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Gay and Lesbian Fiction

All titles shelved in Fiction collection, except as noted: GN=graphic novels, M=mystery, SS=short story collection.

TIP: Look for more gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer fiction by searching the library catalog for the subjects Gay Men Fiction, Lesbians Fiction, Bisexuality Fiction, Transsexuals Fiction or Homosexuality Fiction.

Anthologies

SS
"Best Bisexual Women's Erotica" explores the steamy sex lives and loves of bisexual women in various settings and combinations.
SS
The most seductive stories of love between men. In "Best Gay Romance 2008," editor Richard Labonte shows that however romance happens, however long love lasts—a heartbeat or a lifetime—erotic love between men is a wondrous thing.
SS
A fire-eater, a voluptuous masseuse, and a naked game of tag in a forest at twilight—it could only be "Best Lesbian Erotica 2007, " the latest, boldest edition of the hottest lesbian erotica series in America.
SS
"Best Lesbian Romance" presents the juiciest, most seductive lesbian love stories. The erotic stories of "Best Lesbian Romance" put a new spin on lesbian love. In Lynne Jamneck's "Shooting Snow," set in Greenland, a photographer and the scientist who has brought her north gradually melt the glacier between them. In Lisa Figueroa's "Under the Skin, " a butch-femme couple on a tropical holiday discover the difference between new love and deep commitment.
SS
Best Transgender Erotica brings together twenty stories by writers of every gender. The first book to celebrate exclusively gender-bending, -crossing, and -breaking sexuality through erotic fiction, Best Transgender Erotica includes representations of many forms of 'trans' identity. Whether blurring the line between masculine and feminine, or making the transition from female to male, or vice versa, these characters (and authors) had to put on their sexiest, most alluring, heart-racing show in order to make the cut.
SS
Lambda Literary Award-winning editor Richard Canning brings together all new work by Edmund White, Dale Peck, James McCourt, Andrew Holleran, and others.
SS
This incendiary collection contains a wide range of erotic short stories that burns up the pages with unabashed, uninhibited sex between men. Here two young guys' internet hookup leads to an exhibitionist encounter at a local shopping mall; a boy on the verge of manhood loses his gay cherry to the handyman of a local brothel; a college-bound boy raised by strict Christian parents comes out in the arms of his older brother's best surfer buddy; and two sexual dynamos have their way with a willing military man. These stories will definitely make you sweat.
SS
Construction workers, plumbers, gardeners or any hard working man with a tool belt play a part in many gay male fantasies. In this steamy collection we take a ride to the top of a high rise under construction for a precarious steel beam encounter, go down in the belly of a dark steamy mine, hang out with some hunky sweaty landscapers and slip into the construction manager's office for a quickie. Wherever we go, you'll find sexy, men loving men who are turned on by more than their buddies' tools, in this world the hats are not the only thing that's hard.
SS
A vibrant group of new and legendary erotica writers, including Sofia Quintero, Fiona Zedde, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Tawanna Sullivan, tease and entice in this sizzling anthology.
SS
An original volume of sumptuous tales exploring the paths of eros and love, written by leading female writers of contemporary lesbian fiction.
SS
In this first installment of a planned annual series of "New Exploits of..." novellas, authors put a lesbian spin on the classic fairy tales "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid," "Snow White," and "Beauty and the Beast."
SS
We all look forward to that long-deserved vacation and the pleasures it will bring. But aside from the regularly planned activities, it is the unexpected encounter that makes it a vacation to remember. These are the hottest stories of traveling men encountering the exotic and erotic in foreign lands and locale—and not just what but who they did on their summer vacation.
SS
Over the past years, Alyson's Ultimate Gay Erotica series has set the bar-and repeatedly gone over it-for the most sexually charged stories in the market. Now we've asked our strongest pool of writers to redefine "ultimate." It's a collection guaranteed to make every gay man stand up and be proud.

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Fiction

Aciman, Andre
This heartrending elegy to human passion is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' house, a cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera.
