Geoff Rickly
[isbn]
By far one of the best books I have ever read. This is one of those books that you want to tell everyone about because you can’t put it down, but is also so deeply personal that you want to keep it all to yourself. Rickly’s voice is stunningly creative and detailed and the world he has created here is the best modern adaptation I’ve read of any classic, but especially of Dante’s Divine Comedy. I genuinely cannot say enough good things... (read more)
Recommended by Aster A.
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Cameron Chiovitti
[isbn]
There is a quiet but powerful way that rejection, love, loss, and memory tangle themselves into our actions and our bodies and the poems within these pages showcase that in a way few other collections could. These poems also beautifully exemplify how we can often feel powerful memories as if those moments and those people are still with us.
Recommended by Aster A.
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Rachel Wiley
[isbn]
This collection is a truly unique set of poems. Wiley addresses being fat, queer, and biracial in a world that wants to control you and tell you exactly what you should look like and who you should love; Wiley addresses all of this in a way that is honest while being both sad and at times a little funny. All the while she reminds you that your body is yours alone and that sometimes loving the body you’re in can be a struggle but that love is so... (read more)
Recommended by Aster A.
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Jessica Cuello
[isbn]
A haunting and beautiful, poetic pseudo-biography of Mary Shelly written as a series of letters and notes in verse to her mother. The contents range from mundane pictures of everyday life to confessions of grief and guilt. Each poem in this collection is both connected and wholly its own.
Recommended by Aster A.
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Timothy Arliss OBrien
[isbn]
Need some queer anger? There's plenty to be mad about, right? Well, this is a work to stoke your passion. It certainly did mine. A collection of poetry, with a mini-zine essay sandwiched in the middle, this innovative work also features poems in envelopes and a pop-out waterfall poem. With fabulous illustrations by the author, The Queer Revolt: Poetry for Revolution is a little zine bursting with heart, creativity, and some... (read more)
Recommended by Nicholas Y.
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Alex Woodroe
[isbn]
If your eyes aren't on Portland-based publisher Tenebrous Press, you may need to get your prescription checked. This collection of Weird (with a capital "W") horror stories was concocted to unsettle and perplex you, and that it will. Highlighting Mae Murray's "The Imperfection" and Carson Winter's "In Haskins." Long live the Weird!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Matt Blairstone and Alex Woodroe
[isbn]
WTFs abound in this anthology benefitting trans youth from a powerful union of trans writers exploring the darkest pits of body horror. No pulled punches to be found here, and why should they be? Trans people live through horrors every waking minute. Sit down, get uncomfy, and PROTECT TRANS KIDS ALWAYS.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Eric LaRocca
[isbn]
If there's anything I've learned from LaRocca's work, it's that nothing is ever what it seems. In a spine-tingling subversion of the smalltown-with-secrets trope, Everything The Darkness Eats gives us a ruthless villain, a sympathetic yet disturbing main character, and more of its creator's signature writing style, which feels like it should be narrated by the late Tony Jay or Boris Karloff. You will be unnerved.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Josh Cook
[isbn]
This insightful pamphlet from a fellow indie bookseller grapples with the role that independent bookstores play in platforming, legitimizing, and providing a revenue stream for white supremacists and other dangerous ideologues. A small book that asks some big and necessary questions, and urges its reader to do the same.
Recommended by Tove H.
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Rosa Campbell
[isbn]
I'll never forget how it felt to read this verdant meditation on grief, houseplants, and queer home-making for the first time — how moved I was by its warmth and brilliance, how I read it all in a single afternoon even as I wished it wouldn't end. With Pothos as her debut, Scotland-based writer Rosa Campbell reveals herself to be a thrilling and vital new voice, as well as a generous guide towards the small things that can save us.
Recommended by Alexa W.
