeth was king, Then James was queen.' English author (1603) James Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly. He fell in love three times once with George Villiers, the handsomest man in the whole world' and he was infatuated three more times including with a Highland earl and an English spy. We have so much on the six wives of Henry VIII, why not the six loves of James I? This groundbreaking new book puts James genius, liar, spendthrift, idealist, witch-hunter and the men he loved at the centre of one of the most dramatic stories in British royal history. Beginning with the brutal and mysterious murder of his father in 1567, James's life encompassed kidnapping, witchcraft trials, torture, his mother's beheading, poison, political radicalism, religious fun

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Book Synopsis“Horror opened me up to new possibilities for survival … I saw power in freakery and transgression and wondered if it could be mine.” The relationship between horror films and the LGBTQ+ community? It’s complicated. Haunted houses, forbidden desires and the monstrous can have striking resonance for those who’ve been marginalised. But the genre’s murky history of an alarmingly heterosexual male gaze, queer-coded villains and sometimes blatant homophobia, is impossible to overlook. There is tension here, and there are as many queer readings of horror films as there are queer people. Edited by Joe Vallese, and with contributions by writers including Kirsty Logan and Carmen Maria Machado, the essays in It Came from the Closet bring the particulars of the writers’ own experiences, whether in relation to gender, sexuality, or both, to their unique interpretations of horror films from Jaws to Jennifer’s Body. Exploring a multitude of queer experiences from first kisses and coming out to transition and parenthood, this is a varied and accessible collection that leans into the fun of horror while taking its cultural impact and reciprocal relationship to the LGBTQ+ community seriously.Trade Review'A brilliant display of expert criticism, wry humor, and original thinking. This is full of surprises.' -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)'A critical text on the intersections of film, queer studies, and pop culture.' -- Booklist (starred review)'An essential look at how spooky movies so often offer solace through subversiveness.' -- Electric Literature'An impressively diverse array of queer voices contributes their opinions on how and why particular horror movies made a personal and indelible impression on them.' -- Bay Area Reporter'A really terrific collection of essays by a great selection and variety of different authors—both fiction authors, poets, and essayists—about the intersection between queer studies and queer identity and horror movies.' -- Gothamist'In this wonderful and only somewhat disturbing book (the subject is horror, after all), queer and trans writers explore the horror films that have shaped them and most reflected their own experiences. Horror, the anthology argues, while often full of misogyny and anti-trans, homophobic tropes, is also uniquely subversive and queer.' -- Shondaland'This book is perfect for exploring the queerness of horror through a kaleido­scopic lens.' -- Them'Weaving elegantly between passages on theory to first sexual encounters and wrenching experiences with a surrogate, the essays take surprising turns and don’t look for easy answers. The movies they take on are as varied as the writing styles and traverse the queer spectrum.' -- Bomb

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Book SynopsisProposes "low theory" as a means of recovering ways of being and forms of knowledge not legitimized by existing systems and institutionsTrade ReviewA lively and thought-provoking examination of how the homogenizing tendencies of modern society might be resisted through the creative application of failure, forgetting, and passivity, actions generally deemed of little value within today's capitalist models of success. . . . [A]s a close reader of popular culture, she is exemplary, and as a valiant attempt to find value in positions and attitudes such as negativity that our modern success-oriented society disdains, this study is never less than thrilling.” - Publishers Weekly“Queer Theory using Spongebob Squarepants? Totally there... Underdogs and shoddy queers can take wordy, erudite solace in Halberstam’s words.” - Gay Times“[H]ere is a book well worth the time and attention it takes to read it and to consider its implications. Most especially in that Judith Halberstam writes not only with authority, but also with genuine wit, which leaves the reader laughing out loud from time to time, something quite unknown until now in books of queer theory. Further, Ms. Halberstam presents her case with deep insight into human nature, and into our deepset cultural need to simplify our definition of the word success—and, up until now, our seeming need to ignore the creative implications of failure.” - Vinton Rafe McCabe, New York Journal of Books“‘All losers are the heirs of those who have lost before them.’ The Queer Art of Failure narrates hilarious and swerving outlaw comedies of refusal, absurdity, and exuberant being, acting in solidarity with its resident artists—from SpongeBob SquarePants to Yoko Ono. But the book hums a dark tone, too. The arts of normative style, playing out on sexual, racialized, gendered, and colonial bodies and landscapes, are painful to witness, even here. No artist or critic can repair the damage, erasing history, but Judith Halberstam wields all of the weapons that intelligence (and cartoons) can bring against the harsh work of conventionality.”—Lauren Berlant, author of Cruel Optimism“The Queer Art of Failure is a manifesto for cultural studies. It self-consciously risks being dismissed or trashed in order to rescue alternative objects of analysis, methods of knowing, and ways of communicating. Its stakes are clear. It’s not attempting to argue for the recovery of its materials from obscurity; it values forgetting and obsolescence. It’s not claiming to retool our understanding of major work; it traffics unapologetically in the minor. And it doesn’t pretend to comprehensive scholarship; it offers up plot summaries and allegorical readings with glee.”—Elizabeth Freeman, author of Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories“The Queer Art of Failure is inspired, provocative, and hilarious. More significantly, it is a deft evisceration of the regulative rigidities of disciplinarity and the pretensions of ‘high theory.’ Judith Halberstam’s advocacy of ‘silly archives’ and ‘low theory’ is much more than a carnivalesque skewering of the earnest self-seriousness of much academic scholarship; it is a populist clarion call for expansive democratic visions of what it is we are writing about and for whom we think we are writing.” —Lisa Duggan, author of The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy“Failure abounds all around us: economies collapse, nation-states falter, and malfeasance rules. In the face of our dismal situation, Judith Halberstam distills and repurposes the negative in order to think outside the tyranny of success. The Queer Art of Failure finds a new vitality in not winning, accumulating, doing, or knowing. Both counterintuitive and anti-anticipatable, this compelling book pushes beyond many of the impasses and blockages that limit our critical horizons today.”—José Esteban Muñoz, author of Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity“Because Halberstam uses pop-culture examples, The Queer Art of Failure is an ideal text for introducing queer theory to beginners. The politics of heteronormativity and sexual dissidence has never appeared as lucid as it does now that we have SpongeBob SquarePants as our guide.” -- Chase Dimock * Lambda Literary Review *“Before the Stonewall Riots, ‘queers’ lurked in the cultural shadows, and Halberstam finds that environment to be fruitful and even revolutionary. This book is guaranteed to be controversial. It would make a good basis for discussion after seeing one of the movies, performances, or bodies of visual pieces that analyzed in its pages.” -- Jean Roberta * Gay & Lesbian Review *“Declaring her intent to celebrate failure in its many forms, Halberstam invigorates this potentially droopy topic with a flair that feels almost inspirational.” -- Monica Nolan * Bitch *“Judith Halberstam . . . is insightful and intellectually brave in places, and makes a significant intervention in the development of queer theory. The Queer Art of Failure is also utterly charming.” -- Robert Eaglestone * Times Higher Education *“[H]ere is a book well worth the time and attention it takes to read it and to consider its implications. Most especially in that Judith Halberstam writes not only with authority, but also with genuine wit, which leaves the reader laughing out loud from time to time, something quite unknown until now in books of queer theory. Further, Ms. Halberstam presents her case with deep insight into human nature, and into our deepset cultural need to simplify our definition of the word success—and, up until now, our seeming need to ignore the creative implications of failure.” -- Vinton Rafe McCabe * New York Journal of Books *“Queer Theory using Spongebob Squarepants? Totally there... Underdogs and shoddy queers can take wordy, erudite solace in Halberstam’s words.” * Gay Times *A lively and thought-provoking examination of how the homogenizing tendencies of modern society might be resisted through the creative application of failure, forgetting, and passivity, actions generally deemed of little value within today's capitalist models of success. . . . [A]s a close reader of popular culture, she is exemplary, and as a valiant attempt to find value in positions and attitudes such as negativity that our modern success-oriented society disdains, this study is never less than thrilling.” * Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsIllustrations ix Acknowledgments xii Introduction: Low Theory 1 1. Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation 27 2. Dude, Where's My Phallus? Forgetting, Losing, Looping 53 3. The Queer Art of Failure 87 4. Shadow Feminisms: Queer Negativity and Radical Passivity 123 5. "The Killer in Me Is the Killer in You": Homosexuality and Fascism 147 6. Animating Failure: Ending, Fleeing, Surviving 173 Notes 189 Bibliography 193 Index 201

