The Queer Writer: April 2025

The countdown begins! At the end of this month, on April 29th, THE LILAC PEOPLE debuts! Folks have been asking how they can support the book, but I'm going to include the bulk of that information in a separate email you'll receive tomorrow. (I also have some big news that I'm not allowed to make public until then, so keep an eye out for the email!)

For now, I'll say the following:

  1. Tickets are live for my burlesque show debut party, "A Night at the Eldorado"! This is a ticketed, 21+ event at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, MA on April 29th. I'll be emceeing, we have an amazing lineup of predominantly LGBTQ+ performers, All She Wrote Books will have THE LILAC PEOPLE available for purchase during the event, and I'll be available to sign copies afterward. If you're looking for an event that centers queer joy of the 1920s, this is the place to be!
  2. If you're unable to attend the event, but still want a signed copy of the book, All She Wrote Books is the exclusive seller for autographed preorders! This queer- and feminist-owned independent bookstore ships to anywhere in the US, so you don't need to be local to them.
  3. A Goodreads giveaway is running until April 8th! You only have a few more days to enter for a chance to win a copy of the book!
  4. If you're looking to make THE LILAC PEOPLE your next book club read, here are some ideas to turn it into a whole experience, including food ideas, a music playlist, and discussion questions! Want some history behind the book's setting? I've got that, too!
  5. Since my last post, THE LILAC PEOPLE has received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Shelf Awareness, and has been highlighted by such places as WBUR and the Trans Rights Readathon!
  6. Official copies arrived at my doorstep just a few days ago. I still love the dust jacket art and now look at the wonderful lilac purple of the hardcover beneath!
A cardboard box with brown paper filling that contains two visible, hardcover copies of THE LILAC PEOPLE on top.
Same image as above, only now one of the dust jackets has been pulled back to show the lilac purple hardcover beneath.

But enough about me. We have wonderful books coming this month, including a young Black gay man estranged from his father, three queer gamers in the 90s, a traveling carnival of deviant queers, a queer reimagining of The Great Gatsby, a demisexual who decides she’s done with being a virgin, a portrait of a gay man in 1980s Europe, a queer historical cozy fantasy, a modern take on Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and more!

Is there an upcoming queer book you’re excited about? Know of a great opportunity for queer writers? Read an awesome article about the (marginalized) writing world? Let me know! And as always, please share this newsletter with people you think might be interested.


Upcoming Classes

Nothing here for now! I'm currently focused on my debut, THE LILAC PEOPLE, and nurturing my career as a published author, but I plan to return to teaching eventually. In the meantime, I'm working on some class alternatives. More on that soon!


Anticipated Books

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

The Lilac People by Milo Todd

In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation. In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies’ vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation is to flee to the United States.

When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris

The venerated Reverend Doctor John Freeman did not raise his son, Davis, to be touched by any man, let alone a white man. He did not raise his son to whisper that man’s name with tenderness. But on the eve of his wedding, all Davis can think about is how beautiful he wants to look when he meets his beloved Everett at the altar. Never mind that his mother, who died decades before, and his father, whose anger drove Davis to flee their home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for a freer life in New York City, won’t be there to walk him down the aisle. All Davis needs to be happy in this life is Everett, his new family, and his burgeoning career as an acclaimed violist. When Davis learns during the wedding reception that his father has been in a terrible car accident, years of childhood trauma and unspoken emotion resurface. Davis must revisit everything that went wrong between them, risking his fledgling marriage along the way. 

No One Taught Me How to Be a Man by Shannon T. L. Kearns

No one ever taught Shannon Kearns how to be a man. As a trans man, Shannon was presumed female at birth and constructed his relationship with masculinity after his transition, using bits and pieces he gathered from the world around him: male behavior, pop culture portrayals, and cultural expectations for men that seemed to be in the air he breathed. But rather than separating him from the experiences of cisgender men, Kearns's self-taught approach to masculinity connected him with other men in surprising ways. As he lived more and more in the world of men, he discovered that cis men's relationship to masculinity was similar to his. No one taught them how to be a man either. They worried they were doing it wrong. And they were almost universally worried about being "found out," exposed as not being a "real man."

Freakslaw by Jane Flett

It is the summer of '97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change. Enter the Freakslaw--a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There's Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, the Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw's miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn't take long for the town's teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape. But beneath it all, these newcomers are harboring a darker desire: revenge. Revenge for being cast out, never allowed to settle, punished for purely existing. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic, unwelcoming locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that has been bubbling for centuries is about to be unleashed...

