#author: k-ming chang

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Two girls are bound by red string and canine heritage in this vivid tale about female companionship and loyalty, from the National Book Award "5 Under 35" honoree and author of Gods of Want Best friends Anita and Rainie have made countless visits to their home base: an old sycamore tree and its neighboring lot of stray dogs who have a mysterious ability to communicate with humans. The girls learn that they are preceded by generations of dog-headed women and women-headed dogs whose bloodlines knot them together like thread. Anita convinces her best friend Rainie to become a dog with her, tying a collar of red string around each of their necks to preserve their kinship forever. But when the two girls are separated, Anita sinks into her dreams and lands herself in a coma that only Rainie knows how to rouse her from. As Anita’s body begins to rot, her mind straying farther and farther away from the waking world, it is up to Rainie to rebuild her friend’s body and keep Anita from being lost forever.* Tasked with gathering new organs from the mythical landscape of their shared childhood, Rainie must return to the past and ask herself how far she is willing to go to reunite with the girl who has haunted her and hunted her in equal measure. In rhythmically poetic and visceral lore, K-Ming Chang veers away from the ordinary and into the macabre. Filled with ghosts and bodily entrails, this is a story about the horror and beauty of intimacy, being tethered to another person across time and space, and transforming our origins.

[gennsoup]

I burned you this ash is yours rebuild it into anything you want me to be. This letter is not apology . I am not writing for a response a bullet doesn't ask to be given back.

K-Ming Chang, Bestiary

[aboutmercy]

the book i’m reading right now deals with heavy themes and i personally think the author’s ability to balance a lot of the trauma projected onto the main characters (by other characters. basically by the narrative itself —) with small joys and tiny glimmers of hope is masterful.

the mark of a good author and writer to me is when a capacity of understanding the nuances of trauma and how it functions is displayed in the text. i don’t think a lot of mainstream authors, nor do i think that the popular reception, care to weave intricate stories and ideas incorporating trauma as much as they are interested in dissecting it as one would an insect under a microscope.

to be fair, that could totally be your thing! and that’s fine! i just personally think that using characters as vessels for trauma as opposed to fleshing out a study is a level below writing what would (i assume) be a good non-fiction essay.

[douqi7s]

Baihe novels I read in 2023, in order of when I read them:

Miss Forensics by Jiu Nuan Chun Shen. Contemporary thriller featuring a push-pull romance between a forensic pathologist and a police detective. Big action scenes, big emotional set-pieces, big emotions.

Distance by Mi Nao Nao. Contemporary romance billed as 'woman who has broken a thousand hearts vs woman who has never lost her heart'. I found it underwritten and lacking in structure, but lots of people seem to like it.

The Collapsing Palace by Ming Ye. Historical palace harem novel. A wilful noblewoman marries her cousin, the crown prince, so she can get close to his mother/her aunt the empress, whom she's been crushing on since forever. And she's not even the most toxic / messed up main character in this novel.

Life is Like a Dream by Qing Xiang. A short novel set in the Yue opera scene during the Republican Era. Small-scale, elegantly understated, makes highly effective of use of the author's detailed knowledge of opera and the opera scene.

Suffocation by Hua Qiong Ran. One of those 'toxic lesbians' contemporary thrillers, featuring the protagonist being repeatedly stalked and imprisoned by her own wife. Amped up the depravity too quickly to be wholly effective.

Zebra Crossing by Yi Bai Shou. Early baihe novel featuring a romance between a CEO and police detective, a mixture of thriller and romance. Strong beginning with appealing characters, somewhat let down by meandering middle and end and odd approach to extras.

She Belongs to Me by Da Ying. An uncomplicated contemporary romance between two femme professional women who are excellent communicators. Does make effective use of several k-drama style romantic set-pieces.

Bo Zhou by Ruo Hua Ci Shu. Time loop contemporary romance in which the protagonist tries to safe her girlfriend's life again and again. Overall competently plotted, well-paced and genuinely suspenseful.

The Tribulation of the Peach Runaway Blossom by Ning Yuan. A solid xianxia/xuanhuan novel with a big cast of complex female characters, competent world-building and assured prose. Somewhat falls down on the main romance (though the secondary romances make up for that a little), which was at once the lynchpin of the plot and not particularly present on the page.

