Greetings from Jamaica, Wish You Were Queer

Mari SanGiovanni

Bywater Books

Seasons: A collection of poems

Edwards, Lisa

Little lady

Edwards, L

Trick Of The Dark

Mcdermid. Val.

I Came Out for This?: A Novel

Lisa Gitlin

a heartfelt coming-of-age story worth a read . . . Rowan grows and learns more in one summer than a lot of us do in years, which is what made Leap an enjoyable read” Liberty Press, June 2013 
Summer 1979. Rowan Marks is done with high school. Next comes college. But in between there's a yawning gulfthe last carefree summer vacation.
Rowan's older brother Ben is smoking too much dope. Her best friend Danny is in love with her. And Catherine, the new girl in their small Ohio town, rubs her the wrong way. But that's OK. Rowan can deal with it.
Just when she thinks she's got it all worked out, everything turns on its head. Catherine steals her heart, Danny falls out with her, and when Ben crashes the family car, the family secrets come tumbling out.
All of a sudden, Rowan has a stark choiceis she going to grow up or give up?
Z Egloff is an exciting new talent. Leap is an accomplished follow-up to her first novel, Verge, which won the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
Praise for Z Egloff's debut novel, Verge:
"Verge has heart and wit and intelligence."Emma Donoghue, author of Room
"Verge is powerful, quirky, and fresh. . . . Z Egloff creates a rich, inclusive world and a heroine who's one of the most endearingly fallible characters I've met in a long time."Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
"With Verge, Z Egloff enters the ring of fiction with the assurance of an old hand. . . . This is a talented writer."Carol Anshaw, author of Aquamarine

Leap

Literature & Fiction

Egloff, Z

United States

"Jesse Blackadder has all the hallmarks of a great historical fiction writer, achieving a fine balance of thoroughly researched atmospheric detail and suspenseful story. . . . In The Raven's Heart she doesn't hit one wrong note."—The Sunday Telegraph Scotland, 1561, and a ship comes across the North Sea carrying home Mary, the young, charismatic Queen of Scots, returning after thirteen years in the French court to wrest back control of her throne. The Blackadder family has long awaited for the Queen's return to bring them justice. Alison Blackadder, disguised as a boy from childhood to protect her from the murderous clan that stole their lands, must learn to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, building a web of dependence and reward. Just as the Queen can trust nobody, Alison discovers lies, danger, and treachery at every turn. This sweeping, imaginative, and original tale of political intrigue, misplaced loyalty, secret passion, and implacable revenge is based on real characters and events from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots. The Raven's Heart is a breathtaking epic from a bold, fresh voice. Winner of the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award, The Raven's Heart was published in Australia in 2011. Jesse Blackadder finally had enough of people asking if she was related to Rowan Atkinson, star of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. She traveled to Scotland to find the origins of her surname and discovered the ruins of Blackadder House on the banks of the Blackadder River. The Raven's Heart grew from there. Jesse lives in Byron Bay, Australia.

The Raven's Heart: A Story of a Quest, a Castle and Mary Queen of Scots

Blackadder, Jesse

British & Irish

Art on Fire is the apparent biography of subversive painter Francesca deSilva, the founding foremother of "pseudorealism," who lived hard and died young. But in the tradition of Vladimir Nabokov's acclaimed novel Pale Fire, it's a fiction from start to finish. It opens with Francesca's early life. We learn about her childhood love, the chess genius Lisa Sinsong, as well as her rivalry with her brilliant sister Isabella, who publishes an acclaimed volume of poetry at the age of twelve. She compensates for the failings of her less than attentive parents by turning to her grandmother who is loyal and adoring until she learns Francesca is a lesbian, when she rejects her. Francesca flees to a ramshackle cabin in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, working weekends at the flea market. She breaks into the gloomy basement of a house, where she begins her life as a painter. Much to her confusion and even dismay, fame comes quickly. Interspersed with Francesca's narrative are thirteen critical "essays" on the paintings of Francesca deSilva by critics, academics, and psychologists—essays that are razor-sharp satires on art, lesbian life, and the academic world, puncturing pretentiousness with every paragraph. Art on Fire is a darkly comic, pitch-perfect, and fearless satire on the very art of biography itself. Art on Fire is the latest winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Heekin Foundation Award, the Dana Awards, and the Story Oaks Prize. It was mistakenly awarded the nonfiction prize in the Amherst Book and Plow Competition.