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Book Synopsis'Invaluable' RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL 'Refreshingly honest, comprehensive and realistic' MEG-JOHN BARKEREmbarking on a non-monogamous relationship can be a daunting experience, opening old wounds that cause anxiety, fear and confusion, something Lola Phoenix knows about all too well.In this all-you-need-to-know guide to exploring non-monogamy, polyamory and open relationships, Lola draws upon their years of experience in giving advice and being non-monogamous to provide guidance for every stage of your journey, helping you to prioritise your mental health and well being along the way.Beginning with advice on starting out - such as finding your anchor, figuring out your personal reasons for pursuing non-monogamy, challenging your fears and practicing self-compassion - the book proceeds to cover the emotional aspects of non-monogamous relationships, including dealing with jealousy and judgement, managing anxiety and maintaining independence, as well as practical elements such as scheduling your time, negotiating boundaries and managing your expectations, all accompanied with activities for further exploration.Whether you are new to non-monogamy, or have been non-monogamous for years, this insightful and empowering book will provide you with the emotional tools you will need to live a happy non-monogamous life.Trade ReviewA refreshingly honest, comprehensive and realistic guide to navigating non-monogamous relationships of all kinds. Packed with nuance, helpful advice, and self-reflections, this is a gem for new and experienced folk alike, especially those of us living at the intersections of disability, oppression and/or trauma. -- Meg-John Barker, author of How to Understand Your SexualityLola Phoenix guides those living in or curious about ethical non-monogamy in their signature no-bullshit, practical guide to polyamory. A refreshing perspective that incorporates self-reflection, personal growth with partners and an emphasis on mental health - healthy caveats when it comes to navigating all relationships, whether polyamorous or not. -- Jenny Yuen, author of Polyamorous: Living and Loving MoreLola Phoenix uses their longtime expertise in the field of non-monogamy to guide those at all levels through common questions, issues and feelings. This wide-ranging, welcoming and inclusive guide is perfect for anyone thinking about stepping outside of monogamy, and invites readers to fully explore their own relationships, desires and mental health on an ongoing basis. Phoenix offers practical tips around anxiety that readers will find invaluable. -- Rachel Kramer Bussel, author, Sex & Cupcakes: A Juicy Collection of Essays, and editor, The Big Book of OrgasmsThe Anxious Person's Guide to Non-Monogamy is a refreshingly inclusive and trauma-informed guide to polyamory. The advice is practical, honest, and engaging. Lola addresses common issues in polyamory with their unique perspective, accurate analogies, and well-rounded thought exercises. Overall, this book is an excellent addition to the body of polyamorous literature and will serve as a useful guide for both new and seasoned non-monogamists. -- Leanne Yau, non-monogamy educator and advocateLola Phoenix has written a book about nonmonogamy that feels like an old friend - both reassuring and gently challenging. The Anxious Person's Guide to Non-Monogamy is a must read that encourages one to consider power dynamics as well as personal care in a way that is mindful of trauma while also encouraging growth. If I had read this in my twenties I would have potentially avoided years of grief and self blame. A gem. -- Kitty Stryker, editor of Ask: Building Consent CultureTable of ContentsForewordIntroductionWhat Will You Need? What You Will Hear or Read What Will You Do? What Might You Feel? Conclusion

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Book SynopsisMiss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who has survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, Attica Prison, the HIV/AIDS crisis and a world that white supremacy has built. She has shared tips with other sex workers in the nascent drag ball scene of the late 1960s, and helped found one of America's first needle exchange clinics from the back of her van. Miss Major Speaks is both document of her brilliant life-told with intimacy, warmth and an undeniable levity-and a roadmap for the challenges black, brown, queer and trans youth will face on the path to liberation today. Her incredible story of a life lived and a world survived becomes a conduit for larger questions about the riddle of collective liberation. For a younger generation, she warns about the traps of 'representation,' the politics of 'self-care,' and the frequent dead-ends of non-profit organizing; for all of us, she is a strike against those who would erase these histories of struggle. Miss Major offers something that cannot be found elsewhere: an affirmation that our vision for freedom can and must be more expansive than those on offer by mainstream institutions.Trade ReviewTo sit at Miss Major Griffin-Gracy's feet is a gift. I've experienced it firsthand, with her fixed, embracing gaze, her mischievous, generous laugh, and her sharp tongue lashing unfiltered truth without the ache to impress or perform. -- Janet Mock * Out Magazine *The extraordinary insights in this book, always punctuated by Miss Major's razor-sharp wit, allow us to understand how liberation movements for trans, queer and other routinely marginalized people can hold the most emancipatory potential for all. -- Angela Davis, author of Freedom Is a Constant StruggleMiss Major has shaped the world in countless ways from Stonewall to today by being her unruly, fabulous self, leading communities, making time, and caring for and keeping her girls going. Lucky us to live in a moment where she is radiantly shining her light unto us all through this book! -- Tourmaline, artist, writer, and filmmakerThough she has faced many struggles in her eight decades on Earth, Major's resilience, optimism, and often bawdy humor shine through...a powerful and enlightening read. -- Pax Ahimsa Gethen * Trans Writes *[Miss Major's] most vital and resonant message is around self-hood: a continual creation and a journey to be enjoyed. -- Dinyar Godrej * New Internationalist *When a figure such as Major speaks, you cannot help but eat each and every single word up. -- Tara Okeke * The Skinny *Miss Major is an icon of Black trans womanhood. -- McKenzie Wark * LIBER *Miss Major has been a crucial source of hope and support to many trans people ... In some ways, this book is a new version of the community building and emotional support that is Miss Major's life's work. -- Vic Parsons * Huck *Major has played the role of lifeline and saviour to countless trans daughters ... [Miss Major Speaks] tracks her frontline learnings from community work, sex work, and her experiences of incarceration both in prison and in mental health facilities. -- Amelia Abraham * Dazed *Miss Major speaks with such profound wisdom, highlighting the realities for Black trans women and how much the mainstream LGTBQ+ movement has left the most vulnerable behind.If there is a book to read and someone to listen and learn from, it's Miss Major. -- Elliot Page * Oprah Daily *Miss Major Speaks is part biography, part interview and is full of Miss Major spitting truths and laying it down like it is....Change-making seems possible and even easy after reading Miss Major's words. -- Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware * Xtra Magazine *Major's personality shines through unfiltered ... Her perspective has never been more pertinent. -- Felix Moore * openDemocracy *