The Abandoned by Mu Feng Qing Nian. Three words: sapphic xianxia shizunfuckery. Horny unhinged lesbians, plot twists on top of plot twists, and much violence.

Her Mountain, Her Sea by Fu Hua. A contemporary high school romance. Very solid, competent slice-of-life for the most part. The leads are well-characterised and their growing relationship is deftly handled, especially in the early stages.

The Creator's Grace by Ning Yuan. A near future sci-fi thriller. 12/10, no notes (though the sci-fi element is subordinate to the romance and thriller elements).

Minister Xie by Ruo Hua Ci Shu. This historical novel is The Goblin Emperor meets Sha Po Lang. Teenage emperor Liu Zao does her best to turn her prime minister Xie Yi (who is 14 years older) into her wife.

Snow on Her Pillow by Liu Yuan Chang Ning. Historical fiction featuring a romance between Princess Jieyou and her devoted attendant Feng Liao (described as the first official female diplomat in Chinese history). Competently and compellingly written; manages the Feat of treating Central Asian characters (of which there are many) as regular, undemonised people.

Spring on the River by Da Ying. This xuanhuan novel features supernatural women behaving very very badly, weird structure and pacing, and a rather hapless main character who frequently reminded me of a protagonist in a shoujo reverse harem novel.

Listen, God by Xian Yu Bu Chi Cai. A contemporary time loop thriller featuring a romance between a scriptwriter and an up-and-coming actress. Mostly carefully and cleverly plotted (though starts to unravel in the last 20%), though the relationship development between the leads left me cold.

A Taste of You by Si Bai Ba Shi Si. A contemporary romance between a talented chef and a CEO. A grounded, realist novel told through a charmingly wry first-person POV (bar a sharp swerve into melodrama in the last 10%), deeply embedded in the local lesbian scene.

Snow in the Spring Courtyard by Liu Yuan Chang Ning. This wuxia novel had good relationship development, a compelling love interest, and excellent pacing, and is likely to appeal to readers for those reasons. For me personally, it was let down by an extraordinarily bleak view of the jianghu which I don't think the author was fully aware of.

I Think About You Day and Night by Yu Shuang. In this contemporary romance, a CEO rescues a penniless girl from an abusive household, and k-drama-style shenanigans ensue. There's terminal illness, birth secrets, an incest scare (dw they're not actually related), and corporate machinations. The author's commitment to these tropes and their emotional stakes makes this an enjoyably dramatic read.

Cover Her Face by Qing Tang Shuan Xiang Cai. A mostly breezy, mostly fluffy, and unexpectedly sexy historical romance plus a dash of wuxia, with likable main characters.

Waiting for You by Min Ran. A contemporary showbiz romance, basically an exes-to-reunited-lovers story courtesy of a handy rebirth and time rewind. Another one for the 'attractive femme couple resolves their relationship problems through Better Communication' folder.

Climbing High by Po Po Po. In this historical court intrigue novel, aspiring scholar Fang Jian sells herself into indentured servitude to court official Gao Yunqu in exchange for the latter's promise to help her free her parents from unjust imprisonment. Published on PO18, so allowed to be sexually explicit in ways JJWXC and Changpei novels can't be, and the author makes full use of this (though I found the sex scenes between the tertiary couples stronger than those between the main couple, for the most part). Very strong political writing, a great cast of complex female characters.

[librarycards]

hihi, i work in a public library & m always seeking new (to me) books & writers! i read largely magical realism & specfic w the occasional litfic (most recently Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!) & plenty of poetry by qtpoc whose imagery gets called “weird”, trying to avoid repetition of titles i’ve seen in ur already answered asks, here r some books/authors i love:

Past Lives, Future Bodies & Gods of Want (everything, rlly, but emphasis on the short stories & poetry) by K-Ming Chang

Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (particularly for the sense of utter existential dread it left me)

M Archive by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (hybrid forms <3)

Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde

& Jamie Berrout’s entire bibliography

tyty!!! p.s. just bc i can imagine them being clear connections to make, i also already know & cherish Akwaeke Emezi’s & Rivers Solomon’s books!

given that you're a library professional, i'm going to focus on un(der)known books with relatively little buzz! hopefully this might inspire you to order some of these or maybe find a new hidden gem :)

Niki Tulk, O.