Anable, Stephen
M
Boston comic Mark Winslow arrives with his troupe of improv actors ready to break into the Provincetown club circuit. A public fight makes him the prime suspect in the grisly butchering of a Boston blueblood. Mark believes his choice is simple: find the killer or be charged with the crime.
Anshaw, Carol
From the award-winning author of "Aquamarine" comes a new novel about mothers and daughters and the surprising shape of the contemporary American family.
Beck, Timothy James
From the author of "Someone Like You" and "I'm Your Man" comes a superbly entertaining coming-of-age story that is as witty as it is touching.
Bennett, Saxon
Date Night Club is a dark romantic comedy about the pitfalls of dating in your thirties.
Besson, Philippe
Charming, impudent, privileged, emotionally precocious, Vincent de l'Etoile is the same age as the young century when he meets the elegant, asthmatic forty-five-year-old Marcel Proust, and in one week—at literary salons, at the Ritz, in private rooms, in cafes—the striking youth with black hair and green eyes fashions an intimate platonic friendship with Parisian society's most eminent outsider.
Bledsoe, Lucy Jane
"I like to tell Liz that I'm her dark side," says Christine, the narrator of critically acclaimed author Lucy Jane Bledsoe's newest novel. And Christine and her sister, Liz, are indeed opposites. Liz, married to her high school sweetheart Mark, has an outwardly perfect life, but her fierce control is beginning to falter. Christine, a doctor in San Francisco's Tenderloin district who is buried in her work, cannot connect meaningfully with any of the women with whom she falls in love. But the sisters share a secret, one that has bound them tightly to each other for 30 years.
Bram, Christopher
The author of "The Notorious Doctor August" probes the dark depths of the human heart in this insightful and heartstopping novel that explores how the personal becomes the political.
Braund, Diana
Aspen must choose between the woman she loves and the forest she hopes to preserve.
Calhoun, Jackie
Best selling author Jackie Calhoun left a long term marriage when she could no longer deny her sexual orientation. Crossing the Center Line is autobiographical fiction in that Ms. Calhoun has chosen to share part of her own experience through Michael, a husband and father who comes to realize he's gay. Crossing the Center Line powerfully portrays Michael's struggle with his own internalized homophobia. As Michael comes to terms with his own sexuality, he confronts the external pressures which have kept him in the closet for so long and led to the clandestine sexual acts which will end his marriage. Like Michael, Ms. Calhoun loved her spouse and feared losing the love and respect of her children. In this emotionally realized journey, Ms. Calhoun conveys the anguish inherent in the demise of a marriage based on trust, friendship and the raising of children.
Camper, Jennifer
GN
The only current publication that showcases comix by queer artists, the ground-breaking graphic novel Juicy Mother 2 contains richly drawn tales that examine LGBT life from new perspectives: killer dykes chasing romance, a superhero tranny, how Hothead met Chicken, homeboys in love, lesbian internet hook-ups, West Hollywood parties, kids with queer parents, and many other unexpectedly funny depictions of how like-minded individuals have found each other for love, lust, and heartbreak.
Cooper, Dennis
Dennis Cooper's latest novel has emerged as his finest, most thought-provoking and challenging piece of writing yet. At the heart of the work is Larry, a teenager who is struggling to understand not only his sexuality and physical feelings toward his younger brother but also the purpose and reason behind his own existence. Larry is offered $500 to kill a fellow pupil and retrieve the boy's notebook. It all seems straightforward enough. However, once Larry ventures into the notebook, complications arise. Captivated by both the beauty of its articulation and the horror of its content, he longs for such an ability to communicate himself.
Copp, Rick
M
Former 80s child star Jarrod Jarvis has managed to escape the notoriety that has plagued his peers. But his quiet life in the Hollywood Hills is soon in jeopardy when his friend is found dead in his lap pool. Jarrod sets out to find the killer.
Coyote, Ivan E.
Bow Grip, Coyote's first novel, is a breathtaking story about love and loneliness; in it, a good-hearted, small-town mechanic struggles to deal with a wife who has left him for another woman until a used cello and an acquaintance's suicide attempt compel him to make some changes in his life. With quiet authority, Bow Grip is about one man's true rite of passage-trying to keep the ghosts of personal history at bay with a heart that's as big as the endless prairie sky.