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Book Synopsis"Rooted in historical, site-based, narrative, and political accounts, Full Surrogacy Now is the seriously radical cry for full gestational justice that I long for. This kind of gestation depends on realizing the implications of knowing that we all actually, materially, make one another, and that this labor continues to be exploited, extracted, and alienated-unequally-at every turn in Capitalism and Patriarchy. Full of brilliant, generative, and also shamelessly biting critique of both bourgeois and communist tracts, feminist and otherwise, Lewis's voice is unique and bracing. I need it; it fills my whole self with reimagined possibilities for making oddkin who are not property. Lewis set out to write an immoderate, utopian, partisan, anti-authoritarian communist defense of surrogates and surrogacy in ramifying registers of meanings and practices, and she has succeeded. Lewis asks the necessary questions, 'Can we parent politically, hopefully, nonreproductively-in a comradely way?' Can we become full surrogates for and with each other? In a book full of fierce demystifications and sharp dissections of injustice masquerading as humanitarianism, nonetheless Lewis convincingly and radically affirms: 'Everywhere about me, I can see beautiful militants hell-bent on regeneration, not self-replication.'"- Donna HarawayTrade ReviewGiving birth is commonly called labor. What happens if all of human pregnancy and gestation is thought from the labor point of view? That's the challenge of Full Surrogacy Now. If it is all labor, then how can that labor be freed from now global regimes of colonial and commodity exploitation? Lewis takes one of the most everyday things about being human and thinks it through from the point of view of a cyborg communism. This book goes far into places where few gender abolitionists have ventured and brings us a vision of another life. -- McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker ManifestoFull Surrogacy Now is more than an intervention, it is a landmark text of visionary feminist thinking. Sophie Lewis tears down decades of essentialist and contradictory presumptions on labor, motherhood and ownership to offer us the possibility of new ways to live with and for each other. This book is as breathtaking as it is necessary. -- Natasha LennardFull Surrogacy Now arrived and I could not stop reading. The crises of our time are crises of reproduction. Radical that she is, Sophie Lewis gets right to the root of the matter--and, radical that she is, finds its roots to be intersecting and entangled, "lovely, replicative, baroque", as one of her own gestators, Donna Haraway, might put it. But the gestator? Lewis moves expertly through decades of debates, as well as a rapidly growing body of empirical research, on surrogacy to carry us beyond the by-now familiar refrain that this or that activity "is work." Her goal could hardly be more ambitious: to rethink the "natural" gestation that every one of us comes from. I will reread this book for the sense it gives me that new ways of making one another and the world new might, in fact, be possible. Its verve and wit make me feel sure that Lewis' reproductive commune will be fun. -- Moira Weigel, author of Labor of Love: The Invention of DatingAn instructive and moving book about the work of babymaking and the best possible future for birthing and raising children. It offers both a convincing polemic about surrogacy's past and present, and a vision of how to make it both more common and more mutually beneficial. Lewis treats surrogacy as a signal example of what will be integral to any common human flourishing to come: unmaking gender and the family as we know them, to build new kinds of sociality and care for what is not "biologically" "ours." I was floored by it. -- Sarah Brouillette, author of Literature and the Creative EconomySophie Lewis is at the top of a new generation of scholars and activists thinking the transformation of gestational labor within contemporary pharmacopornographic capitalism. Neither simply natural nor banally cultural, gestation appears as the unthought core of gender and sexual politics, and the key of a forthcoming womb revolution: trans-Marx meets mammal's politics! -- Paul B. Preciado, author of Testo JunkiePregnancy. Babies. Families. Nature itself. Like capitalism, communism knows no bounds. Relentless in the task of seizing of the means of reproduction, Sophie Lewis is the Right's worst nightmare. -- George Ciccariello-Maher, author of Building the CommuneSophie Lewis and her expansive vision of feminism are desperately needed right now. She makes the work of undoing what "womanhood" has come to mean look possible and irresistible. -- Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the WhoreDazzling -- Jenny Turner * London Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisA unique first-hand account of a historical gay trans man's whole life, which reads like a celebratory coming-of-age novel. Lou kept candid diaries from the age of 10. Through these extracts, we hear Lou's life in his own words: from 'playing boys' in his childhood in Wisconsin, to cruising San Francisco's gay bars for handsome 'youngmen'; from first hearing about gender non-conforming communities, to becoming a vital part of them as an activist, author, and archivist. Lou navigated his identity with few role models and was perhaps the first publicly gay transgender man. Successfully campaigning to remove heterosexuality from the medical requirements for gender affirming surgery, Lou was pivotal in our modern understanding of gender and sexuality as distinct identities. After he was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, he remarked that he had been told by clinics that 'it was impossible for me to live as a gay man, but it looks like I'm gonna die like one.' This selection shows Lou's joyous love of life, men, and sex. * LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER * * PUBLISHING TRIANGLE FINALIST * WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SUSAN STRYKER 'Chatty and tender, casually poetic and voraciously sexual-Sullivan workshopped his identity and his relationships, committing to the page an interior monologue of self-discovery that paralleled the gay-liberation movement, the burgeoning transgender-rights movement, and the aids crisis... Given how many contemporary trans narratives are rooted in trauma, their choice to foreground trans pleasure and sensuality is celebratory, even radical' The New YorkerTrade ReviewCelebratory, even radical * The New Yorker *Monumental * Hyperallergic *Lou is an open-book mystery, a man who built bridges of access, a gentle soul with whom I share similar demons -- Amos Mac * them *This finely edited collection pulls out threads like gender self-determination, illicit queer sexual desire, and relationship woes that span his entire life. The volume reads like an open letter written for future queer trans people longing to understand their identities and experiences across time and space -- Chris VargasThis is a great book by a great person...If I am perhaps too glowing in my praise of Lou, that's probably because I can't physically imagine myself without him -- Charlie Markbreiter * Bookforum *

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Book SynopsisAt the end of his last adventure (Belle Nash and the Bath Souffle), Belle Nash was banished for four years to the island of Grenada. It is now 1835, and Belle has returned to Bath, glad to be back but pained by the absence of his most recent Caribbean love. His heartache leads to confusions when he meets Pablo Fanque, the Black equestrian acrobat from Norfolk who longs to set up his own circus. As a well-loved figure in Bath, Belle uses his influence to try and help, but has to run the gauntlet of Lord Servitude, the most hated man in England and a die-hard supporter of slavery. As ever, William Keeling's whimsical tale brings Belle, his gay hero, into a situation where comedy does not obscure stark moral issues to do with prejudice and bigotry that are as alive today as they were in Regency times.Trade ReviewOf the author's first novel: 'A real romp of a book - full of surprises!' (Alexander McCall Smith). 'Funny, clever, silly in the right way, and strangely moving in its unexpected ending. I love the alt-Regency Bath universe Keeling has built' (Jeanette Winterson). 'By turns incisive, outlandish and hilarious! ... There's a brilliance in The Gay Street Chronicles, half-modern, half-Dickensian' (Matthew Parris). 'Bravo! A rollicking tale of corruption, intrigue and romance. A racy read!' (Peter Tatchell). 'An unputdownable Regency frolic!' (Jane Ridley). 'A triumph!' (Michael Holman)

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Book SynopsisA unique and compelling collection of memoir and personal stories by Arab LGBTQ+ writers edited by the Arab-Australian journalist, Elias Jahshan.Trade Review'A wonderful collection of stories, of people unshackled, of tongues untied. This surprising book allows the deliberately silenced and the preferably unheard to speak. Profoundly moving and uplifting. Yes, This Arab is Queer.' Rabih Alameddine;'Visionary. A powerful and moving portrait of life as a queer Arab.' Sabrina Mahfouz;'A vital addition to what it means to be Arab. This collection showcases the magnificent diversity and richness of Arab identity.' Layla AlAmmar;'A heartfelt, moving collection, unflinching in its vulnerability, courageous and empowering in its honesty. These writers hold our gaze, demanding to be seen, on their own terms.' Yassmin Abdel-Magied

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Book SynopsisNorah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a man's world. Vincent spent a year and a half disguised as her male alter ego, Ned, exploring what men are like when women aren't around. As Ned, she joined a bowling team, took a high-octane sales job, went on dates with women (and men), visited strip clubs, and even managed to infiltrate a monastery and a men's therapy group. At once thought-provoking and pure fun to read, Self-Made Man is a sympathetic and thrilling tour de force of immersion journalism.Trade ReviewThis captivating account will forever change the way you see men - and perhaps yourself * Marie Claire *An addictive, enthralling read...breathtaking -- Viv Groskop * Observer *Beautifully written...a brave and fascinating book * Sunday Times *Funny, compelling and human -- Sarah Vine * The Times *Intelligent, articulate and perceptive... one of the most sympathetic renderings of masculinity you're likely to read -- Lionel Shriver * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisPolari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when being gay could result in criminal prosecution – or worse – Polari offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage, a way of expressing humour, and a means of identification and of establishing a community. Its roots are colourful and varied – from Cant to Lingua Franca to prostitutes’ slang – and in the mid-1960s it was thrust into the limelight by the characters Julian and Sandy, voiced by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, on the BBC radio show Round the Horne (‘Oh Mr Horne, how bona to vada your dolly old eke!’). Paul Baker recounts the story of Polari with skill, erudition and tenderness. He traces its historical origins and describes its linguistic nuts and bolts, explores the ways and the environments in which it was spoken, explains the reasons for its decline, and tells of its unlikely re-emergence in the twenty-first century. With a cast of drag queens and sailors, Dilly boys and macho clones, Fabulosa! is an essential document of recent history and a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy and ingenious language.Trade Review'One of the most enjoyable books on the subject this year was Paul Baker’s Fabulosa!, an excavation of the now pretty well lost gay language of Polari, richly evocative and entertaining.'- Philip Hensher, The Guardian, 'As a fag-hag of some vintage, I enjoyed this illuminating look at Polari – a language used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the 20th century. There's a fascinating look at it origins, from Cant to lingua franca, and from Italian to Romany; and its usage, from slang spoken by prostitutes to perhaps its most celebrated outing, by characters Julian and Sandy in the classic 1960s radio show "Round the Horne".'- The Bookseller, Editor's Choice, 'Though a language smacking of Carry On films and saucy seaside postcards, it’s the tragic torment and harassment that gave rise to Polari in the first place that must not be forgotten and which is why this book is important.'- Daily Mail, 'Baker’s intriguing and often amusing book is the work of a writer interested in language who has been led by his subject to think about social oppression . . . [he] writes well about the milieux in which Polari flourished – the theatre and the merchant navy. He is especially acute on the political uses of vulgar innuendo . . . And Baker’s interviews radiate warmth and good humour.'- The Spectator, 'Polari, like some admirably resilient weed, will not die . . . It is as much for its vocabulary as for its sociological vagaries that we read Baker’s always illuminating book . . . Fabulosa!'- Jonathon Green, The Telegraph, 'Baker tells the history of Polari with pride, passion and humour, making clear that camp can be “deliciously political”. Fabulosa! is an important celebration of Polari’s message – which is about laughing at your flaws, creating hope from tragedy, and seeing humour in the face of cruelty and oppression.'- London Magazine, 'Baker intersperses his account with snippets of interviews with Polari speakers, whose first-hand recollections are invariably arresting and funny. He is partial to a spot of innuendo himself, and manages to slip one in every now and then . . . [T]here is some evidence that the language persisted into the 1980s and ’90s in theatre circles, and it continues to enjoy a healthy afterlife as a cultural curio – of which this delightful book is just one manifestation.'- Financial Times, '[Baker] is especially strong on the changing attitude towards polari within the gay community in the 70s and 80s, and on the important reclamation performed by the The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. While the subject of Julian and Sandy is well-trodden ground, his approach feels fresh, and the personal interludes add to the narrative without being overly intrusive. Fabulosa! is also an excellent primer for would-be polari speakers.'- MinorLiteratures.com, 'Brilliant, readable nonfiction is out there too . . . for those who want to be in the know, Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language by Paul Baker is a compelling history of the linguistic lengths to which gay people had to go to hide in plain sight within an aggressively homophobic culture.'- Observer Summer Reading chosen by David Bloomfield of Golden Hare Books, 'For anyone interested in finding out more about Polari, Fabulosa! provides a thought-provoking, in-depth look at how the language came about and fell in – and out – of favour with the gay community.'- Press Association Reviews, 'Fabulosa! is important, informative and engaging. A multifaceted foray into the roots, uses and contexts of Polari is hardly something you see published very day . . . it makes for informative and entertaining reading.'- Medium.com, 'A funny and joyous insight into the story of Polari . . . Fabulosa! Is a fascinating and fantastically readable account of this funny, filthy and ingenious language . . . This is an essential book for anyone who wants to Polari bona!'- Attitude, 'For anyone interested in finding out more about Polari – Britain's "secret gay language", Fabulosa! Provides a thought-provoking look at how the language came about and fell in and out of favour with the gay community from the days when homosexuality was illegal . . . Paul Baker details how Polari was based on a mixture of sources, including the common sailors' language of lingua franca and thieves' cant.'- i newspaper