Jesi Bender, Kinderkrankenhaus

Keely Shinners, How to Build a Home for the End of the World

Mairead Case, Tiny

Jay Besemer, The Ways of the Monster

Marwa Helal, Ante Body

Precious Okoyomon, Ajebota

i also have a book (forthcoming in aug., but I have ARCs/pre-orders open now!) you may like :3

there are other books I could rec, but I trust you've seen them in my other asks or know about many of them already!

[bookclub4m]

45 New & Forthcoming Indie Press Books by BIPOC Authors 

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Fiction

Weird Black Girls: Stories by Elwin Cotman (AK Press)

False Idols: A Reluctant King Novel by K’Wan (Akashic Books)

Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti (Archipelago Books)

Bad Land by Corinna Chong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Catapult)

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher (Catapult)

Cecilia by K-Ming Chang (Coffee House Press)

Fog & Car by Eugene Lim (Coffee House Press)

We’re Safe When We’re Alone by Nghiem Tran (Coffee House Press)

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Counterpoint Press)

Bad Seed by Gabriel Carle, translated by Heather Houde (Feminist Press)

The Default World by Naomi Kanakia (Feminist Press)

The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press)

I'll Give You a Reason by Annell López (Feminist Press)

Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, translated by Jennifer Feeley (Feminist Press)

Outcaste by Sheila James (Goose Lane Editions)

Silken Gazelles by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth (House of Anansi Press)

Dad, I Miss You by Nadia Sammurtok, illustrated by Simji Park (Inhabit Media)

Secrets of the Snakestone by Pia DasGupta (Nosy Crow)

The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Tin House)

Masquerade by Mike Fu (Tin House)

The World With Its Mouth Open: Stories by Zahid Rafiq (Tin House)

I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall (Soft Skull Press)

Non-Fiction

RAPilates: Body and Mind Conditioning in the Digital Age by Chuck D and Kathy Lopez (Akashic Books)

All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee (Catapult)

My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant's Search for Home Across Four Continents by Jennifer Neal  (Catapult)

Beyond the Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe by Deja Vu Prem (Catapult)

Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance by Victoria Blanco (Coffee House Press)

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha LaPointe (Counterpoint Press)

Born to Walk: My Journey of Trials and Resilience by Alpha Nkuranga (Goose Lane Editions)

Jinny Yu (At Once/À La Fois) by Jinny Yu (Goose Lane Editions)

Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix by Katherine Cross (LittlePuss Press)

Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home by Chris La Tray (Milkweed Editions)

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments  by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Milkweed Editions)

Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull Press)

The Story Game by Shze-Hui Tjoa (Tin House)

Black Meme: The History of the Images That Make Us by Legacy Russell (Verso Books)

Poetry

i heard a crow before i was born by Jules Delorme (Goose Lane Editions)

We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word edited by Franny Choi, Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla, and Terisa Siagatonu (Haymarket Books)

A Map of My Want by Faylita Hicks (Haymarket Books)

[...] by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions)

Comics

A Witch’s Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)

Oba Electroplating Factory by Yoshiharu Tsuge (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lost at Windy River by  Jillian Dolan, Trina Rathgeber and Alina Pete (Orca Books)

[rebeccadumaurier]

2023 Books in Review

a tiered ranking of all the books i read in 2023! originally i was going to write up my commentary on each one but then i was like hahaha.....no, so below the cut is just a list of the titles/authors in each tier instead.

changed my brain chemistry

The Idiot, Elif Batuman

Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang

The Borrowed, Chan Ho-kei (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (trans. Ken Liu)

The Membranes, Chi Ta-wei (trans. Ari Larissa Heinrich)

Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng

Severance, Ling Ma

He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan

Vita Nostra, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Network Effect, Martha Wells

top-tier stuff

Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell)

Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt

The Door, Magda Szabo (trans. Len Rix)

The Lover, Marguerite Duras (trans. Barbara Bray)

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel

Strange Beasts of China, Yan Ge (trans. Jeremy Tiang)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu

Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt

Bliss Montage, Ling Ma

How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemisin

If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin

My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

good, well-written

Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu

Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori)

Yellowface, R. F. Kuang

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

Assassin of Reality, Marina & Sergey Dyachenko (trans. Julia Meitov Hersey)

Witch King, Martha Wells

Tokyo Ueno Station, Miri Yu (trans. Morgan Giles)

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

Peaces, Helen Oyeyemi

Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

The Pachinko Parlor, Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)