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Hailey Piper
[isbn]
A noxious blend of horror and romance through an unabashedly queer lens from the name in horror no one can stop screaming about, Hailey Piper. Themed around women's agency and its incessant overriding, Queen of Teeth speaks to those who see the delight in the disgusting, the fairness in ferocity, and the vaudeville in the villainous. And, of course, to the gays.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Mae Murray
[isbn]
Too often queer authors — queer people — are expected to be congenial. Unless queer characters are lawful good and palatable to a broadly heteronormative audience, they are vilified. Even by queer communities who demand that queer writers create within moral guidelines that don't exist for their non-queer contemporaries. The Book of Queer Saints puts fangs back into the mouth of queer authors. It's the queer jailbreak you've been waiting... (read more)
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Caren Beilin
[isbn]
This hallucinatory, macabre, and surprisingly jubilant book about breaking free from cycles of family trauma had me laughing in the laundromat and weeping in the back of the bus. I'm certain Beilin's revenge will feel like a gift to many, but especially to the truth-tellers, the survivors, the exilic by nature; truly to anyone who has learned, at great risk, how to stay alive in spite/despite. Viva the scapegoats.
Recommended by Alexa W.
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Shawn Levy
[isbn]
This book is a serious delight, a dish you can snack on or dine on. The greatest delight is reading the heart of the author in who he writes about and how he writes. And finally, I find I will also make a mark on someone’s life, although maybe not be remembered by the New York Times or by such a personable poet.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Zachary Schomburg
[isbn]
Nine years after the first surreal treasure of Fjords: Vol. I, comes Schomburg's equally surreal (yet plaintive) follow-up. Will there be a Fjords: Vol. III? With Schomburg's endless genius, I'm sure there will be. This set of paragraph-size prose poems slip us (water slide-style) into a theater of clouds, bears, trees, James Tate-like everymans, icebergs, and flashes of stunning nothingness. It's so fun to see where Schomburg... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Mark Leidner
[isbn]
Leidner's delightfully strange and playful poems constantly break new ground while somehow highlighting the despair of humanity. Employing everything from spoonerisms to haunted epigraphical images, Leidner puts us in his wheelhouse, where Robyn Hitchcock and the ghost of James Tate write the scripts for your next dreams.
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Tommy Pico
[isbn]
Tommy Pico's IRL is a poem written in a newfound form, the text message. You probably won't ever receive anything this long in your DMs, but IRL feels just as emotional as receiving a heartfelt text from a dear friend. With musical rhythm and gut-punching humor, IRLis a personal yet relatable poem delivered to you, the reader, straight from Pico's brilliant mind.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Hazel Jane Plante
[isbn]
A gorgeous ode to the life of Vivian and our author's unrequited love for her, Little Blue Encyclopedia gushes with loss and desire between trans women. This is pure tenderness in the face of struggle, about grief and the ways that we hold each other. One of the best love letters ever written.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Caren Beilin
[isbn]
The language in this book reminds me of those restaurants that offer the weirdest concoctions of food that make your taste buds question the normalcy of every other traditionally delicious food in the world. Most of the time, my brain (operating as taste buds to what I read) was delighted, sparked, spanked, and refreshed by the sting of fresh, new air. But yes, there were times I was challenged and had to question my idea of sentence structure,... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Lisa Carver
[isbn]
Lisa Carver is a person and writer who doesn't give a sh*t about your book criticism, art criticism, TV/movie criticism, etc. Your low art is her biggest thrill. High art is probably sort of blah to her. She recounts her experiences watching random bad TV or admiring popular celebrities just as thoughtfully as she describes her experiences in the art world. This book of brief, irreverent, unpretentious, and sometimes startling essays (like the... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Danny Caine
[isbn]
I bought copies of this for everyone on my holiday gift list this year. Amazon has become so ubiquitous, and has formed and acquired so many subsidiaries over the years, that I figured everyone in my life was probably supporting them in some way — perhaps without even realizing — and might benefit from this concise, thoughtful zine. Danny Caine has seen firsthand the impact Amazon has had on the bookselling industry, and here he offers a quick... (read more)
Recommended by Tove H.
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Heather Christle
[isbn]
A fascinating and deeply moving nonfiction debut by an award-winning poet. This fragmentary examination of tears expertly mixes poetic thought, science, and the author's own relationship to sadness, joy, and crying. Everyone who has ever cried should read this book.