Christian, M.
He looks just like you. He acts exactly like you. Every day he becomes more and more like you, taking away that what was yours until there's nothing left. You may think you've met your match—or your double—but that's not even close.
Currier, Jameson
"Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex" collects the best known of Jameson Currier's short fiction, along with several new stories that meticulously detail the search for love, romance, partnership, and meaning among the moderns. Currier's characteristically spare prose brings into sharp relief the sometimes maddening multiplicity of traits that constitute a person's romantic ideal and shows how the quest for the other can transform—or derail—the course of our lives.
Dean, Elizabeth
This fast-paced, outrageous new novel takes a look behind the scenes of a lesbian TV network, where there's more drama, comedy, and romance than prime time ever delivers.
Dhalla, Ghalib Shiraz
Ali has left behind a tempestuous childhood in postcolonial Kenya, the overprotective mother who raised him on a steady diet of Hindi cinema, an emotionally abusive bisexual lover and confused memories of his father's violent death at the hands of his mistress. Now his mother rambles on his answering machine while Ali is lost in his obsession for Richard, his ideal of beauty and "the one" he desperately hopes will help remedy the past.
Diaz, Johnny
The bestselling author of "Boston Boys Club" delivers another witty, sexy novel about gay life from a Latino perspective.
Donoghue, Emma
A delightful, old-fashioned love story with a uniquely 21st century twist, here is a romantic comedy that explores the pleasures and sorrows of long-distance relationships.
Feinberg, Leslie
Max Rabinowitz, a butch lesbian bartender at an East Village club, is shaken when her friend, a transvestite, is murdered. As the community of cross-dressers, drag queens, lesbians, and gay men stand together in the face of this tragedy, Max taps into the activist spirit she thought had disappeared.
Ford, Michael Thomas
The critically acclaimed author of "Last Summer" whisks readers off to a small-town community in upstate New York, where seven gay men—regardless of their circumstances, background, and age—are still "looking for it."
Gerrold, David
When David Gerrold decided he wanted to adopt a son, he thought he had prepared himself for fatherhood. But eight-year-old Dennis turned out to be more than he expected--a lot more. Dennis suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, the son of a substance abuser and alcoholic who abandoned him in a seedy motel at the age of one-and-a-half. His father died of an overdose. Seized by the state, Dennis was shuffled between eight different foster homes in less than eight years. He was abused and beaten severely in at least tow of his placements. Dennis was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and put on Ritalin and then Disipramine. He was prone to violent emotional outbursts. His case history identified him as "hard to place"—a euphemism for "unadoptable." But for David Gerrold it was love at first sight.
Glass, Julia
"Three Junes" is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage.
Grant, Stephanie
The acclaimed author of "The Passion of Alice" has penned a gritty and tender story about sexual identity and race relations, set during the tumultuous integration of the Boston public school system in 1974.
Griffith, Nicola
"It doesn't matter how well trained you are, how big, how fast, how strong; there will always be someone out there bigger or faster or stronger. Always." That's what Aud Torvingen teaches the students in her self-defense class. But the question is whether Aud really believes this lesson herself-and if not, what it will take for her to learn it." Aud has trained herself to achieve a fierce, machine-like precision, in hand-to-hand combat as well as life. But in Always she is abruptly confronted with the limits of her own power. Her self-defense classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined.
Grimsley, Jim
Ready for a change in 1978, Newell buys a one-way ticket to New Orleans, where he becomes a quick favorite of the town. Among his new friends are party-boy Mark—Newell's first beau—and the volatile Jack, who shows Newell the blackest heart of the city.
Hardy, James Earl
Fooling around is not a question Mitchell "Little Bit" Crawford gave much thought to until his boyfriend, Raheim "Pooquie" Rivers, heads to Hollywood to make his first feature film. As Mitchell soon discovers, the temptation to cheat is very real.
Harris, E Lynn
With just the right amount of wickedness, love, and compassion, Harris's masterful storytelling and delicious plot twists will have fans and newcomers alike frantically turning pages to the answer to the ultimate question: Will the wily—and naughtily wonderful—Basil finally be undone?