Family Week by Sarah Moon

For as long as they can remember, Mac, Lina, Milo and Avery have celebrated Family Week together in "the smallest, gayest town in the world"—Provincetown, Massachusetts. But this summer, their big rented beach house feels different. Avery’s dads are splitting up, and her life feels like it’s falling apart. Milo’s flunked seventh grade, which means everyone is moving on to bigger and better things except for him. Mac’s on his way to a progressive boarding school that lets transgender kids like him play soccer, but it means leaving his twin sister, Lina, and his moms—and the safety of home—behind. Everything is changing, and for Lina, it feels like it's happening with or without her. Avery, Milo, and Mac know this is going to be their last summer together. But Lina can't accept that—and if she can make this the best summer ever, maybe she'll convince them that there will be a Family Week next year. Good things might not last in the real world, but they do in P-town.... Right?

Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn by Renee Swindle

Francine Stevenson gets more than she bargained for when she rescues ten-year-old Davie from a group of bullies clamoring to snatch his beloved iPad. From that day forward the puzzlingly direct boy continues to show up at her door until the two develop a unique understanding. Their Pixar movie nights and Davie’s random Steve Jobs factoids slowly work to soothe the ache of her mother’s recent passing. When Francine learns Davie is in foster care, she decides to introduce herself to his foster parents who she can’t help but judge for allowing the kid to spend evenings with a literal stranger. To Francine’s surprise Davie’s foster mother is none other than Jeanette, her fiery high school crush. Their reintroduction forces Francine to face her severely single reality. And hearing her dreaded old nickname brings up long-buried issues she never dreamed of confronting. Tired of being used by the women she meets on dating apps, Francine grows closer to the very-married Jeanette, until all her other priorities begin to cloud over, and Davie is only on the periphery of her mind. After a consecutive string of bad choices, Francine is left wondering how to free herself from an incredibly hot but toxic entanglement, as she works to become the kind of person Davie can depend on. What follows is a tumultuous journey of self-discovery told by one of the zaniest voices in fiction.

Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom

The newly nameless narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming has rejected the gender binary, has flamed out with a vengeance at their corporate gig, is most likely brain damaged from a major tussle with their now ex-boyfriend, and is on a bender to end all benders. A call from their mother with the news that their MAGA-friendly, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing launches the narrator from Chicago to deep red Arkansas in a stolen car. Along the way, the narrator and their new bestie—a self-proclaimed "garbage goth" with her own emotional baggage (and someone on her tail)—unpack the narrator’s childhood and a recent personal loss that they refuse to face head-on.

Don't Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo

Nick Carraway―paper soldier and novelist―has found a life and a living watching the mad magical spectacle of New York high society in the late thirties. He's good at watching, and he's even better at pretending: pretending to be straight, pretending to be human, pretending he's forgotten the events of that summer in 1922. On the eve of the second World War, however, Nick learns that someone's been watching him pretend and that memory goes both ways. When he sees a familiar face one very dark night, it quickly becomes clear that dead or not, damned or not, Jay Gatsby isn't done with him. In all paper there is memory, and Nick's ghost has come home.

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory

Avery Jensen is almost thirty, fresh off a breakup, and she’s tired of always being so uptight and well-behaved. She wants to get a hobby, date around (especially women), flirt with everyone she sees, wear something not from the business casual section of her closet—all the fun stuff normal people do in their twenties. One problem: Avery doesn't know where to start. She doesn't have a lot of dating experience, with men or women, and despite being self-assured at work, she doesn't have a lot of confidence when it comes to romance. Enter Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley's biggest flirt and champion heartbreaker. Taylor just broke up with her most recent girlfriend, and her best friend bet her that she can't make it until Labor Day without sleeping with someone. (Two whole months? Without sex? Taylor?!?!) So, she offers to give Avery flirting lessons. It should keep her busy and stop her from texting people she shouldn't. And it might take her mind off how inadequate she feels compared to her friends, who all seem much more settled and adult than Taylor. At first, Avery is stiff and nervous, but Taylor is patient and encouraging, and soon, Avery looks forward to their weekly lessons. With Taylor’s help, Avery finally has the life she always wanted. The only issue is: now she wants Taylor. Their attraction becomes impossible to ignore, despite them both insisting to themselves and everyone else that it isn't serious. When Taylor is forced to confront her feelings for Avery, she doesn't know what to do—and most importantly, if she's already ruined the best thing she's ever had.