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Larissa Glasser
[isbn]
Larissa Glasser's F4 is Bizzaro fiction at its best, featuring a trans bartender contending with fractured selves and wars with Internet trolls on the back of a kaiju (like, you know, Godzilla). From start to finish, it's a roller coaster of the strangest and most delicious pulp.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Lou Sullivan and Zach Ozma and Ellis Martin
[isbn]
I love everything about this book, from the meticulous research, to the beautiful cover, to the stunning revelations it holds. Martin and Ozma have compiled a thoughtful, hilarious, sexy collection of Lou Sullivan’s personal diaries. Do you not know about Lou Sullivan yet? A trans icon if there ever was one, he paved the way for gay trans men, who had previously been barred from medical transition. This collection covers myriad topics: Sullivan’s... (read more)
Recommended by Kyan F.
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Emily Kendal Frey
[isbn]
There are few books I return to as frequently as I do Sorrow Arrow. It's the kind of book you pick up when you want to read a single page or even a single line to carry you through the day, but it's also the kind of book that, once you've picked it up, you're likely to read cover to cover in one sitting. Frey's lines are sharp as the titular arrow — they lodge themselves deep, and while yes, some of them are likely to bring the sharp... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Diana Khoi Nguyen
[isbn]
Nguyen's poems aren't just ABOUT grief — they embody it in every line break, in every disruption of white space, in the way words and images repeat themselves — taking on different nuances and shapes, echoing themselves, shape-shifting. Since I first read it, Ghost Of has never been far from my thoughts — it's haunted and haunting, driven by sound and the absence of sound, painfully human and painstakingly constructed.
Recommended by Darla M.
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Nastashia Minto
[isbn]
Minto flays open her wound for the whole world to see in this stark and searing work that examines every feeling for nuance and meaning. First, there's pain, but with love, healing and redemption can catch fire and explode. Beautiful.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Alex DiFrancesco
[isbn]
This is an amazing read centered around people who are living queer culture in New York. The story isn't just about the writer and their peers being queer. It goes so much deeper. This book made me feel three things regarding my queerness and queer culture: 1. What has happened to me?
2. What is going to happen to me?
3. The same thing is happening to someone else right now.
I flew through this book in a few days, and I highly recommend it.
Recommended by Rin S.
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Timothy Arliss OBrien
[isbn]
I've read many other stories written in verse before, but in most of them, the individual poems aren't really standalone pieces like in this work. You can open this collection at any point and find a short, intriguing, thought-provoking poem, but when read together, they slowly unfold the mystery of one woman's life, delving into a psychological exploration of her mental health and her questioning of reality. It's a stimulating literary trip,... (read more)
Recommended by Nicholas Y.
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Charlotte Shane and Merritt K
[isbn]
Times are tough. All any of us needs is a cool, slightly older friend who will hand us a bowl of cereal and let us pet their cat while they impart their wisdom and affirmation onto us. Fortunately, such a remedy has arrived in the form of merritt k. and Charlotte Shane (cat and cereal not included). Equal parts familiar and challenging, this beautiful, hand-printed pamphlet features discussion of sex work, monogamy, plastic surgery, the paradox... (read more)
Recommended by Kyan F.
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Raleigh Briggs
[isbn]
An awesome do-it-yourself guide for simple remedies, medicines, and cleaners! I say simple, but you will acquire a lot of skills if you put any of these methods in practice. If you're interested in relevant homesteading skills in a fast-paced world where there is hardly any time for that, this is totally for you!
Recommended by Rin S.
