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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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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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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Caren Beilin
[isbn]
By far the weirdest book I've ever read! Let go of reality, open your mind, and let Beilin take you along for a wild ride!
Recommended by Carrie K.
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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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Nate Lippens
[isbn]
Lippens's book is an evocative death shawl of a story that will stick with me for a long time to come. Though it says "a novel" on the cover, the writing is as intimate, gripping, and detail-heavy as the best memoir. But it feels so personal and nakedly moving, it transcends labels — autofiction, personal essay, diaristic queer nostalgia, fragments, whatever.
Lippens has written an amazing book of one man's survival, life, lusts, and loves, while... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Timothy Arliss OBrien
[isbn]
The Art of Learning to Fly is a glorious little illustrated collection of poems, celebrating that deeply implanted desire for flight that exists in so many of us. Featuring meditations on our winged companions and our interactions with them, especially that great wordless tour guide of our metropolitan lives, the pigeon. Take off on this fabulous flight of whimsy through these poets' imaginations and be mesmerized by where your soaring... (read more)
Recommended by Nicholas Y.
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Shawn Levy
[isbn]
In A Year in the Life of Death, Shawn Levy’s provocative, insightful book of poetry based on New York Times obituaries from 2016, each poem is a tiny mystery story with the last line revealing its subject. So many made me cry. So many made me laugh. Together, they form a unique history of the 20th century full of fascinating facts, nostalgia, social and political commentary, and, of course, human stories running the gamut from... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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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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Stephen Van Dyck
[isbn]
I'm blown away by how Van Dyck's unassuming diary-like vignettes can cover so much emotional and sexual terrain. It's like a memoir in list form and it beautifully/hilariously/awkwardly documents his early adulthood through the people he's met on the Internet. There's a lot of sweetness throughout, as if the author is still in love (or still boyfriends) with many of the men and women described. His descriptions of the early AOL chatrooms and... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Gary Lutz, Garielle Lutz
[isbn]
Garielle Lutz (formerly Gary Lutz) is my favorite short story writer of all time. My favorite sentence writer too. A couple hundred pages of this book are home to stories that I was lucky to publish in two of Lutz's previous books. And their first book, Stories in the Worst Way, will always be considered a pivotal moment in my reading life. This collection includes an excellent introduction by Brian Evenson as well as 60 pages of new... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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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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Calvin Gimpelevich
[isbn]
Effortlessly laying bare the intersections of oppression — Calvin Gimpelevich's Invasions conjures visions and possibilities that liberate even as they ache. Every story is a gem, but "Rent, Don't Sell" and "You Wouldn't Have Known" were so good they hurt: exploring gender, bodies, and minds in bold and groundbreaking ways.
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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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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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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Autumn Christian
[isbn]
This is a story of sex worker as superhero and saint, and of sex as both superpower and sacrament. Girl Like a Bomb follows Beverly Sykes — a teenage girl bursting with desire who finds everyone she has slept with profoundly changed for the better — and her journey takes us everywhere from church orgies with depressed housewives to covert missions to sleep with a terrorist. Here, Autumn Christian has woven together an unapologetic fairy... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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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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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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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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Lucy Ives
[isbn]
Troy Augustus Loudermilk is on to something when he realizes there is money to be made and girls to be had in the poetry racket. All he needs to secure a spot in the prestigious Seminars is the ghostwriting help of his asocial friend Harry... sound familiar? It's as though our fabulously named, conspicuously handsome hero has stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog (this is 2003, after all) and into a production of Cyrano de... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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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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Rita Bullwinkel
[isbn]
Belly Up is a strange and wonderful collection of stories about women and girls, exploring the ways that their bodies and identities commingle, or are objectified, or consume/are consumed. Herein the tuning of a harp gives a woman a second self, high school girls talks about eating themselves and becoming flowers, a dead husband feels omnipresent in his widow's sex life, and a saleswoman finds it more and more difficult to distinguish... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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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, del 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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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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Andrew Durbin
[isbn]
Poet and critic Andrew Durbin’s first novel takes you on a journey through superstorms and rising tides, underground nightclubs and drunken hookups, artists’ colonies and Californian cults. We may never have that recipe again, but we can certainly join Durbin on this peculiarly queer search for connection. MacArthur Park is a liquid book that continually surprises, arouses, confounds, and delights.
Recommended by Adam P.
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Rachel B. Glaser
[isbn]
Overflowing with fun weirdness, even the titles bulge with a hot fever (examples: "While I Was a Tremendous Teenager, You Were Still Reading the Unauthorized Biography of Bowser," "Teenage Girls Hot for the Eiffel Tower," "When Boys See Movies Alone"). I think I like this collection even more than Moods. Also, the poem, "He's Got a Huge Soho Loft, but no Dick," is amazing.
Recommended by Kevin S.
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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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Zachary Schomburg
[isbn]
If you mashed together Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, Shane Jones's Light Boxes, and Robert Hill's The Remnants, you'd get something like this insanely excellent debut novel from Zachary Schomburg.
Part whimsical fairy tale, part dark chimera, part astute dissertation on death, part droll study of human nature, Mammother is all genius. It is otherworldly and fantastical, and Schomberg's talent will leave... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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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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Scott McClanahan
[isbn]
The Sarah Book careens roughshod over marriage, addiction, parenthood, and pet ownership en route to a stomach-churning portrayal of intersecting lives. McClanahan's prose is a downhill blur throughout, radical candor mingling with attempted penance, recounted in tear-streaked terms of estrangement. A close-to-the-bone ode to dissolution and self-destruction in West Virginia.
Recommended by Justin W.
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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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Derrick Brown
[isbn]
Poems about when poetry fails us. I love Derrick Brown.
Recommended by Connor M.
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Bradley K. Rosen
[isbn]
Bunkie Spills begins as a drug-fueled romp. Bunkie, Wayne, Angelina, Big Pete, and Evelyn — the tribe — are in search of...well, something. After an alcohol- and drug-infused day, Bunkie, Wayne and Angelina steal Big Pete's VW van and are off in search of adventure. They find it: a party, a lemon grove, a policeman — or two — and a fight — or two. Chaos reigns.
But somewhere along the line, Bunkie blooms into more than an alcohol- and... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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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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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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Laura Stanfill, Yuvi Zalkow, Scott Sparling
[isbn]
This sweet, little book is wonderfully indie (printed solely and beautifully using an Espresso Book Machine, one of which lives at Powell's City of Books) and stuffed full of Oregon authors. A collection of essays and interviews with such local lit figures as Scott Sparling, Lauren Kessler, and Yuvi Zalkow, Brave on the Page is not only about craft and the creative life but also a lovely snapshot of the heart and soul of the incredible... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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