Queerphoria (2026) An own voices anthology celebrating queer joy (VERVE Voices, book 1) edited by Demi Echezona and Jenna Gordon
Gerardo Sámano Córdova recommends
She Isn't Herself Tonight (2026) Hailey Piper "Among delicious thrills, wicked surprises, and wondrous weirdness Hailey Piper has crafted a keenly stirring story of transformation and self discovery. She Isn't Herself Tonight will grip you and hold on long after its final words, its extraordinary images will linger and its earnest heart will keep on beating."
One Leg on Earth (2026) 'Pemi Aguda "Suspenseful and immensely human, One Leg on Earth caught me in its wave and I happily, greedily tumbled along."
Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! (2025) Melissa Lozada-Oliva "Hilarious and deliriously odd, Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive! dives giddily into the joys and troubles of being a flawed person. I was mesmerized by each of Lozada-Oliva's delicious jumps of imagination, landing in a place more marvelous and heart-achingly human than I would ever expect."
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025) Clay McLeod Chapman "Fabulously unhinged, this book is a hilarious and terrifying jamboree of modern-day horrors. Gory, chilling, and exhilarating, the book knows to relish its delicious madness. I haven't had such a thrill in ages!"
Cicada Summer (2024) Erica McKeen "Mesmerizingly subtle and elegant, Cicada Summer investigates which stories must be told in order to unravel that which is unfathomable. As the cicadas chirp, their husks dropping from trees, Erica McKeen masterfully takes us into the liminal space of grief, into a world that crisps alive while it vanishes."
The Invisible Hotel (2024) Yeji Y Ham "The Invisible Hotel traps us in a haunting labyrinth where the wounds of war gape open, bones tether, and the bond of family may be the one key to set us free. Yeji Y. Ham has crafted a luminously spellbinding narrative, knitting history, grief, and love to explore the knots that tie a family and a country."
A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens (2023) Raul Palma "Bright with humor and vulnerability, A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens invites us to plunge deep into the crushing darkness of indebtedness. Whether financial, spiritual, or romantic, past and present, Palma splendidly conjures demonic debts in every sense, crafting a story both thrilling and tragic. An affecting novel about the invisible demons that truly haunt us."
You're an Animal (2023) Jardine Libaire "A spellbinding novel that cracks open the carapaces people build in defense of a grinding existence in order to plunge, with dazzling insight, into the gooey, frail, and lonely human interior. You're an Animal gorgeously weaves the indispensable bonds of a misfit family as they find respite in one another against a world determined to crush them. Funny, smart, and heart-wrenchingly tender, Libaire creates a delicious universe at a constant brink of collapse, a universe I never wanted to see end."