Herren, Greg
M
The buff, blond go-go boy of "Bourbon Street Blues" is back, embroiled with a few good men and a murder case that is turning the Big Easy into anything but.
Herring, Peggy J.
Bestselling author Herring brings two of her most popular characters—Dr. Maxine Weston and her lover Betina Abbott—back to life in this story of discovery and awakening.
Hinton, Gregory
As funny, heart-wrenching, and evocative as "Cathedral City," "Desperate Hearts" reacquaints readers with the first book's unforgettable cast, and with the town that serves as both backdrop and pivotal character in their stories.
Johnson, Bett Reece
In the third novel in the acclaimed Cordelia Morgan mystery series, Grace "Killer" Frost is released from a mental institution and unexpectedly into the arms of international artist-turned-sleuth Cordelia Morgan, whose own shadowy past is closing in on her.
Joseph, Sheri
Joseph's assured debut novel explores the lives of two Georgia families soon to be linked by a marriage. While Joseph tackles several dark themes, the core of the story is a hopeful portrait of the different and often elusive faces of salvation.
Kallmaker, Karin
Syrah Ardani tried independence-but the call of the Napa Valley hills and rolling vineyards of her family’s winery have brought her home again. She is content with her ordered world until she learns that her father’s feckless management has put Ardani Vineyards into receivership. Corporate turnaround specialist Toni Blanchard’s arrival is preceded by tales of her slash-and-burn techniques. Determined to meet this soulless corporate raider head on, Syrah proudly prepares to do battle for her home and family business. Toni has reason to retreat from a high-pressure Manhattan lifestyle, not the least of which is a bitter break up. She’s been told that Syrah Ardani is attractive and single, but Toni never mixes business and pleasure. Toni’s father wants her to save his old friend from bankruptcy. The court has appointed her to safeguard the creditors. The creditors clamor for a quick sale and payment. The beautiful-and hostile-Syrah wants Toni off her land and out of her life. Their clashes smolder with distrust and resentment, but also threaten to light a completely different kind of fire. Most dangerous of all is the one thing Toni can't control the way her heart reacts when Syrah looks at her...just like that.
Karasu, Bilge
A young man growing up in a small coastal village comes of age in an atmosphere of sublimated, disoriented male eroticism. Governed by religious and sexual taboos, rigid gender roles, stifling maternal love, and the enforced silences of social decorum, he is driven to the point of insanity from which he must slowly and painfully return. Told from several points of view and structured in a series of intersecting flashbacks and interior monologues, the novel describes the difficult geography of male intimacy from multiple perspectives-adolescent friendship, homosexual desire, mother-son bonds, and those between men and women.
Lemebel, Pedro
It is spring 1986 in the city of Santiago, and Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power. In one of the city's many poor neighborhoods works the Queen of the Corner, a hopeless and lonely romantic who embroiders linens for the wealthy and listens to boleros to drown out the gunshots and rioting in the streets. Along comes Carlos, a young, handsome man who befriends the aging homosexual and uses his house to store mysterious boxes and hold clandestine meetings.
Lemus, Felicia Luna
Set amidst the outsider worlds of present-day downtown New York, 1990s Los Angeles, and 1940s Mexico City, Like Son is the not-so-simple story of a love-blindness shared between a father and a son. Born a bouncing baby girl named Francisca Cruz, Frank Cruz is now a post-punk 30-year-old who has inherited his dead father's wanderlust, unrequited love, and hyperbolic tendencies.
Lerner, Lisa
For 14-year-old Edie Stein, the road to Deansville's annual Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant is strewn with pitfalls. True, she's an ace at Mystery Powders, and she's come a long way in Freestyle Walking and Better Person Skills. But she's increasingly troubled at the prospect of offing her genius bunny, Alice Jones, in the Sacrificial Rabbit event. And despite the strenuous coaching of her mother, training for the Electric Polyrubber Man erotic arts competition has been a disaster: Edie just can't stop thinking about the girl next door, sexy Lana Grimaldi.