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2024LONGLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2024The radical, joyful follow-up to the Goldsmiths Prize-winning Sterling Karat Gold.This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer on the cusp of a windfall, courtesy of the Social Evils prize committee, for whom the actual gong - and with it the prize money - remains tantalizingly out of reach.Neon beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with partner Drew and surprise eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular detour through their childhood in the Forest - via an unlikely stint on reality TV. Navigating those twin horrors, through wormholes and time loops, Corey learns - the hard way - the difference between a prize and a gift.Both radiant and revolutionary, Isabel Waidner''s fiction gleefully takes a hammer to false binaries, boundaries and borders, turning walls into bridges and words into wings. Fierce, fluid andTrade Review[The] writer everyone is talking about . . . and deservedly so . . . Their explosive sensibility and style are as far removed from mediocre prose and middle-class manners as you can imagine -- Bernardine EvaristoBuckle up! Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is a head-spinning, mind-bending roller coaster of fun, horror, and subversion. I love it -- Kamila ShamsieThe fantastical and the familiar merge in this energetic inquiry into class politics and cultural capital . . . Since their debut novel, Gaudy Bauble, in 2017, Waidner's writing has been admired for its remarkable innovation, unflinching political vision, vivid language and, frankly, hilarious charm . . . It is tempting to predict that this book, which gives a whole new dimension to the idea of the zeitgeist . . . will see Waidner step on to the podium once more -- Lara Pawson * Guardian *With each book, they get better and better. Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is that rare thing: An authentically radical novel that is joyful and hilarious -- Merve EmreA radical, rebellious novel . . . [Waidner] brings a fresh lens to our troubled world . . . A biting, state of the nation work that raises the profile of civilisation's appointed underdogs and challenges the status quo of binary consciousness . . . bold, feisty work -- Em Strang * Observer *[It is] rare to find a novel with real stylistic and political ambition -- Zadie Smith * Guardian *[A] sprightly novel . . . [Waidner] mischievously challenges received notions of social mobility -- Ellen Peirson-Hagger * The New Statesman *Filled with wickedly sharp commentary and well-aimed digs at hypocrisy and injustice . . . Waidner's idiosyncratic prose [paints] terrifying, transcendent and topsy-turvy images . . . Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is, perhaps surprisingly, both sentimental and optimistic in its depiction of love (for ourselves and those around us) as a radical act -- Alice Wadsworth * The Times Literary Supplement *It's beginning to look like there's nothing the immensely talented Waidner can't do * Kirkus (starred review) *Waidner's original prose spins fantastical imagery with social commentary * Frieze *A dazzlingly original satirical novel about a writer on the edge of glory but struggling to get their hands on the prize * Harper's Bazaar *Waidner gifts us with another wild and radical tale * Hero 'Essential Reading' *A bitingly sharp social satire * Marie Claire *

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Book SynopsisAN EXTRAORDINARILY MOVING AND ORIGINAL MEMOIR OF GROWING UP GAY AND DISABLED IN 1980s LONDONSHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2023 When Emmett de Monterey is eighteen months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Words too heavy for his twenty-five-year-old artist parents and their happy, smiling baby.Growing up in south-east London in the 1980s, Emmett is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. At his mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and he loses a stone from the effort of getting up the stairs. At his sixth form college for disabled students, he''s told he will be expelled if the rumours are true, if he''s gay.And then Emmett is chosen for a first-of-its-kind surgery in America which he hopes will ''cure'' him, enable him to walk unaided. He hopes for a miracle: to walk, to dance, to be able to leave the house when it rains. To have a body that''s eTrade ReviewVivid, engaging... this insightful memoir sheds light on the author's life as a disabled gay man who is often rendered invisible -- Andrew McMillan * Guardian *A frank and intimate memoir written with an incredible clear-eyed intensity * Claire Fuller *The magic of Emmett De Monterey's book is its disarming accessibility. Compulsive reading, unique, this beautifully crafted work is suffused with depth, affection, and remarkable observations. De Monterey is a profoundly gifted writer. * Charlotte Fox Weber *Exploring the reality of growing up gay and disabled in 1980s London, this beautiful memoir is as uplifting as it is devastating, and as funny and wise as it is profound. * iNews *Astonishing, illuminating and enriching. * Matt Cain *

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Book Synopsis **A 2024 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST**“Zachary Zane is one of the best sex writers working today.” —Dan Savage, New York Times bestselling author Named a Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of the Year by BuzzfeedA sex and relationship columnist bares it all in a series of essays—part memoir, part manifesto—that explore the author’s coming-of-age and coming out as a bisexual man and move toward embracing and celebrating sex unencumbered by shame. As a boy, Zachary Zane sensed that all was not right when images of his therapist naked popped into his head. Without an explanation as to why, a deep sense of shame pervaded these thoughts. Though his therapist assured him a little imagination was nothing to be ashamed of, over the years, society told him otherwise.Boyslut is a series of personal and tantalizing essays that articulate how our society stil

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Book SynopsisIn 1939 the writer Enid Barraud, disillusioned with her city life, left London and went to live in a village in Cambridgeshire, joining what became known as The Women's Land Army, one of thousands of women who worked the land, while war raged overhead and abroad. In her recently rediscovered memoir, Set My Hand Upon The Plough, first published in 1946, Enid writes with remarkable candour and honesty about her life on the farm on the Home Front. Barraud preferred to identify as male, was known to the other farm workers as John, and lived with her female partner. The book now joins the ranks of important LGBT memoirs and casts new light on the lives of men and women who fought or worked for the liberation of Europe. This new edition has an introduction by Luke Turner, author of Out of the Woods and Men at War.

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Book Synopsis50 years of Pride in the words of those who changed the world. Half a century has passed since 2,000 people marched in the very first Pride march, in New York City. It was a moment when the LGBT+ community rose up against centuries of hatred and persecution, spawning a global movement and the Pride parades that now take place around the world. The Little Book of Pride is a collection of quotes that captures the voices of those who have played a key part in the long journey to a place of Pride – from the very first pioneers, to those who took the fight into the streets of the Stonewall riots, and right up to today's movers and shakers. 'Your lives matter. Your voices matter. Your stories matter.' Actress and trans activist Laverne Cox at the Goldern Globes Awards, 2016. 'If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.' Tape recording left by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay US politician, murdered in 1978.Table of ContentsQueer Pioneers • The Road to Stonewall • Setbacks and Victories • Global Pride • The Fight Goes On.