A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton

1998: Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, scattered across the country but joined by the Internet as they create Saga of the Sorceress, a video game that will change everything, if only for the three of them. Eighteen years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith works as a loan underwriter at a rinky-dink bank in Manhattan, a trans woman in a very cis world. Sash is in Brooklyn, working as a part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is in New York, or that Abraxa is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s Jersey City home after a disaster at sea. They have never met in person and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress or her unfinished quest.

That's What She Said by Eleanor Pilcher

Serena and Beth are best friends who couldn’t be more different—Beth is an avowed demisexual, who lacks confidence in her career and in her chances at a happy relationship due to her sexual orientation. Serena is a free spirit who oozes with confidence, both in her job and her sexual proclivities. And yet, since the moment they met, they knew they were platonic soulmates. So, when Beth decides that she officially wants to take charge of her sex life and explore the things that scare her the most, Serena is more than happy to help. Speed-dating, sex therapy, tantra, a perplexed but ultimately very nice escort—it’s all on Beth’s Sexual Odyssey List. But when Beth’s crush from her old job comes back and Serena’s favorite friend-with-benefits pushes for more than just sex, it throws their whole world into a tailspin. And suddenly, this sexual odyssey is more than a fun gag. It’ll set them down a course that’ll make them so much closer—or end their friendship for good.

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman

Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart. Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out.

Ollie In Between by Jess Callans

Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted by all the changes around them. When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means to be a woman (if anyone’s got an answer, that’d be great), and one of their new friends is the target of bullying, Ollie is caught between the safety of fleeing from their own differences or confronting the risks of fighting to take their own path forward.

Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli

Thomas, a young German musician, is dying. His older boyfriend, a renowned Italian writer named Leo, finds it impossible to watch the slow and inevitable demise of his lover. So, he condemns himself to wandering the earth instead, moving cities every few weeks in the hope of finding the dividing line between the living and the dead. He travels through Europe where past and present overlap, years merge and faces emerge, and reminders of the life he and Thomas shared are on every corner. From their meeting and nights spent in Paris to the drug-induced flight through the forests of northern France that spelled [GU1] the end, Leo's memories become clearer with every road he takes--much as he wishes he could simply forget. While alive, and wanting to preserve the passion of their relationship, Leo had forced Thomas to live separately: in separate rooms, separate towns, with separate lives. But now, face to face with true solitude, Leo must finally reckon with the impossible striving of memory to recreate life and, ultimately, cross an ocean to find the strength to go on.

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon. The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both. 

The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum

Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a blue-collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis's only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates. As if his circumstances couldn’t get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of. As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt’s spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But it’s only a matter of time before Hollis’s best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn’t quite…right. With the threat of a long-overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?


ICYMI

Want a previously published book showcased? Let me know! The given work must: 1) be written by a self-identified member of the LGBTQ+ community, 2) be published within the last five years, 3) has not yet appeared on the ICYMI list, and 4) wasn't included in the Anticipated Books section within the last three months. All genres and independently-published works welcome.

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

better hands by Nailah Mathews

Who breaks the cycle, and what does breaking it cost? Winner of the 2023 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, better hands eulogizes legacies of violence, underscored by a fervent desire of becoming. Mathews guides readers across and through “the infinity pink” in poems that drip a reverence tinged with resentment. Their debut chapbook engages myth, nature, and the body to honor the past and summon uncertain, ecstatic futures beyond.

We Are Villains by Kacen Callender

Ari's death was ruled an accident, but for her best friend Milo, it's shrouded in mystery. Why was she in the woods on the night of the fire? Had she been alone? Figuring out what happened the night Ari died is the only reason Milo returns to Yates Academy, even knowing he'll be in constant danger. . . Liam is the King of Yates, a role he keeps hold of through his family's old money--and the threat of violence. So when he begins receiving ominous letters from another student accusing him of murdering Ari, the suspect list is long. Desperate to prove his innocence before the accusation ruins his reign, Liam enlists Milo's help to find the blackmailer. But the more Milo helps Liam, the more he becomes certain that Liam has something to hide. As Milo comes closer to the truth, he uncovers secrets that everyone wants to keep buried . . .

A Two-Spirit Journey: The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder by Ma-Nee Chacaby

From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community, Ma-Nee Chacaby's extraordinary story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social and economic legacies of colonialism. As a child, Chacaby learned spiritual and cultural traditions from her Cree grandmother and trapping, hunting, and bush survival skills from her Ojibwa stepfather. She also suffered physical and sexual violence, and in her teen years became an alcoholic herself. At twenty, Chacaby took her children and, fleeing an abusive marriage, moved to Thunder Bay. Despite the abuse, racism, and indifference she often found there, Chacaby marshalled the strength and supports to help herself and others. Over the following decades, she achieved sobriety, trained and worked as an alcoholism counsellor, raised her children and fostered many others, learned to live with visual impairment, and came out as a lesbian. In 2013, Chacaby led the first gay pride parade in Thunder Bay. Ma-Nee Chacaby has emerged from hardship grounded in faith, compassion, and humour. Her memoir provides unprecedented insights into the challenges still faced by many Indigenous people.