All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Fugitive Telemetry, and System Collapse (Murderbot #1-4, #6-7), Martha Wells

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee

The Dry Heart, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Frances Frenaye)

Gods of Want, K-Ming Chang

Paradais, Fernanda Melchor (trans. Sophie Hughes)

The Mushroom at the End of the World, Anna Tsing

Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced An Emergency, Chen Chen

The Hurting Kind, Ada Limon

Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, Lauren James

Upstream, Mary Oliver

The Art of Death, Edwidge Danticat

Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison

alphabet, Inger Christensen (trans. Susanna Nied)

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

flawed, but enjoyable

The Wicker King, K. Ancrum

Exit West, Mohsin Hamid

Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

Flux, Jinwoo Chong

Bang Bang Bodhisattva, Aubrey Wood

The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray

Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Likeness, Tana French

The Cabinet, Un-su Kim (trans. Sean Lin Halbert)

The Kingdom of Surfaces, Sally Wen Mao

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, Franny Choi

good, well-written, but not my cup of tea

The Good House, Tananarive Due

The Transmigration of Bodies, Yuri Herrera (trans. Lisa Dillman)

Roadside Picnic, Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (trans. Olena Bormashenko)

The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan

At Night All Blood Is Black, David Diop (trans. Anna Moschovakis)

Family Lexicon, Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Jenny McPhee)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo

The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier (trans. Harriet de Onís)

Against Silence, Frank Bidart

flawed, less enjoyable

Tenth of December, George Saunders

Counterweight, Djuna (trans. Anton Hur)

Authority, Jeff VanderMeer

Comfort Me with Apples, Catherynne M. Valente

Babel, R. F. Kuang

The Genesis of Misery, Neon Yang

Carrie Soto Is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid

not ranking

These are nonfiction and they aren’t literature-related, so it just felt weird trying to rank them.

Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin

On Web Typography, Jason Santa Maria

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (trans. Cathy Hirano)

[amanitaphalloides]

do top five books of the year and also top five new authors you read that made you say i need to read more of this. and also worst book

ty jess ily <3

top 5 books is hard but i'm gonna say the summer book by tove jansson, a tale for the time being by ruth ozeki, the glass hotel/sea of tranquility by emily st john mandel (this is me cheating), the lathe of heaven by ursula k le guin, and ummmmmm let’s toss one nonfiction in there, ghosts in the schoolyard by eve ewing

top 5 new to me authors that I wanna read more of: eleanor catton, andromeda romano-lax, ruth ozeki, rachel cusk, k-ming chang!!

worst book was thinner by stephen king really strong contender for worst stephen king I’ve ever read and you know how intense that competition is. elevation by stephen king and rose madder by stephen king also in the running for this question. I really scared myself this year as you may know by facing the possibility that i am a stephen king constant reader. it’s so habitual I just do it accidentally now. and then i always have an easy answer for worst book of the year so that's a win?

[grenadineghost]

i have so many thoughts on eroticism in literature. a few weeks ago i got to meet actual author k-ming chang and we had a really interesting conversation about horniness in writing and how that’s a valid and important feeling that can be written about. and how queer sex breaks the definitions of what sex IS and how anything can be a sex scene and how that can be good and important to bring into workshops if it’s what your story needs

[sixbucks]

A Complete List of the 2023 LAMBDA Literary Awards Winners and Finalists

Congratulations to this years "Lammy" Award winners and finalists! In line with Lambda Literary's mission to advocate for LGBTQ writers, the awards are a way to amplify some of the best writing by queer authors today. More than 1,350 literary works were submitted this year across 25 categories of LGBTQ+ literature, so these books faced some steep competition.

Kick off your own Pride Month Reading Challenge by stocking up on these winning and finalist books! Use promotional code PRIDE23 at check-out to get 20% off these books throughout the month of June.

Bisexual Nonfiction

The Winner: Appropriate Behavior by Maria San Filippo

Finalists:

See why the title essay of this book went viral on the Paris Review website back in 2019.