Malloy, Brian
Malloy's stripped-down prose—featuring a 35-year-old gay man whose life is a series of unfortunate failures—makes for quick and immersive reading in his interesting spin on classic noir novels.
McCartney, Alistair
In this profound book about mortality, McCartney composes an irreverent archive of philosophical obsessions and homoerotic fixations, demonstrating the difficulty of separating what is real from what is imagined.
McNicholl, Damian
Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It's a turbulent time in Ulster, and in the staunchly Catholic community to which Gabriel belongs, the strict rules for belief and behavior are clear. As Gabriel begins to suspect that he's not like other boys, he tries desperately to lock away his feelings, and his fears. But secrets have a way of being being discovered, and Gabriel learns that his might not be the only ones in the Harkin family.
Meaker, Marijane
Even though he has dubbed himself "shockproof," nothing has prepared Sydney Skate for his mother sweeping the girl of his dreams off her feet.
Meyer, Jlee
A fast-paced adventure takes new lovers Conn and Leigh on a dangerous journey from California to Paris, and through the deadly streets of Karachi, Pakistan.
Newman, Leslea
This poignant and humorous collection of stories offers a fresh perspective on current issues such as homosexuality and anti-Semitism and lends a unique voice to those experiencing growing pains and self-discovery. Newman's readers accompany her quirky Jewish characters through all types of experiences from an initial lesbian sexual encounter to being sequestered in a college apartment after paranoid Holocaust flashbacks. In these stories characters anxiously discover their lesbian identities while beginning to understand, and finally to embrace, their Jewish heritage.
Nolan, Monica
This wickedly funny parody of gay and lesbian pulp classics weaves sex, mystery, murder, and mayhem into a highly entertaining romp.
Outland, Orland
Ever since high school, Cal Hewitt and Eric Hamilton have had a thing for each other. But they are so different, so opposite, neither has had the nerve to do anything about it. Over more than a decade spanning the late 1980s and the 1990s, life's greatest challenges, victories, and tragedies keep them from ever truly connecting or, alternately, losing touch. When two men are this perfect for each other, however, nothing is going to keep them apart—if they can only stop hating each other long enough to figure that out.
Raphael, Lev
M
Edith Wharton scholar and untenured English professor Nick Hoffman escapes academic madness to vacation with his partner, Stefan, at a Caribbean getaway, but ends up face-to-face with murder.
Rhodes, Dan
Set in contemporary Italy and focusing on an extraordinary love triangle between two men and a dog, this is a novel of unexpected twists and inspiring humanity.
Ross, L. M.
This exhilarating exploration of New York in an era before and after AIDS follows one man's journey from promiscuous party animal to sober adulthood.
Roszak, Theodore
The author of the cult-status novel, "Flicker, " brings readers a hilarious exploration of politics and ideas in which the battle for the moral heart of America is waged between a college full of scripture-spouting fundamentalists and one Jewish homosexual writer.
Russell, Paul Elliott
After nearly succumbing to AIDS, a man hires two local boys to do some renovation work in this powerful novel by the award-winning author of "The Coming Storm" and "Boys of Life."
Sawyer, Michelle
Readers asked for it, and now Macy Delongchamp, our favorite Manhattan lipstick lesbian, returns for another wild, wicked adventure, only to discover that commitment to your one true love isn't a walk off into the sunset. Mayhem ensues as highstrung Macy is faced with parenthood, sobriety, and life as a California girl!
Schmidtberger, Paul
Through a hilarious series of events, two strangers find themselves railroaded into an anger management class, where they soon become fast friends.
Stukas, David
M
Everyone's favorite accidental gay sleuths—Michael, Robert, and their lesbian sidekick, Monette—are back in another wickedly entertaining ride. The dynamic trio is out to find out who murdered a personal trainer/hustler.
Tyler, Ben
From the author of "Hunk House" and "Tricks of the Trade" comes a backstage tour of a notorious ice-skating show, where the best follies are off the ice—and between the sheets.