Opportunities

Incarcerated Writers & Families

  • What: "Submissions should be no more than 7,000 words for prose (fiction, nonfiction), hybrids, up to 6 poems for poetry, or up to 3 pages of visual art. We are interested in submissions from people who are most marginalized by oppressive systems, to include trans, gender queer, poverty-born, incarcerated, justice-involved, system-impacted, disabled, neurodivergent, BIPOC, colonized, people living on the frontlines of climate crisis, and others."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: $300
  • Deadline: April 4th, 2025

Bi Women Quarterly Summer 2025: Finding Community

  • What: "How do bi+ people find community? Write about your experience navigating the world as a bi+ person and trying to find your own community, whether that be a friend group, chosen family, knitting circle, or so on. Did you join a club or organization that led to you making some of your closest queer friends? Did you meet your best friend on a dating app? Did you start a group or meetup? Explain how you successfully overcame the struggles society forces upon us as LGBTQ+ individuals and how, through it all, you found your own community."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: May 1st, 2025

Sinister Wisdom: Jewish Dykes Unite!

  • What: "Sinister Wisdom is seeking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and genre-bending works from Jewish dykes of all kinds — and we mean all. Jews of all origins, converts, Jews with tattoos, patrilineal Jews, Jews who have never stepped foot in a synagogue before, etc. No matter how religious you are or how much you may feel like a “fake Jew,” submit to us! We want your Jewish lesbian joy and your Jewish lesbian pain. We want your yearning, your gossip, your fashion tips, your love stories, your too-good-to-keep-to-yourself lesbian sexcapades and fantasies. Tell us about your grief, your confusion, your dating horror stories, your anxiety, your heartbreak, your intergenerational trauma."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: June 20th, 2025

NeuroQueer Books: Spoon Knife 10: Polarities

  • What: "Our NeuroQueer Books imprint is for fiction, memoir, and other literary work, with a focus on themes of queerness and neurodivergence. The theme for Spoon Knife 10 will be Polarities. Polarities: pairs of opposite forces or qualities or tendencies. Good and evil. Love and hate. Life and death. Heroism and villainy. Feminine and masculine. Night and day. Vice and virtue. Old and new. Order and chaos. The public persona and the hidden shadow self. The mundane everyday world and that which lies beyond. What polarity lies at the heart of your story? In what ways does it manifest? What happens when the two sides of the polarity come into contact or conflict, or when one transforms into the other?"
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: "$30 plus 1 cent per word"
  • Deadline: July 31st, 2025

Wayfarer Books Radical Authenticity Prize for Trans & Non-binary Writers

  • What: "This prize is open to those who identify within the Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender non-conforming spectrum. This prize is open to works of poetry, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essay collections. (No fiction, please.) While we welcome all themes—especially those that highlight the experiences of marginalized communities—the material/themes of your entry do not need to be about the transgender/non-binary experience to be eligible."
  • Fee: $20
  • Pay: "We pay authors anywhere from 8-12% of the list price on print; 25% on eBook; 25% on Audiobook."
  • Deadline: February 1st, 2026

Sinister Wisdom: Barbie: the Movie

  • What: "In this special issue, Sinister Wisdom will explore lesbians' reactions to Barbie: The Movie. How do we voice the joy and gratitude of this cultural moment where lesbian lives and lesbian culture is expressed in the movie with a major musical plotline from the Indigo Girls and two out dykes with major roles in this movie, now the highest grossing movie in Warner Brothers' history? What else do we think and feel about this cultural moment? Were you expecting to feel deeply personally touched by Barbie? What was a special scene that reflects your dyke life? Were you surprised or shocked by your reaction to the film? How do we understand Barbie's continuing life and its relationship to lesbians and lesbian culture?"
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: TBD

ALOCASIA

  • What: "ALOCASIA accepts creative writing of all genres from queer writers on a rolling basis with no reading fee. We appreciate both traditional work, as well as the weird, erotic, explicit, anti-colonial, and whatever you can come up with. This is a journal about plants, gardens, gardening, parks, and indoor horticulture. Please don’t send us work that isn’t about plants."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: rolling