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Book SynopsisBold, bright and fabulous just like you! This vibrant sticker book includes 200+ Pride themed stickers, featuring rainbows, Pride flags, pronouns and empowering slogans, all beautifully illustrated to be a source of inspiration, whether you're gay, bi, queer, intersex, trans, non-binary or an ally.Stick a rainbow on your laptop, a slogan on your water bottle or a Pride symbol in your journal, these stickers are a colourful and powerful reminder to take pride in yourself and the LGBTQIA+ community. Technical Information: 200+ StickersSmall, medium and largeDurable and glossyNot suitable for children under three years due to small parts.Trade ReviewLGBTQIA+ Pride Sticker Book is an essential for any queer person or ally. Every part of our rainbow is represented in Ollie Mann's vibrant and charismatic art! -- DOM & INK (Dominic Evans), freelance illustrator and author of 'Free to Be Me' and 'Queer Power'

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Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgard. A writer of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen wrote just two novels, published here, and a handful of short stories. Critically acclaimed, both speak powerfully of the contradictions and restrictions experienced by black women at that time. Quicksand, written in 1928, is an autobiographical novel about Helga Crane, a mixed race woman caught between fulfilling her desires and gaining respectability in her middle class neighbourhood. Written a year later, Passing tells the story of two childhood friends, Clare and Irene, both light skinned enough to pass as white. Reconnecting in adulthood, Clare has chosen to live as a white woman, while Irene embraces black culture and has an important role in her community. Nella Larsen's novels are moving, characterful, and important books. She pioneered writing about the conflicts of sexuality, race and the secret suffering of women in the early twentieth century.Trade ReviewQuicksand and Passing are novels that I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating and indispensable -- Alice WalkerHighly charged interior dramas of the black middle class in Harlem [by] an original and hugely insightful writer * New York Times *Quicksand does not just explore the contradictory terrain of women and romance; its sexual politics tear apart the very fabric of the romance form -- Hazel Carby, Yale UniversityDiscovering The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it. One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt -- Maya AngelouThese are precious and unusual works * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisIn this twentieth anniversary edition of Female Masculinitywhich features a new preface by the authorJack Halberstam uncovers a hidden history of female masculinities, cataloging the diversity of gender expressions among masculine women from nineteenth-century pre-lesbian practices to contemporary drag king performances.Trade Review“[Halberstam] steers herself admirably between the subtle and not so subtle interactions between the personal and theoretical.” -- Millissa Deitz * Screening the Past *“[R]efreshing . . . . Halberstam forces us to look at familiar texts and problems in fresh ways and leaves room for future scholarship to expand her critical insights. . . . [S]he has taken on a vast project and is clearly committed to sketching the contours of many possible approaches to female masculinity rather than dwelling on one or two . . . .[A]ccessible and enlightening . . . .” -- Rachel Adams * GLQ *“A significant contribution to a growing genre of feminist analyses of masculinity. . . . Female Masculinity's greatest strength lies in its scope. . . . [It] should rank among our most important, sophisticated feminist analyses of the way maleness is constructed in Western culture. Because of its focus on specifically lesbian contributions to masculinity, Halberstam's book surpasses its predecessors in its special relevance to lesbian readers. Finally (and perhaps most importantly for Halberstam's peers), because of her book's attention to both popular and high art subjects, Female Masculinity is an important contribution to the growing field of Cultural Studies.” -- Heather Findlay * Lesbian Review of Books *“Halberstam’s refusal to work within the ‘difference’ paradigm raises a series of exciting questions . . . . Female Masculinity takes on everything from eighteenth-century frictioners (tribades) to mustachioed drag kings like Mo B. Dick and Buster Hymen to transgender dykes. Halberstam argues convincingly that there has been persistent bias against masculine women in the lesbian community and in lesbian criticism. Moreover, she uses the example of the masculine woman to suggest that lesbians need a subtler vocabulary for sexuality and gender. . . .” -- Heather Love * Transition *“In this landmark study, Halberstam consolidates her position as a key theorist within Queer scholarship. Female Masculinity is an immensely persuasive, powerfully-written text that imparts exciting and important theoretical ideas. It constitutes a valuable initial challenge to those in feminism and cultural studies who conflate masculinity with maleness, and offers an inspiring start for ongoing study.” -- Maria Antoniou * Feminist Theory *"[A] unique offering in queer studies: a study of the masculine lesbian woman. Halberstam makes a compelling argument for a more flexible taxonomy of masculinity, including not only men, who have historically held the power in society, but also women who embody qualities that are usually associated with maleness, such as strength, authority, and independence." * Library Journal *"Halberstam’s book can be added to the list of important studies of masculinity and femininity. . . . Along with Judith Butler, Terry Castle, Sue-Ellen Case, and Eve K. Sedgwick, Halberstam—especially in her previous work on masculinity and lesbianism—is already established as one of the most thought-provoking voices in queer studies. This book will only enhance that reputation. Female Masculinity should find a wide readership. . . ." * Choice *"Judith Halberstam’s Female Masculinity is truly a pioneering document which disrupts eras of silence surrounding this topic. . . . [S]he crafts her language in a very inviting and accessible manner. She is clearly trying to be understood, which is a refreshing change from too many academic works. In addition, she infuses humor and little personal preferences or irritations (mostly through colorful adjective choices) into the middle of serious analysis, which makes the whole academic process more interesting and less elusive. . . . Whether you agree or disagree with her choices, the ideas are definitely stimulating. It is a book you’ll want to sit down with your friends and talk about. You find yourself overjoyed at one moment that someone has finally written down exactly what you’ve felt but haven’t been able to articulate, and in the next moment irritated because you think she’s mistaken. It is essentially an opening to the major taboo of masculinity in women . . . . [T]he genuine enthusiasm she brings to her research is catchy and this book could very well be the catalyst for expanding a whole field of thought. And, on a personal level, it simply affirms our lives and ideas." * Gay and Lesbian Times (San Diego) *"Judith Halberstam’s new book, Female Masculinity, is an extraordinary and studied work that carefully presents an analysis of gender, and more specifically, masculinity, without over-simplification or narrow definition. . . . This is the most thorough and broad-visioned work on female masculinity that I have yet seen. Halberstam’s work is an essential contribution to our increasing understanding of gender expression and its relationship to biology and sexual orientation, as well as to everything else." * Lambda Book Report *"There is a need for this book; Halberstam’s analysis offers the reader a fresh and positive spin on the much maligned stone butch figure, for example, and the book contains an interesting selection of photos of drag kings, transgender, and butch women. There are long sections detailing butch characters in film and modern drag performers, an area on which little has been written." * Siren *"Female Masculinity is a full-on attack on the idea that masculinity is exclusively—or even primarily—the property of men. . . . [It] aims to help restore a sense of butch pride, and to validate the entitlement of women to their own masculinity. . . . There’s an interesting defense of the stone butch, more often cast as a damaged and dysfunctional figure, and a walk along the debated borders between butch lesbians and female to male transsexuals. An accessible chapter on butch representation in film observes the emasculation of butches in mainstream productions—Fried Green Tomatoes, Desert Hearts—and there’s a useful analysis of what’s at stake in the drag king club acts in America and the UK. . . . [This is] the first full-length study in a crucial area and it’s a great starting point." * Diva *Table of ContentsIllustrations ix Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition xi Preface xxiii 1. An Introduction to Female Masculinity: Masculinity without Men 1 2. Perverse Presentation: The Androgyne, the Tribade, the Female Husband, and Other Pre-Twentieth-Century Genders 45 3. "A Writer of Misfits": John Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse of Inversion 75 4. Lesbian Masculinity: Even Stone Butches Get the Blues 111 5. Transgender Butch: Butch/FTM Border Wars and the Masculine Continuum 141 6. Looking Butch: A Rough Guide to Butches on Film 175 7. Drag Kings: Masculinity and Performance 231 8. Raging Bull (Dyke): New Masculinities 267 Notes 279 Bibliography 307 Filmography 319 Index 323