Van Arsdale, Sarah
On a rainy night in Intervale, Maine, an unknown woman appears on a bridge. "Blue," as she comes to be known, has complete retrograde amnesia. Trying to recover fragments of her memory, she becomes the focus of the obsessions of local resident Rita LaPlatte, who attempts to prove that Blue is her "missing" twin. The amnesiac comes under the care of Robert Reichman, a psychiatrist who is grappling with his own lost identity as a Jew. Also under the care of Dr. Reichman is Annie Blaise, a psychotic woman who holds the key to the question of both her own identity and Blue's, an answer not revealed until the book's last pages.
Villarosa, Linda
In her sexy, fast-paced debut, Villarosa boldly probes the issues of race, desire, family, and friendship with seductive storytelling and an unforgettable voice.
Waters, Sarah
Raised by a loving family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder is sheltered from the worst of the Victorian underworld until it becomes her turn to make the clan's fortune. She must help a professional rogue named Gentleman marry an heiress and then steal the girl's inheritance by declaring her insane. Sue wants to please everyone, but as she's confronted with the seemingly helpless victim, Maud, she begins to have her doubts.
White, Edmund
In her fifties, Mrs. Frances Trollope became famous overnight for her book attacking the United States. Twenty-five years later, she sharpens her pen for her most controversial work yet—the biography of her old friend, the radical and feminist Fanny Wright. She recalls the 1820s when the young Fanny erupted into the Trollopes' sleepy English cottage like a volcano, her red hair flying, her talk aflame with utopian ideals. Before long, Wright convinced her to follow her to America, a journey of extreme penury, frontier hardships, and the most satisfying sensual romance of Frances Trollope's life.
Wilson, Christopher P.
Lee Cotton' s voice—equal parts Delta Blues and Motown—takes us on an exhilarating freedom ride through America' s preoccupation with identity politics. His funny, forgiving charm ultimately embodies a serious message: The freaks and oddities of this world may well be divine.
Wilson, John M.
M
Benjamin Justice, a disgraced journalist in his mid-forties, is slowly putting his life back together. Under contract to write his tumultuous life story, Justice is trying to put all the elements of his life into perspective for the first time. When trying to locate his childhood priest, however, he runs into a bureaucratic stone wall. Then his best friend's fiance, a Lost Angeles Times columnist, is killed in a tragic and suspicious hit-and-run accident shortly after trying to aid Justice in his search. Reluctant at first, Justice soon finds himself in the midst of a complex case involving a decades-old child murder, a powerful and controversial cardinal, and elements of his own dark past.
York, Rachel
In this startlingly funny, sensual, and beautifully written debut novel, York introduces the thoroughly winning, defiant Scarlett Faye—a woman whose greatest fear is knowing herself—while exploring the lightning-fast power of love to change people in ways they can never predict.
Zubro, Mark Richard
M
Since when are vacations ever relaxing? All Chicago police Detective Paul Turner is hoping for on his annual retreat from the city and his job is a little peace and quiet. This time he’s headed to the Canadian Great North Woods for a couple of weeks with family and friends -- his two teenaged sons, his lover Ben, neighborhood pals, and his long-term police partner, Detective Buck Fenwick, along with his wife. But hopes of tranquility are soon crushed when Turner intervenes in a scuffle between a group of First Nations teens and a local bully and his cohorts. In the days following the incident, Turner and company find themselves the object of a series of attacks, break-ins, and sabotage of their equipment. Unable to get the attention of the local police, the events continue to escalate, culminating in the local bully’s dead body being found floating in the water near the dock of their houseboat. Making this not only one of the least relaxing vacations ever, but one of the deadliest.

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Web Resources

Lambda Literary Foundation
http://www.lambdaliterary.org
The Lambda Literary Foundation in a non-profit organization supporting gay and lesbian literature. They publish the Lambda Book Report, a monthly book review journal, and The James White Review, a gay men's literary quarterly and sponsor the annual Lambda Literary Awards and Behind Our Masks, a regional writers conference. Selected articles from their publications can be found on their web site.
GLBTQ.com
http://www.glbtq.com/subject/literature_a-b.html
An online encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer culture, this section of site lists both authors and subjects related to literature from the GLBTQ communites.