It’s that time of year again! LGBT+ history month has come around, and we’ve got a tonne of new books to help you celebrate. It is truly always a joy putting this list together, every year the list gets bigger and bigger as more queer authors and publishers get their stories out there. We are in the golden age of LGBTQIA+ publishing, so thank you to all you readers and booksellers for your part in this wonderful bookish boom!
As always, you can find the full list on our Bookshop.org shop page and reach out to your local Turnaround sales rep to place your orders. Without further ado, keep reading for all of the queer titles you need to know about from Jan – March of 2024…
JANUARY
The Child of Hameln
By Max Turner
Knight Errant | 9781999671396 | Paperback | Out 04/01/2024 | £10
This supernatural mystery and light horror is a dark fable set in 1980s small town USA, and is a retelling of the German folktale The Pied Piper of Hameln.
Devil’s Chew Toy
By Rob Osler
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639107155 | Paperback | Out 16/01/2024 | £21.99
Perfect for fans of T.J. Klune, Becky Abertalli, and David Levithan, this hilarious, big-hearted LGBTQ+ mystery follows an unlucky in love — and life — gay relationship blogger who teams up with a take-charge lesbian and a fiesty bull terrier to find a missing go-go boy and bring down an international crime ring.
FEBRUARY
Antiquity
By Hanna Johannson & Translated by Kira Josefsson
Catapult | 9781646221714 | Hardback | Out 06/02/2024 | £24.99
Elegant, slippery, and provocative, Antiquity is a queer Lolita story by a prize-winning Swedish author — a story of desire, power, obsession, observation, and taboo.
Tina, Mafia Soldier
By Maria Rosa Cutrufelli & Translated by Robin Pickering-Iazzi
Soho Crime | 9781641294638 | Paperback | Out 13/02/2024 | £9.99
A classic of Italian feminist mafia literature about a gender-bending mafiosa and the writer who becomes obsessed with telling her story. This groundbreaking exploration of gender identity and clear-eyed presentation of an unseen side of the mafia is a landmark literary achievement by one of Italy’s feminist icons.
Sons, Daughters
By Ivana Bodrozic & Translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac
Seven Stories Press UK | 9781911710066 | Paperback | Out 15/02/2024 | £17.99
Ivana Bodrozic’s latest award-winning novel tells a story of being locked in: socially, domestically and intimately, told through three different perspectives, all deeply marked and wounded by the patriarchy in their own way. This is a story of hidden gay and trans relationships, the effects of a near-fatal accident, and an oppressed childhood, where Ivana Bodrozic tackles the issues addressed in her previous works — issues of otherness, identity and gender, pain and guilt, injustice and violence.
Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt
By Purnell, Brontez
Cipher Press | 9781739220761 | Paperback | Out 15/02/2024 | £10.99
From the beloved author of 100 Boyfriends, a wrenching, sexy, and exhilaratingly energetic memoir in verse. In Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt, Brontez Purnell — the bard of the underloved and overlooked — turns his gaze inward. A storyteller with a musical eye for the absurdity of his own existence, he is peerless in his ability to find the levity within the stormiest of crises.
Never Name the Dead
By D.M. Rowell
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639107209 | Paperback | Out 20/02/2024 | £21.99
Old grudges, tribal traditions, and outside influences collide for a Kiowa woman as forces threaten her family, her tribe, and the land of her ancestors, in this own-voices debut perfect for fans of Winter Counts.
Sharp Notions
Edited by Martia Dachsel & Nancy Lee
Arsenal Pulp Press | 9781551529257 | Paperback | Out 22/02/2024 | £24.99
Personal essays from diverse voices about their relationships to the fibre arts. Sharp Notions showcases Black, Indigenous, South-Asian, Chinese, and queer artists and makers and the cultural traditions of craft indiasporic communities. Accompanied by full-colour photographs throughout, these powerful essays challenge the traditional view of crafting and examine the role, purpose, joy, and necessity of craft amid the alienation of contemporary life.
Transland
By Mx. Sly
Arsenal Pulp Press | 9781551529318 | Paperback | Out 22/02/2024 | £19.99
Transland is a fiery and revealing memoir that explores what happens when a non-binary person goes looking for self-worth and a sense of belonging in fetish subculture, only to find that fetish communities come with just as many problematic rules, expectations, and hierarchies as mainstream ones.
Ubu Royale
By Alfred Jarry & Translated by Neil Bartlett
Cheerio Publishing Ltd | 9781739440510 | Paperback | Out 22/02/2024 | £11
Alfred Jarry’s riotous, ground-breaking play, was a sensation upon first staging. This modern adaptation, which formed the basis of a short film, Roi, directed by acclaimed author, Neil Bartlett, brings a modernist classic to a contemporary audience.
The Moorings of Mackerel Sky
By MZ
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368097260 | Hardback | Out 27/02/2024 | £23.99
Debut novelist MZ marries fantasy with the everyday in her contemporary novel of a Maine lobstering town where local myths come to life.
King Bro!
By Jenny Jägerfeld & Translated by B.J. Woodstein
Arctis | 9781646900404 | Hardback | Out 27/02/2024 | £15.99
A touching and humorous middle grade novel about transgender friendship and the right to be who you are.
Time on Two Crosses
Revised 2nd Edition
By Baynard Rustin, Edited By Devon W. Carbado & Don Weise, Forword by Walter Naegle, Afterword by Barney Frank
Cleis Press | 9781627783385 | Paperback | Out 29/02/2024 | £31.99
The collected writings of an openly gay Black civil rights leader, newly revised following the release of Rustin (2023) on Netflix.
MARCH
Cirque du Slay
By Rob Osler
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639106479 | Hardback | Out 05/03/2024 | £28.99
In the rollicking mystery, the circus becomes the stage for a high-profile murder investigation. With quirky LGBTQ+ amateur sleuths, Cirque du Slay will delight readers looking for a madcap mystery with high-flying excitement!
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart
By Izzy Wasserstein
Tachyon Publications | 9781616964122 | Paperback | Out 12/03/2024 | £14.99
In a queer, noir technothriller of fractured identity and corporate intrigue, a trans woman faces her fear of losing her community as her past chases after her...
El Ghourabaa
A Queer and Trans Collection of Oddities
Edited by Samia Marshy & Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Metonymy Press | 9781998898022 | Paperback | Out 19/03/2024 | £14.99
A collection of fun, playful, vulgar, inventive, sexual, and weird writings from queer and trans Arab writers. In addition to Marshy and El Bechelany-Lynch, contributors include: Leila Marshy, Trish Salah, Olivia Tapiero, Maisie-Nour Symon Henry, Yehia Anas Sabaa, Nofel, Hoda Adra, Ralph Haddad, Seif Siddiq, Karim Kattan, Andrea Abi-Karam, Bazeed, George Abraham, Sarah O’Neal, Micaela Kaibni Raen, Nour Kamel, Barrak Alzaid, Joe Kadi, and Rabih Alameddine.
Heaven
By Emerson Whitney
Cipher Press | 9781739220785 | Paperback | Out 21/03/2024 | £10.99
Emerson Whitney writes, ‘Really, I can’t explain myself without making a mess.’ What follows is that mess — electrifying, gorgeous, defiant. At Heaven‘s centre, Whitney seeks to understand their relationship to their mother and grandmother, those first windows into womanhood and all its consequences.