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Book SynopsisA fascinating and thoughtful exploration of faith in the modern world. If you're wondering why it matters and how to make sense of it, read on.' Clare BaldingIs it possible to believe in God and be gay? How does it feel to be excluded from a religious community because of your sexuality? Why do some people still believe being LGBT is a sin?The Book of Queer Prophets contains modern-day epistles from some of our most important thinkers, writers and activists: Jeanette Winterson tackles religious dogma, Amrou Al-Kadhi writes about trying to make it as a Muslim drag queen in London, John Bell writes about his decision to come out later in life, Tamsin Omond remembers getting married in the middle of a protest and Kate Bottley explains her journey to becoming an LGBT ally.Essays from: Jeanette Winterson, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Garrard Conley, Juno Dawson, Rev. Winnie Varghese, Keith Jarrett, Jay Hulme, Lucy Knight, Tamsin Omond, Erin Clark, Michael Segalov, JaTrade Review‘A fascinating and thoughtful exploration of faith in the modern world. If you’re wondering why it matters and how to make sense of it, read on.’ CLARE BALDING ‘This book will make you cry, but it will also have you cheering. Crying, because it will remind you of religion’s ancient and enduring quality towards the queer, the different, the other. Cheering, because it is now religion that’s in the dock, with God as the judge. And God loves queers. Wonder what the verdict will be…’ RICHARD HOLLOWAY, Sunday Times best selling author of Leaving Alexandria ‘A beautiful, powerful, personal and provocative book. An important one too. I laughed and gasped and learned from these stories of resistance, insistence, truth and love.’ COLE MORETON, author and journalist ‘This is a book that should be in every school, and probably handed out in every places of worship, too.’Andrew McMillan, OBSERVER ‘Each story is powerful and personal … The Book of Queer Prophets celebrates the transcendental connection between spirituality and religion.’ DIVA MAGAZINE ‘Simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting. A raw and honest look at religion, gender, and sexuality.’ BOOK RIOT ‘This is a fine book. The Queer Prophet’s struggle is wet with tears and stiff with courage. I loved just being there with them, listening to their witness, their story. As a heterosexual man theirs is a world I barely know – to be invited in is a privilege and a joy.’ PETER OWEN-JONES author of Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim

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Book SynopsisA history of the Stonewall riots, the first Gay Rights March, and the LGBTQ activists at the centre of the movement.

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Book SynopsisIt''s time to give queer minds the attention they deserve.As a non-binary and queer psychotherapist, Katy Lees knows how crucial it is to feel seen and supported as a queer person with mental health challenges. Drawing on their own experiences and featuring interviews with other queer mental health advocates and experts, this book offers insight on everything from the psychiatric system, navigating eating disorders as a queer person, autistic queer liberation, radical community care, as well as dreaming, healing, and navigating hardship.Filled with joy and hope, but not shying away from the challenges, this book brings the lived experiences of queer people into focus and gives practical advice on finding comfort and connection. It features interviews with Sage Stephanou, Emily Waldron, Gem Kennedy, Jess Sprengle, LJ Potter, Lucy Fox, Stef Sanjati and more.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE T S ELIOT PRIZE 2021. The female body is a political space. C+nto enters the private lives of women from the butch counterculture, telling the inside story of the protests they led in the '90s to reclaim their bodies as their own - their difficult balance between survival and self-expression. History, magic, rebellion, party and sermon vibrate through Joelle Taylor's cantos to uncover these underground communities forged by women. Part-memoir and part-conjecture, Taylor explores sexuality and gender in poetry that is lyrical, expansive, imagistic, epic and intimate. C+nto is a love poem, a riot, a late night, and an honouring.Trade Review'Joelle Taylor has produced one of the most astonishing and original poetry collections of recent years.' Bernardine Evaristo, New Statesman Books of the Year 2021;'A real treat ... inventive, powerfully moving work.' The Telegraph;'Visionary and powerful. I loved it.' Hollie McNish;'Absolutely incredible ... A celebration and a tribute to the dyke bars and the butches who left their mark ... This is work that should not be missed.' Diva Magazine, Book of the Month;'A reclamation and a proclamation. A book and a performance. A roll call and a remembrance. A tribute and a critique, not just for the Lesbian community, but for anyone who has had to struggle to establish their life and identity. A powerful celebration of an important culture.' Roger Robinson;'An altar of a book. Joelle Taylor has an unmatched gift as a poet, memoirist and chronicler.'Inua Ellam; 'A work of fearsome imaginative and creative reach ... sonorous and soaring poetry.'Fran Lock, Culture Matters;

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Book SynopsisA revealing and beautifully open memoir from pioneering industrial music artist, visual artist, and transgender icon Genesis P-Orridge. In this groundbreaking book spanning decades of artistic risk-taking, the inventor of “industrial music,” founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, and world-renowned fine artist with COUM Transmissions, Genesis P-Orridge (1950–2020) takes us on a journey searching for identity and their true self. It is the story of a life of creation and destruction, where Genesis P-Orridge reveals their unwillingness to be stuck—stuck in one place, in one genre, or in one gender. Nonbinary is Genesis’s final work and is shared with hopes of being an inspiration to the newest generation of trailblazers and nonconformists.Nonbinary is the intimate story of Genesis’s life, weaving the narrative of their history in COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle, and Psychic TV. It also covers Trade Review“Genesis P-Orridge—a mystifying vanguard with a gift of prophecy. Nonbinary is thee definitive oracle from the heart of the indefinable.” -- Wesley Eisold * musician, poet, and author *“Genesis was continually breaking new ground and developing new projects with the aim of short circuiting received ideas, chipping a hole in the carapace, questioning everything: religion, education, nationality, sexual identity to find the reality behind the society of the spectacle. Gen was always going forwards. It is fascinating to read the back story, finally told.” -- Barry Miles * bestselling author *“Genesis had a profound impact on me as an artist and then a dear friend. Reading this illuminating and radically open memoir is an honor. The echoes of such a strong creative voice unveiling the experiences of the proverbial climb to becoming a true artist and later cultural icon is mesmerizing.” -- Asia Argento * actor, director, and author *“An entertaining and thoughtful book about a remarkable life that consistently embraced transformation.” * Kirkus Reviews *“Part narrative, part philosophy, this outré memoir is a remarkable experience.” * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisDesi Queers reveals how diasporic South Asians have shaped LGBTQ+ movements and communities in Britain, from the 1970s to the present day. Weaving the history of 1980s anti-racism with the emergence of Black LGBTQ+ and feminist coalitions, this book highlights landmark moments in British queer life and culture through South Asian lives, and illuminates British histories of colour through queer politics and creativity.From the Gay Black Group to Haringey Council''s pioneering Lesbian and Gay Unit, desi queers were at the centre of anti-homophobic direct action in the 1980s, including the historic ''Smash the Backlash'' demo against bigotry. This activism birthed key grassroots groups of the 1980s and 1990s, such as Shakti and Naz, whose founders and early members opened a path of creative resistance to the intersecting violence of racism and homophobia--a path of solidarity echoing through the twenty-first century.These spaces and networks have been a refuge for people doubly marginalised in Britain--by experiences of homophobia within South Asian communities, and by the whiteness of mainstream queer scenes. Drawing on artistic creations, archives and oral history, Desi Queers celebrates rich traditions of social and cultural activism alongside stories of everyday life among Britain''s LGBTQ+ South Asians.