Rough Cut Press

  • What: "We seek work of all genres by writers from the LGBTQIA community. We do not define or gatekeep what it means to be a queer writer: if you think your work belongs here, then it belongs here. To get a sense of what we publish please read some of our former issues. We don’t know what we like until we see it. Each month we announce a different theme, but don’t worry if the work you submit doesn’t quite fit: we often build issues and themes around work that takes us by surprise."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: $25
  • Deadline: rolling

Screen Door Review

  • What: "Screen Door Review is a triannual literary magazine that publishes poetry and flash fiction authored by individuals belonging to the southern queer (lgbtq) community of the United States. The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform of expression to those whose identities—at least in part—derive from the complicated relationship between queer person and place. Specifically, queer person and the South. Through publication, we aim to not only express, but also validate and give value to these voices, which are oftentimes overlooked, undermined, condemned, or silenced."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: rolling

AC|DC: A Journal for the Bent

  • What: "AC|DC currently publishes new short fiction or creative nonfiction by LGBTQIA+ authors on Tuesdays. AC|DC is always open for submissions. Take a look at what’s on the site to decide if your work might be a good fit. We have a preference for the dark and raw but are open to all."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: $0
  • Deadline: rolling

The Bitchin' Kitsch

  • What: "The B’K is a quarterly art and lit, online and printed magazine prioritizing traditionally marginalized creators, but open to all."
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: $10
  • Deadline: rolling

Bella Books Call for Submissions

  • What: "At Bella Books, we believe stories about women-loving-women are essential to our lives—and so do our readers. We are interested in acquiring manuscripts that tell captivating and unique stories across all genres—including romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc. We want our books to reflect and celebrate the diversity of our lesbian, sapphic, queer, bisexual, and gender non-conforming community—in all our glorious shapes, sizes and colors. Our desire to publish diverse voices is perennial. We don’t want to tell your stories for you—we want to amplify your voices....We publish romance, mystery, action/thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, erotica and general fiction. At this time, we are particularly interested in acquiring romance manuscripts."
  • Fee: N/A
  • Pay: N/A
  • Deadline: rolling

Baest Journal

  • What: Baest Journal, "a journal of queer forms and affects," seeks to publish work by queer writers and artists.
  • Fee: $0
  • Pay: $0
  • Deadline: rolling

Articles

How an Audiobook Narrator Organizes Her Days

by Anne Helen Petersen

However, because a number of audiobook and AI companies (and even some major publishers) would like nothing more than to eliminate humans from storytelling to pad their executive suite’s bonuses, this beautiful career I love so much constantly feels under threat. I know of quite a few renowned and award-winning narrator friends who cannot get enough work to qualify for health insurance with the union, let alone pay their bills anymore. Some have found their income stream has completely dried up. It’s really scary for many of us. As Audible and Apple and others push their virtual voices (which generally get terrible reviews but still get listened to, I don’t know why) at an extremely low if not free cost to authors, the market is being flooded with AI slop, and narrators are losing their work.

(If I can get on my soapbox for a minute: if you care about storytelling, PLEASE don’t consume AI in the arts. Don’t use ChatGPT (which strongly appears to have used lots, if not millions, of copyrighted works to train its models without compensating the artists) or similar LLMs, don’t use MidJourney or other art-generation models, and don’t consume books or audiobooks written or narrated by AI products.)

Moms For Liberty Is Shutting Down BookLooks–But Why?

by Kelly Jensen

Moms For Liberty is the group affiliated with the unprofessional review website BookLooks.org, as first reported here in May 2022. BookLooks, which got its start as BookLook.info, provides cherry-picked passages from novels the group seeks to review so that members can lodge challenges of titles rated by volunteer members as a 4 or 5 on their invented ratings system.

Over the last several years, public institutions including public libraries and public schools, have been plagued by book challenges citing the “reviews” from BookLooks. Some have gone so far as to believe they should purchase a subscription to the review system which has no rhyme or reason for how it chooses its books nor any credentialing of its volunteer reviewers. Today, there are public schools like that in Anoka County, Minnesota and public libraries, like that in Warren County, New Jersey, seeking to utilize the review site as if it is anywhere near the caliber of legitimacy as the long-running, professionally-developed review sources librarians have turned to for generations.

But now it looks like Moms For Liberty’s BookLooks is shutting down on March 23.


Milo Todd's logo of a simple, geometric fox head. It has a black nose, white cheeks, and a reddish-orange face and ears.
Until next time, foxies! Be queer, write books!