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Sabrina Orah Mark
[isbn]
I am not sure if these are story dreams, or narrative poems, or maybe even spells. Language is given about motherhood, love, and everything else and then it's broken, or dispersed, or maybe inhaled. Whatever Wild Milk is, I know that it's still floating around in me, and that maybe now even words themselves are different then they were before.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Leah Dieterich
[isbn]
Leah Dieterich lays all of her insecurities and uncertainties excruciatingly bare in this excavation of her marriage. Using compelling prose, she peels back the surface of everything, and it is mesmerizing; she digs until she understands what she feels, what she wants, and why she wants it. Exploring open marriage, bisexuality, honesty, and fear, this is an eye-opening dissertation on love, desire, commitment, and human nature — and Dieterich... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Tatiana Ryckman
[isbn]
Ryckman's claustrophobic dissertation on an obsessive, long distance, on-again, off-again love affair perfectly conveys the complicated emotions of loneliness, desire, and fear. Tangled together, these emotions grow and overtake our thinking to such a degree that it makes "love" and "hate" seem more like twins than opposites. Ryckman digs deeply to expose the bewildering feelings underneath the reasoning of the raw soul caught in the crosshairs... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Genevieve Hudson
[isbn]
Now that I write nonfiction, I don't tend to read as much fiction as I used to. It's a shame, but that's what happens. I happen to work with Kevin Sampsell, who runs Future Tense Books, which is the publisher for Pretend We Live Here: Stories. I happened to see the cover one afternoon and I loved the brightness of it, so I checked it out and gave it a shot. Readers: You need this book in your life. I'm serious. Do you like queer stories... (read more)
Recommended by Katherine M.
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Stoya
[isbn]
Stoya has made a name for herself in the public sphere through porn, and here she collects her years of fiery, sharp writing to make clear that one's participation in sex work in no way demeans one's intellect. She weaves philosophy and theory into insights from a career in an industry that is both famously romanticized and reviled — refusing to let us get away with lazy caricatures. Even with all that aside, she proves that she's an excellent... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Sofia Samatar
[isbn]
Reading Monster Portraits was like being initiated into some forbidden magic — requiring you to give every part of yourself as it both overwhelms and elevates. This phenomenal sibling duo bring us both poetic and imaginative prose interwoven with philosophy (Sofia Samatar) and absolutely stunning portraits of the monsters that are as gorgeous as they are grotesque (Del Samatar). Every page brims with it's own unique cosmos — meditating... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Maggie Nelson
[isbn]
Perceptive and loving and sad, this collection of poetic stories dazzles. I will spend the rest of my life trying to be smart enough for Maggie Nelson.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Bhanu Kapil
[isbn]
After having sat with and marinated with my impressions, I am still unsure exactly what Ban en Banlieue is. More fragments than novel, it's a book about gendered and racial violence, the tragic fragility of bodies, and the possibility of resistance. It's also about a murdered girl who becomes sentient ash. Bhanu Kapil does sorcery with her words, and the striking images she conjures will come to rest in your bones.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Kait Heacock
[isbn]
The close-up character studies in Kait Heacock’s stories are full of real-life pain, sadness, and desire. Although there are a lot of heartbreaking goodbyes throughout Siblings and Other Disappointments, the encouraging thing is that this book is one hearty "hello" to an impressive new storyteller. Put on some country music, get in that rocking chair, and soak it in.
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Bill Callahan
[isbn]
I really enjoyed this weird little book. Sort of reminded me of Letters to Wendy's in its correspondence-style, back-and-forth with itself and this "Emma." I love Callahan's music, so the goofiness of this book was a little bit of a surprise, but a really welcome one. Highly recommended for people who love voice-driven quick reads. Please write and sing more, Mr. Callahan.
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Keith Rosson
[isbn]
Things are going very wrong in the fictional Oregon coast town of Riptide. Mutilated animals are appearing, human remains are discovered, and both the Sheriff and the Deputy Sheriff are struggling to function due to their recent overwhelming grief. Also tangled up in this story is Native American legend and whispers about "the Low Walker," a mutated man-beast that can rip a man to shreds in seconds. Infidelity, religious fanaticism, fear, and a... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Joanna Ruocco
[isbn]
This weird collection of micro-stories pulled me in and engulfed me with its strangeness and humor. The narrative voice is searching, often grappling with what it's trying to say, but it also feels concise and assured in a nice way. I started to think of Diane Williams toward the end, but it's actually more satisfying than Williams's last few books. It also has some traces of contemporary poets like Dorothea Lasky or Mary Ruefle. A couple of... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Chrys Tobey
[isbn]
Chrys Tobey walks a daring tightrope of feminist poetry themes and heartbreaking slices of life. Some of my favorite poems in here ("For the Men Who Inquire," "My Mother's Latest Theory," "I Am Pretending There Was No Restaurant") use shorter lines to directly slice into the heart of the reader, but some of the more sprawling poems ("Taking Care," "Happy Poem") also do a potent job of taking your breath away. Oh — and making you laugh too. There... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Sarah Kay, Sophia Janowitz
[isbn]
Sarah Kay is eloquently honest and brave. Fresh, wise, and beautiful.