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Book SynopsisAN OBSERVER TOP TEN DEBUT 2020, SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE, JHALAK PRIZE, POLARI PRIZE, AND THE FICTION DEBUT CATEGORY OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDSRainbow Milk is an intersectional coming-of-age story, following nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of a Jehovah''s Witness upbringing and the legacies of the Windrush generation.In the Black Country in the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has moved to Britain with his wife to secure a brighter future for themselves and their children. Blighted with unexpected illness and racism, Norman and his family are resilient in the face of such hostilities, but are all too aware that they will need more than just hope to survive.At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London - escaping from a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and tTrade ReviewThis debut cements Mendez as a stunning new voice in fiction. Semi-autobiographical, this gripping coming-of-age story set in the Black Country in the 1950s follows 19-year-old Jesse as he comes to terms with his racial and sexual identity against the backdrop of his repressive religious upbringing . . . An original addition to the queer fiction canon * Cosmopolitan *Exquisite descriptions of the body, of longing and lust, set against the recent history of the nation. Proof once more there can be no discussion of English history that isn't also a discussion of blackness, queerness and class -- Andrew McMillanSensuous and thrillingly well written * Observer *Eye-poppingly frank, urgent and fresh -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times *Moving and memorable, Rainbow Milk heralds Mendez as an original new voice in queer fiction * AnOther Magazine *This book is marvellous. It is beautifully written, balancing fine observation and pathos, sexuality and high culture, struggle with triumph. It's pacy, witty and gentle. I loved every minute of reading this, and I am excited for its future readers -- Okechukwu Nzelu, author of The Private Joys of Nnenna MaloneyMendez's powerful coming-of-age story tackles subjects from immigration and religion to sex and race as nineteen-year-old Jesse struggles to make sense of the world * The i *When did you last read a novel about a young, black, gay, Jehovah Witness man from Wolverhampton who flees his community to make his way in London as a prostitute? This might be a debut, but Mendez is an exciting, accomplished and daring storyteller with a great ear for dialogue. Graphic Erotica Alert! Don't read this book if you like your fiction cosy and middle-of-the-road -- Bernardine EvaristoRainbow Milk is a rich, beautifully-crafted story, uncompromising in its exploration of identity and privilege. The characters are portrayed with such tenderness and honesty - I know that I'll be thinking about them for years to comeThe kind of novel you never knew you were waiting for. An explosive work that reels from sex, to sin, to salvation all the while grappling with what it means to black, gay, British, a son, a father, a lover, even a man. A remarkable debutVivid, moving and packs a visceral punchMendez's remarkable debut is a fervent, hope-filled and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age story * The i *This is a debut novel but it reads like a pro . . . His prose is cool, slippery and cuts clean to the quick. He takes you places unfamiliar and confusing and with a sentence connects you to the core of the character's mind. It's a fast ride in an astonishingly cool car . . . His sensual explorations of desire are mixed together with withering condemnations of British imperialist ideology, folded in with tender reflections on parenting, and what it means to be young, queer and black in the UK today * GScene *One of the most widely anticipated books of 2020 (The Observer named Mendez as one to watch), Rainbow Milk is a coming-of-age story that touches on racism, the Windrush generation, sexual identity and love. Beautifully written, this is a must for your reading list this month * Stylist *[Rainbow Milk] is more real and generous than most contemporary novels.Ultimately, this is a searing account of the human need for physical connection. Mendez never shies away from the melodrama of sex, the cymbal-crashing opera of desire. He is a unique new voice in the British novel -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *A novel that does what great debuts do - bringing an originality of voice and vision to the form, refreshing our ideas of what is possible in fiction . . . a novel of huge power and emotional impact, written in language that is sharp, distinctive and often beautiful. 2020 has been a year of superb debuts and Rainbow Milk is among the best -- Alex Preston * Observer *Urgent, original and heartbreaking * Irish Times *A debut novel set to make a name for its author, Rainbow Milk is a tightly-written but wide-ranging exploration of race, sexuality, class and religion * New European *Daring, dexterous, exciting and accomplished, Mendez is a writer with plenty to say * Attitude *The prose is muscular, the sex graphic, the dialogue sharp . . . Rainbow Milk is a complex and intersectional treatment of race, class, sexuality and sex work and a powerful, thrilling and accomplished debut novel * The Skinny *A fearlessly groundbreaking debut -- Colin Grant * Guardian *A state of the nation novel . . . extraordinary . . . the voice of the character is so strong . . . Paul Mendez is now a significant new figure in the literary world . . . James Baldwin would be very proud of this book * BBC Radio 4 Front Row *Exhilarating . . . Rainbow Milk is an important and ambitious book . . . a bravura piece of writing, with echoes of Andrea Levy's Small Island . . . think Barry Jenkins's Moonlight but set in the West Midlands, with Bibles instead of crack . . . if Rainbow Milk is anything to go by, Mendez looks set to shake up the literary establishment in the most thrilling way * i newapaper *A fearless and hopeful account of one black man's entry into adulthood that explores identity, family and sexuality against the backdrop of the Windrush legacy . . . this is a wonderful read from an exciting new voice in British fiction * Independent *A very beautifully and tenderly written account of what it was like to come to the "mother country", expecting a welcome and finding prejudice -- Stephen Hough * Telegraph *Rainbow Milk is a bold and raw novel . . . memorable and affecting -- Nadifa Mohamed * New Statesman *Described as "explosive", "beautiful", "original", this exciting debut is all of these things . . . Full of lust, longing and pathos -- Kit de Waal * The Week *Mendez's novel, based on his experience of growing up black and gay in a West Midlands Jehovah's Witness community, is one of the most exciting debuts of recent years. His vivid prose elevates and brings to life an already extraordinary story * The Times *There's something particularly thrilling about discovering a great debut, and none this year could be more electric than Paul Mendez's Rainbow Milk. Sex, blackness, class, religion, male bodies, self-understanding and finding a community are all explored in new ways with startling assurance -- Daniel Hahn * Spectator *Full of tenderness and soul, it's a book about shame and humiliation and how you overcome it -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * New Statesman *Hard-hitting and lingers long after the final page * i newspaper *New writer Paul Mendez explores sexuality, race, class and religion across generations and cultures in his semi-autobiographical debut novel Rainbow Milk * BBC *Brilliant * Stylist *Fearless -- Justine Jordan * Guardian *Unflinching, revelatory -- Maaza Mengiste * Observer *A page turner with a lot of heart * Observer *I was more than happy to spend time reviewing Paul Mendez' Rainbow Milk, an ambitious, clever and candid debut -- Nicole Flattery * Irish Times *This sharp coming-of-age novel explores exactly what it means to be a young, queer Black man in Britain. It's bold, fearlessand fresh * Esquire *

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Book SynopsisHow do we shape a better world for LGBTQ+ people? Olly Alexander, Peppermint, Owen Jones, Beth Ditto, Shon Faye and more share their stories and visions for the future.'A vital addition to your bookshelf' Stylist, 5 Books for Summer'Captivating... A must-read' Gay Times, Books of the YearIn We Can Do Better Than This, 35 voices - actors, musicians, writers, artists and activists - answer this vital question, at a time when the queer community continues to suffer discrimination and extreme violence. Through deeply moving stories and provocative new arguments on safety and visibility, dating and gender, care and community, they present a powerful manifesto for how - together - we can change lives everywhere.'Powerful, inspiring...urgent' Attitude'Read and be inspired' Peter Tatchell'Illuminating' Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk'Friendly and fierce' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay BarTrade ReviewWith We Can Do Better Than This, Amelia Abraham has switched on every light in the queer village, illuminating the still-not-visible and giving space to many, important, intersectional voices on pregnancy and gender, for instance; refuge; ageing and queer community, or the dream of a trans-majority future. Let this be an invitation for us to read further on every pertinent subject and brilliant mind in it -- Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow MilkA queer selection box that's at once thought-provoking and powerful, and at times very funny. This is a snapshot of where we are now, and where we need to get to -- Juno Dawson, author of This Book is GayA vibey roundtable, an atlas charting global disparities but also interconnectedness, an expedition over the rainbow, a friendly and fierce survey of this critical juncture. Join up -- Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay BarWe Can Do Better Than This is a diverse and powerful collection of writing from 35 inspiring figures, as they reflect on their own experiences of being queer. It poses a simple but essential question: how can we create a better world for our LGBTQ+ family? . . . Urgent and vital -- Uli Lenart * Book of the Month, Attitude *Captivating . . . We Can Do Better Than This imagines the next step for our community . . . Digs deep to present a candid commentary on the LGBTQ+ community's ongoing issues and delivers hopeful, thoughtful solutions. Simply put, it's a must-read * Gay Times, 10 LGBTQ+ Books You Have to Read this Pride Month *Thoughtful and thought-provoking, this book embodies the rainbow-coloured diversity of the queer community and neatly articulates the struggles ahead. It is an education in why the concept of 'pride' remains not only relevant but critical -- Mohsin Zaidi, author of A Dutiful BoyRead and be inspired! Global voices with ideas to shape a brighter LGBTQ+ future - a planet without criminalisation, discrimination and hate crime. This book is a reminder that it starts with us and now -- Peter Tatchell

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Book SynopsisA decal is a copy, a transfer of forms and knowledge, something that sticks and leaves a mark. Lessons of Decal meditates on these transfers, on writing and making art, and on the many voices and art works that teach us how to read and think and be. Using personal reflections, close readings, and poetic interventions, Lessons of Decal gathers a series of passionate and playful essays that treat Form as their side-kick, experimenting with the confusing, unpredictable and pleasurable side of language along the way. Together, they make an impassioned call for nuance, curiosity, messiness, attentiveness, and pleasure. Lessons of Decal is a defence of complexity and confusion, across art and life. For Fans Of: Maggie Nelson, Lisa Robertson, Nuar Alsadir