"The book brings that same frank, funny gaze to bear on a succession of other doomed romances, mining them for complicated truths about how the love stories we inherit, consume and tell come to shape our experience and expectations. Think of it as rehab for road-weary romantics." —The Guardian

Carrying It Forward: Essays from Kistahpinanihk by John Brady McDonald (not carried by Tertulia)

Never Simple: A Memoir by Liz Scheier

Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy by Rachel Krantz

Lesbian Fiction

The Winner: Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang

Finalists:

Locus Magazine called this finalist for the 2022 National Book Award an "extraordi­nary literate and structurally inventive novel about female sexuality, cruelty, desire, and trauma that echoes the work of Lovecraft and Melville. A book this good, this devas­tating, should factor on all the award lists..."

Big Girl: A Novel by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

Our Wives Under the Sea: A Novel by Julia Armfield

Gay Fiction

The Winner: The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan

Finalists:

Author Andrew Sean Greer called this book "Full of joy and righteous anger, sex and straight talk, brilliant storytelling and humor... A spectacularly researched Dickensian tale with vibrant characters and dozens of famous cameos, it is precisely the book we've needed for a long time."

Call Me Cassandra by Marcial Gala

God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu

Hugs and Cuddles by João Gilberto Noll

Lesbian Memoir/Biography

The Winner: Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz

This thriller/sci-fi mash-up was named a best book of the year by NPR.

"In the end, The Paradox Hotel succeeds as both a mystery and as a story involving time travel. Do you want head-spinning theories on the flow of time and what it might do to people and places? You’ll find both in abundance here. But you’ll also find a resourceful, haunted protagonist pushing herself to the limit to uncover the truth behind an impossible case—one that eventually leads her to a conclusion that satisfies both of the genres from which this novel emerged." —Tor.com

Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong

Bisexual Fiction

The Winner: Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

Finalists:

Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy

Mother Ocean Father Nation by Nishant Batsha

Roses, In the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman

Stories No One Hopes Are about Them by A.J. Bermudez

Transgender Fiction

The Winner: The Call-Out by Cat Fitzpatrick

Finalists:

All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From by Izzy Wasserstein

Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham

Manywhere by Morgan Thomas

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

LGTBQ+ Young Adult

The Winner: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

Finalists:

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

Funny Gyal: My Fight Against Homophobia in Jamaica by Angeline Jackson with Susan McClelland

Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson

LGTBQ+ Middle Grade

The Winner: Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy

Finalists:

Answers In the Pages by David Levithan

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff

Hazel Hill Is Gonna Win This One by Maggie Horne

The Civil War of Amos Abernathy by Michael Leali

LGTBQ+ Children's Book

The Winner: Mighty Red Riding Hood by Wallace West

Finalists:

A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin by Carol Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders

Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson

Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina LaCour

The Sublime Ms. Stacks by Robb Pearlman

Transgender Nonfiction

The Winner: The Third Person by Emma Grove

Finalists:

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam

Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist by Cecilia Gentili

Feral City: On Finding Liberation in Lockdown New York by Jeremiah Moss

The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment by Cameron Awkward-Rich

LGTBQ+ Nonfiction

The Winner: The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin by Hafizah Augustus Geter

Finalists:

And the Category Is…: Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan

Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson

Lesbian Poetry

The Winner: As She Appears by Shelley Wong

Finalists:

Beast at Every Threshold by Natalie Wee

Concentrate by Courtney Faye Taylor

Prelude by Brynne Rebele-Henry

Yearn by Rage Hezekiah

Gay Poetry

The Winner: Some Integrity by Padraig Regan

Finalists:

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones

Brother Sleep by Aldo Amparán

Pleasure by Angelo Nikolopoulos

Super Model Minority by Chris Tse

Bisexual Poetry

The Winner: Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes by Nicky Beer

Finalists:

50 Things Kate Bush Taught Me About the Multiverse by Karyna McGlynn

Dereliction by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker

Indecent Hours by James Fujinami Moore

Meat Lovers by Rebecca Hawkes

Transgender Poetry

The Winner: MissSettl by Kamden Ishmael Hilliard

Finalists:

A Dead Name That Learned How to Live by Golden

A Queen in Bucks County by Kay Gabriel

All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran

Emanations by Prathna Lor

LGTBQ+ Anthology

The Winner: OutWrite: The Speeches That Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture by Julie R. Enszer and Elena Gross

Finalists:

Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology edited by Michael Walsh

This Arab is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers by Elias Jahshan

Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities Second Edition by Laura Erickson-Schroth

Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth by Isabela Oliveira and Jed Sabin

Gay Memoir/Biography

The Winner: High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez

Finalists:

All Down Darkness Wide: A Memoir by Seán Hewitt

An Angel in Sodom by Jim Elledge

Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of ACT UP New York by Ron Goldberg

I’m Not Broken by Jesse Leon

LGTBQ+ Mystery

The Winner: Dirt Creek: A Novel by Hayley Scrivenor

Finalists:

A Death in Berlin by David C Dawson

And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan

Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen

LGTBQ+ Comics

The Winner: Mamo by Sas Milledge

Finalists:

A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings: A Graphic Memoir by Will Betke-Brunswick

Gay Giant by Gabriel Ebensperger

Other Ever Afters by Melanie Gillman

The Greatest Thing by Sarah Winifred Searle

Lesbian Romance

The Winner: The Rules of Forever by Nan Campbell

Finalists:

Hard Pressed by Aurora Rey

If I Don’t Ask by E. J. Noyes

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond

Southbound and Down by K.B. Draper

Gay Romance

The Winner: I’m So Not Over You by Kosoko Jackson

Finalists:

Forever After by Marie Sinclair (not carried by Tertulia)

Forever, Con Amor by A.M. Johnson

Just One Night by Felice Stevens

Two Tribes by Fearne Hill

LGTBQ+ Romance and Erotica

The Winner: Kiss Her Once For Me: A Novel by Alison Cochrun

Finalists:

A Lady’s Finder by Edie Cay

Loose Lips: A Gay Sea Odyssey by Joseph Brennan

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett

LGTBQ+ Drama

The Winner: Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) & Antigone: 方 by Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)

Finalists:

Duecentomila by kai fig taddei

Rock ‘n’ Roll Heretic by Sikivu Hutchinson

The Show on the Roof Book by Tom Ford, Music and Lyrics by Alex Syiek (not carried by Tertulia)

Wolf Play by Hansol Jung, Samuel French

 LGTBQ+ Studies

The Winner: Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics by Darieck Scott

Finalists:

Lesbian Death: Desire and Danger between Feminist and Queer by Mairead Sullivan

Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness by Marlon B. Ross

Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability by Vivian L. Huang

There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life by Jafari S. Allen

[gennsoup]

Once, I asked her what happened to a body when it died. She said it became a story, and death was just another translation of it.

K-Ming Chang, Bestiary

[readmorepoets]

2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12? Hi love u

2. answered <3

3. What were your top five books of the year? i'm not counting gideon because it was a reread, but i am counting harrow even though it was also a reread. this makes sense to me. sooo (1) harrow the ninth (2) the haunting of hill house (3) gods of want (4) my favorite thing is monsters and (5) a decolonial feminism... maybe? sorry to nona the ninth for not making it to this list i have to reread it to be less confused about my feelings!

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? k-ming chang please let's be buddies. also emil ferris (my favorite thing is monsters) and eliza clark (boy parts)

10. What was your favorite new release of the year? GODS OF WANT BY K-MING CHANG!!!!!!!!!!!!! once again sorry to nona the ninth

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? 1959 is a while for sure (it’s the haunting of hill house)

12. Any books that disappointed you? yeah actually ninth house by leigh bardugo :\\ wrote so many words about it but then i decided to move on

[castiej]

Almost done with Bestiary by K-Ming Chang and I don't understand how she's not a bigger author on here

[thebookraven]

Spoiler Free Book review

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Surrealist Fiction, Horror (subgenre), LGBT+ (subgenre)

Trigger Warnings: body horror, bodily excrements

Synopsis: Best friends Anita and Rainie find refuge by an old sycamore tree with its neighboring lot of stray dogs who have a mysterious ability to communicate with humans. The girls learn that they are preceded by generations of dog-headed women and woman-headed dogs whose bloodlines bind them together. Anita convinces Rainie to become a dog with her, tying a collar of red string around each of their necks to preserve their kinship forever. But when the two girls are separated, Anita sinks into a dreamworld that only Rainie knows how to rescue her from. As Anita’s body begins to rot, it is up to Rainie to rebuild Anita’s body and keep her friend from being lost forever. Filled with ghosts and bodily entrails, this is a story about the horror and beauty of intimacy, written in K-Ming Chang’s signature poetic and visceral lore.

The Review: Recently, I read Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang. This was a blind read for me, meaning that I hadn't seen any content or previous reviews regarding this book before reading it. I didn't realize going into the book that it was surrealist fiction as my local bookstore had it within the horror section.