Recommended by Maddie K.
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Bradley K. Rosen
[isbn]
You’ll never read a book about sex, drugs, conflict, and out-of-control youth that is so utterly delightful. Bunkie Spills spans just two days in the life of 17-year-old Bunkie and his wayward friends, and through the boozing, the heroin, the stealing of Big Pete’s van, Bunkie stumbles and tumbles toward his very particular coming of age. Writer Bradley K. Rosen is an expert storyteller, a poetic and often hilarious wordsmith, and his... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Brian Blanchfield
[isbn]
In these essays, Blanchfield covers a wide range of subjects, from housesitting to footwashing. We follow his thought process and memories through surprising convergences and connections, ending up learning about the world and ourselves in the process. I've rarely been as excited by a collection of essays as I was while reading this book!
Recommended by Adam P.
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Christine Rice
[isbn]
Swarm Theory is phenomenal for many reasons, the first and foremost being that it is a genre-bending "novel-in-stories." The perspective shifts multiple times, and there's no protagonist, unless you count the fictional setting of New Canaan, Michigan. This darkly beautiful collection explores the meaning of humanity using the lives of broken, complex characters. It's one of the most haunting books I've ever read!
Recommended by Shannon B.
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Johnny No Bueno
[isbn]
Complete with love poems to Portland, this poetry collection is as tender as it is brutal. This book will punch you in the gut and you'll say thank you.
Recommended by Junix S.
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Anis Mojgani
[isbn]
This collection contains Mojgani's slam-winning poem "Shake the Dust," but the other poems in the collection hold just as much tenderness and punch as that famous poem. If you've heard or read Mojgani's work before, I can assure you this collection of early work will move you as much as what you've already seen. If you haven't been exposed to any of Mojgani's work before, oh my god, what are you doing? Look it up right this instant, buy the book,... (read more)
Recommended by Junix S.
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Andrea Gibson
[isbn]
This is my comfort book. In this slim volume, Andrea Gibson tackles some of the biggest, scariest troubles in the world and makes them feel conquerable. Full of hope, heart, and just the right blend of gravity and humor, I pull these poems out on the hardest days, because they make me feel like I can keep moving forward. "Say Yes," in particular, is a masterpiece.
Recommended by Madeline S.
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Chloe Caldwell
[isbn]
Chloe Caldwell writes with an emotional intensity that is insightful, heartfelt, and often hilarious. In her new essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person, she perfectly captures what it’s like to try and navigate your way through the traumatic first decade of adulthood. It’s filled with a raw honesty and voyeuristic allure that’s utterly captivating.
Recommended by Shawn D.
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Elly Blue
[isbn]
This entire book makes so much sense. Why wouldn't a business want a bike rack with room for a dozen bikes in front of it instead of a single parking spot? Bike paths and trails may cost a lot (nothing compared to roads for cars), but the benefits will almost always far outweigh the costs. These are a few of the many points Elly Blue makes in her fantastic, entertaining, and succinct book about how bikes can transform the economics of a community... (read more)
Recommended by Jeffrey J.
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Wendy C. Ortiz
[isbn]
Involved in a secret five-year relationship with her middle-school teacher, Ortiz focuses on the emotional toll experienced at the hands of "Mr. Ivers." It is pretty satisfying to watch as Ortiz slowly becomes aware of the inequalities of this relationship, yet at the same time, it's entirely heartbreaking to watch this child (because, let's be honest, that is exactly what she is) take step after step toward the abyss — completely unaware of the... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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