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Book SynopsisExplores queer craft and the material cultures of LGBTQ+ activism in Britain since the 1980s. From handmade clothing and protest banners to radical self-published zines and manifestos, there is a long history of using craft and DIY processes to explore identities, bring communities together, and encourage social and political change. Yet, many of these histories remain undocumented and are insufficiently researched. This collection sheds light on these important histories and includes a range of contributions from academics, artists, activists, curators, and heritage professionals. Case studies discussed include Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, the Museum of Transology, Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners (LGSM), the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, Islington’s Pride, Queer Zine Library, Glasgow Women’s Library, Queer Journeys, and more. These critical essays and oral histories are complemented by short reflections from contemporary creative practitioners including Matt Smith, Tanoa Sasraku, Sarah-Joy Ford, Rachael House and Raisa Kabir. Taken together, this collection weaves together an important web between craft, queerness, and activism in Britain. As the first book of its kind, it will likely be of interest to a range of students and academics, as well as cultural producers and creatives more broadly.Trade Review'Fountain's book fills a gap that has been left unfilled for far too long. Through sharing previously unheard histories of activism – given from a wide range of perspectives – Crafted with Pride is sure to spark debate, discussion and, well, pride. [...] This book shows how LGBTQ+ activists have long harnessed the power of craft to protest and tell their stories, creating objects that come alive through collective making and use.' -- Isabella Smith, Deputy editor, Crafts magazineTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements About the editor Introduction: Crafting Identity and Community Thread One: Fashioning the Self 1. Lesbian Activism and Crafted Fashion – Eleanor Medhurst 2. Trans Craft and the Museum of Transology – Lois Stone Thread Two: Pride, Publics, and Preservation 3. Protest with Pride: Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners – Mark Etheridge 4. Pride of Place: Remembering, Collecting, and Preserving Islington’s LGBTQ+ Heritage – Seán McGovern 5. (Re)Collecting Queer Craft: Ownership, Identity, and Remembrance in Queer Zine Collecting – Allan Madden Thread Three: Collaborative Craft 6. Navigating Queerness and Trauma Through Collaborative Craft – Dan Vo in conversation with Youcef Hadjazi 7. Stitching Together: The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt and Its Oral Histories – Daniel Fountain Plus, an in-conversation with Graeme Lavery and Karina Thompson Thread Four: Contemporary Practices 8. Making Things Perfectly Queer – Matt Smith 9. A Tower to Say Goodbye – Tanoa Sasraku 10. Quilting Intergenerational Intimacies in Fisch’s Rebel Dykes Archive – Sarah-Joy Ford 11. Queer Voices – Rachael House 12. NO PROTECTION – Raisa Kabir Glossary National Support Organizations Contributor Biographies Index

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Book Synopsis"I don't regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full, as one should do anything one does. I lived on honeycomb." Oscar Wilde Although it is over 120 years since his infamous trial for indecency, Oscar Wilde has never held greater fascination for us. This packed illustrated biography tells the life of Oscar Wilde through his own words – private letters, poems, plays, stories and legendary witticisms. It includes his relationships with key artists and writers of the time, including John Ruskin, Charles Ricketts, and Lillie Langtry. It is illustrated throughout with paintings, engravings, contemporary photographs, cartoons and caricatures of Wilde and his social circle. With illustrations and paintings by Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, James Whistler and Max Beerbohm, it is a beautiful evocation of the glittering fin de siecle word by its most fascinating wordsmith and aesthete. The book details Wilde's ruin after the trial and its outcome. The profundity of his writing from prison and exile form an epitaph, not only to his own life, but also for the era that carelessly delighted in it.

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2020 STONEWALL BOOK AWARD-ISRAEL FISHMAN NONFICTION AWARD“Jones’s voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down.” NPR’S Fresh Air Jones tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES BY SAEED JONES “[A] devastating memoir….Jones is fascinated by power (who has it, how and why we deploy it), but he seems equally interested in tenderness and frailty. We wound and save one another, we try our best, we leave too much unsaid….A moving, bracingly honest memoir that reads like fevered poetry.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "A raw and eloquent memoir. One could say that Saeed Jones' new memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives, is a classic coming-of-age story….But Jones' voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down. How We Fight for Our Lives is at once explicitly raunchy, mean, nuanced, loving and melancholy. It's sometimes hard to read and harder to put down." —MAUREEN CORRIGAN, NPR'S "FRESH AIR" "Extremely personal, emotionally gritty, and unabashedly honest, How We Fight for Our Lives is an outstanding memoir that somehow manages a perfect balance between love and violence, hope and hostility, transformation and resentment.....Jones writes with the confidence of a veteran novelist and the flare of an accomplished poet. This is an important coming-of-age story that's also a collection of tiny but significant joys. More importantly, it's a narrative that cements Jones as a new literary star — and a book that will give many an injection of hope."—NPR “Urgent, immediate, matter of fact….The prose in Saeed Jones’s memoir How We Fight for Our Lives shines with a poet’s desire to give intellections the force of sense impressions.”—THE NEW YORKER "Jones’ explosive and poetic memoir traces his coming-of-age as a black, queer, and Southern man in vignettes that heartbreakingly and rigorously explore the beauty of love, the weight of trauma, and the power of resilience."—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY "[Jones'] tenacious honesty compels us to be honest with ourselves. His experiences—negotiating grief, family dynamics, and a forthright identity—require our reckoning."—KIRKUS PRIZE 2019 CITATION “[This] memoir marks the emergence of a major literary voice…written with masterful control of both style and material.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW) “Powerful…Jones is a remarkable, unflinching storyteller, and his book is a rewarding page-turner.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW) "An unforgettable memoir that pulls you in and doesn’t let go until the very last page."—LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW) "A luminous, clear-eyed excavation of how we learn to define ourselves, “How We Fight for Our Lives” is both a coming-of-age story and a rumination on love and loss....a radiant memoir that meditates on the many ways we belong to each other and the many ways we are released."—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "There are moments of devastating ugliness and moments of ecstatic joy...infused with an emotional energy that only authenticity can provide."—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE "Phenomenal....In this profound, concise memoir, the 33-year-old writer isolates key moments from his youth and sharpens their points for maximum effect. We follow a young, searching Jones through his early years with his loving single mother, along a path of unrequited lust, furtive sexual experiences, and disapproving relatives, through his hard-won self-acceptance and into the grief of losing the person closest to him."—INTERVIEW MAGAZINE "Jones’ evocative prose has a layered effect, immersing readers in his state of mind, where gorgeous turns of phrase create some distance from his more painful memories. Although its length is short (just 189 pages), How We Fight For Our Lives fairly pulses with pain and potency; there is enough turmoil and poetry and determination in it to fill whole bookshelves."—THE AV CLUB "How We Fight for Our Lives is a primer in how to keep kicking, in how to stay afloat...Thank god we get to be part of that world with Saeed Jones’ writing in it."—LAMBDA LITERARY "Jones' unabashed honesty and gift for self-aware humor will resonate with readers, especially those in search of a story that resembles their own." —BOOKLIST “Scorching…a commentary not only on what it takes to become truly and wholly oneself, but on race and LGBTQ identity, power and vulnerability, and how relationships can make and break us along the way.” —GOOD HOUSEKEEPING “This memoir is a rhapsody in the truest sense of the word, fragments of epic poetry woven together so skillfully, so tenderly, so brutally, that you will find yourself aching in the way only masterful writing can make a person ache. How We Fight for Our Lives is that rare book that will show you what it means to be needful, to be strong, to be gloriously human and fighting for your life.” —ROXANE GAY, author of Hunger “This book. Oh my goodness. It is everything everyone needs right now—both love song and battle cry, brilliant as fuck and at times, heartbreaking as hell. Every single living half-grown and grownup body needs to read this book. I’m shook. I’m changed.” —JACQUELINE WOODSON, author of Another Brooklyn “There will be little left to say, and so much left to make after the world experiences Saeed Jones's How We Fight for Our Lives. This is that rare piece of literary art that teaches us how to read and write on every page. It's so black. So queer. So subtextual, and amazingly so sincere. Saeed changes everything we thought we knew about memoir writing, narrative structure, and heart meat. All three are obliterated. All three are tended to over and over again. All three will never ever be the same after this book. It's really that good.” —KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy

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Book SynopsisCelebrate the LGTBQ community with this small but perfectly formed guide to Pride. What began as a protest for gay rights following the Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York has grown to become a global celebration of LGBTQ culture. In the 50-odd years since the original protest, and what is now widely accepted to be the first Pride march – Christopher Street Liberation Day, 1970 – Pride events are now attended by millions each year, celebrating how far we’ve come, recognising where we have to go and highlighting important causes in the queer community. The Little Book of Pride is a concise look at everything you need to know about Pride, revealing the history, the key people involved, the best Pride events around the world, inspirational quotes from famous queers, Pride facts and a fun Pride survival guide.Trade Review'A little book with a huge insight. I wish I’d had this book growing up gay.' – Tom Allen, Comedian 'Wonderful...Despite what the title may indicate, this book is far from little.' - USA Today.com"Wonderful... With over 140 pages, this is a comprehensive look at Pride." – MSN.com

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