Art on Fire

Sloin, Hilary

Literary

"Katz lives up to her first novel's potential in this moving, funny, wholly original picaresque about a nice Jewish girl. . . . The pasts and common destiny of two remarkable womenrelated with perfect timing in Sofia's convincing Yiddish-tinged Englishcome together beautifully in this nicely crafted, emotionally satisfying, and well-researched historical fiction."Publishers WeeklyThe Escape Artist, a brilliant work of historical fiction . . . fast-paced and gorgeously written novel” Liberty PressSet in the brothels and gangster dens of Jewish Buenos Aires at the beginning of the twentieth century, The Escape Artist catapults us into the lives of Sofia Teitelbaum and Hankus Lubarsky.Sofia, a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is lured away from home by Tutsik Goldenberg, a wealthy traveling businessman who claims to be a lonely Argentine diamond merchant in search of a wife. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, Tutsik dumps Sofia at his sister’s brothel.Hankus, also a nice Jewish girl from Poland, is passing as a man. Having escaped the pogroms of Poland that killed her family, she lives her life as a handsome and mysterious magician and escape artist.When Tutsik spots the talented juggler and acrobat Hankus he envisions success as his manager, seeing Hankus as the means to get out from under his sister’s thumb.Sofia and Hankus fall in love and their attempts to walk the tightrope of love, freedom, and independence are quickly put to the test.Sex, deception, magic, and love are the main ingredients of this tour de force novel by Lambda Literary Award winner Judith Katz. In The Escape Artist, Katz reveals that all human interactions consist of love and hate, deception and candor, altruism and self-interest. This is as true in our lives today as it was in an immigrant community at the turn of the last century.Judith Katz is the author of two published novels, The Escape Artist and Running Fiercely Toward a High Thin Sound, which won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has received Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, and National Endowment fellowships for fiction.

The Escape Artist

Katz, Judith

This is not just a luminescent work, it is a transcendent and transformative one. Jill Malone finds and plays the desperate times of the teenaged years like an old Gibson. The reader is instantly, effortlessly, back in those halls of high school, the auditoriums and locker rooms and gyms, the whispered conversations in the library, solving math problems on the phone, sneaking out late at night, wondering, always wondering, if you have gone too far this time, or not far enough. . . . Malone continues to delight with each new book. Her writing reveals a sure, deft skill at the subtleties and ever-changing emotions of characters as they grow and progress. . . . Malone is the real thing, a novelist of great touch and tone, like a fine musician, the kind who play because they love the music and look up at the end of a song, surprised to find an audience.” Lesbian.com, June 4, 2013 Between God and the army, fifteen-year-old Cole Peters has more than enough to rebel against. But this Chaplain’s daughter isn’t resorting to drugs or craziness. Truth to tell, she’s content with her soccer team and her band and her white bread boyfriend. And then, of course, there’s Meghan. Meghan is eighteen years old and preparing for entry into West Point. For this she has sponsors: Cole’s parents. They’re delighted their daughter is finally looking up to someone. Someone who can tutor her and be a friend. But one night that relationship changes and Cole’s world flips. Giraffe People is a potent reminder of the rites of passage and passion that we all endure on our road to growing up and growing strong. Award-winning author Jill Malone tells a story of coming out and coming of age, giving us a take that is both subtle and fresh. 
Praise for Jill Malone's debut Red Audrey and the Roping:
"A lyrical, passionate novel about desire, about danger, and about the need for self-forgiveness. A wonderfully impressive writing debut."Sarah Waters
"With its lyrical dialogue, complex characters, and atmospheric setting, this is a dazzling and dramatic debut."Richard Labonte, Book Marks Reviews
"Finely tuned, daring, and perceptive, Malone's auspicious debut leaves us wanting more."Booklist
Praise for Jill Malone's A Field Guide to Deception:
"This gem of a book avoids the second-book blahs and gives us a poignant, real story of relationships and all they cost."OutSmart Magazine
"An absolutely gripping and beautifully written story."AfterEllen.com
"Beautiful, essential reading."Outinprint.net
Jill Malone's second novel, A Field Guide to Deception, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and was a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. Her first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Jill Malone is a regular blogger and her following is moving beyond the queer reading community. She lives in Spokane, Washington.

Giraffe People

Malone, Jill

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