Having never read anything surreal before, I found this book hard to follow at several parts. It took reading two newspaper articles and watching 30 minutes of a podcast where the author only talks about this book for me to even sort of understand why the book is arranged the way it is, but not necessarily what's going on throughout the book. I also noticed that outside of Goodreads and NetGalley, there don't appear to be many reader reviews for this book, which was interesting to me.

I will say though, there were certain lines and scenes throughout the book that I did connect with. Such as a part where the author says that daughters are seen as an insurance policy while sons are seen as a possibility. This really calls to the fact that in many cultures, daughters are expected to help care for their parents and other family member throughout their lives as they age, while sons are primarily expected to further the family name and uplift the family in some way (financial, reputation, etc). There were also a few themes explored later in the book (being haunted by the past, the reconnection of a bond, etc) that I feel Chang really nailed and that I was able to understand and connect with on some kind of level.

Overall though, I really struggled to connect with this book and with the story as a whole. While Chang's prose is beautiful and imaginative, if you aren't a fan of heavy surrealism, events told outside of chronological order, in-depth descriptions of body horror and bodily excrement, and non-escapist fiction, than this book likely won't be for you.

💕As always, remember that reading is subjective and that you shouldn't yuck someone else's yum💕

[rg060295]

This list includes a list of 5 anthologies coming out between now, and the end of the year! I am based in the UK and therefore all dates and relevant links I have found reflect this!

In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology

Published by Titian Books on September 12th 

Look I have not really enjoyed any dark academia I have read, nor have read from any of these authors so this is a risky choice. However, this is the season for dark academia and I am intrigued. This collection of 12 stories includes well known authors of the genre (sub genre?) Olivie Blake & M.L. Rio as well as David Bell, Susie Yang, Layne Fargo, J.T. Ellison, James Tate Hill, Kelly Andrew, Phoebe Qynne, Kate Weinberg, Helen Grant & Tori Bovalino. 

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Peach Pit 

Published by Dzanc Books on September 12th 

A collection of 16 stories about and following unlikeable, unhinged and monstrous women. Which basically sums up some of my favourite types of short story collections. With story description makes it sound similar to other collections such as Out There with a bit of Cursed Bunny. Edited by Molly Llewllyn and Kristel Buckly featuring stories from; Lauren Groff, Deesha Philyaw, K-Ming Chang, Megan Giddings, Sarah Rose Etter, Chaya Bhuvaneswar, Alicia Elliott, Chana Porter, Alice Ash, Maisy Card, Vanessa Chan, Chantal V. Johnson, Amada Leduc, Alison Rumfitt, Yah Yah Scholfield & Aliya Whitely.

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Mermaids Never Drown 

Published by Titian Press (UK) / Feiwel & Friends (US) on September 26th 

From the team behind Vampires Never Get Old (which you may know about from the Story ‘First Kill’ which became a Netflix show) comes a second Young Adult collection exploring mermaids. Edited again by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker and featuring many well known and beloved YA authors such as Darcie Little Badger, Kalynn Bayron, Preeti Chhibber, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julie C. Dao, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Adriana Herrera, June Hur, Katherine Locke, Kerri Maniscalco, Julie Murphy, Gretchen Schreiber, and Julian Winters. I am particularly excited to see Darcie Little Badger who I have loved both their long work (Elatose) and their short fiction (in Love Beyond Body Space and Time) and also I am intrigued by June Hur who I have only read Historical mystery work from so this will be a different spin.

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror 

Published by Random House on October 3rd 

An anthology I surprisingly only found out about when putting together this list. Out There Screaming is a collection of stories edited by writer and director Jordan Peele. It is an anthology of ‘all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation. Alongside an introduction from Jordan Peele it also features stories by Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L.D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull. 

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon // Libro.fm //

The Book of Witches 

Published by HarperVoyager on August 1st (US) and October 26th (UK)

Edited by Jonathan Strahan the editor from The Book of Dragons and featuring art from artist Alyssa Winans throughout This is large collection focusing around witches featuring 29 stories and poems from well known contemporary SFF authors; Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu. This is a must pick up for me for two reasons, I enjoyed reading The Book of Dragons last year, and found some new favourite short stories, and two it includes some of my favourite authors. So even if I only enjoy their stories this would be a win for me!

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon // Libro.fm //