Joanne Merriam

@joannemerriam

Punamu’kwati’jk|Dartmouth (formerly Tsalaguwetiyi|Nashville). Inventor #DSPBposts. Small press, 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦 poli. I turn tea into words: novel AETHER AND EGO (Inanna, Sept 2026).

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Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· 28d

#BookSky Genuinely had a little frisson of excitement seeing my book in this promo image for Toronto's Word on the Street, like i am a real boy it's finally happeninggg

A screenshot of an Instagram post by torontowots saying:
Come meet Inanna Publications at WOTS 2026!

📚 Canada's largest book & magazine festival
📍 David Pecaut Square, Toronto
📅 September 26–27, 2026

#WOTS2026 #MeetMeAtWOTS #WOTSToronto

The image accompanying the post says, "The Word on the Street 2026 exhibitor Inanna Publications" then a grid with about 15 book covers, then "Inanna Publications is one of Canada's only feminist presses. Visit inanna.ca for our latest releases."

The original post is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da0jUvpjeZk/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· 29d

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Beast by @richardvancamp.bsky.social, @douglasmcintyre.bsky.social & Staff Picks for Invertebrates by @zoeidadickinson.bsky.social, @guernicaeditions.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for 1. Beast by Richard Van Camp, Douglas & McIntyre: For as long as Lawson can remember, his life in a small Northwest Territories town has revolved around “the Treaty” between the Dogrib and the Chipewyan, set down centuries ago to prevent the return of bloody warfare between the two peoples. On the Dogrib side, even as Lawson and his father dutifully tidy the Cranes’ property as an act of respect, their counterparts offer little more than scowls and derision in return, despite the fact that both families are responsible for protecting the treaty. Worse still, it seems that one of the Cranes’ boys is doing all he can to revive the old conflict in the service of a cruel, ghoulish spirit. https://douglas-mcintyre.com/products/9781771624145 and 2. Staff Picks for Invertebrates by Zoe Dickinson, Guernica Editions: Welcome to Russell Books: an indie bookstore on an island in the Pacific Ocean, where anemones dispense life advice and staff recommend books to mollusks. Staff Picks for Invertebrates, inspired by the poet’s experiences over the last decade working in a large bookstore, is a love letter to books, and to people who love books. In these poems, divisions between human and non-human fall away. Staff and customers, swallows and starfish, the store itself and the books that live inside: all are part of the same family and dwell in the same fragile, radiant world. https://guernicaeditions.com/products/staff-picks-for-invertebrates

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 14

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: My Year of Living Anonymously by Ian Thornton, @atbaypress.bsky.social & Sadi's Dragons by Beverly Brenna, @thistledownpress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for 1. My Year of Living Anonymously by Ian Thornton, At Bay Press: When Toronto novelist Ian Thornton drops two dollars in the cowboy hat of a mysterious panhandler, they bond and Thornton falls into a nether world through Alice’s rabbit hole. The man turns out to be legendary Anonymous hacktivist, Commander X, on the run from the FBI. Christopher Mark Doyon, a.k.a. Commander X, is one of the most iconic, divisive, and outspoken figures in the history of the international hacktivist network. The story follows the next year of Commander X plotting to escape Canada to find his freedom. “It’s revolution, ma’an! Get used to it.” https://atbaypress.com/books/detail/my-year-of-living-anonymously and 2. Sadi's Dragons by Beverly Brenna, Thistledown Press: A middle-grade novel about Sadi, an unhoused eleven-year-old girl, and Marguerite, an old woman losing her memory. Sadi is recovering from an acquired brain injury and struggling with memories of the boating accident in which her brother and father died. Marguerite can’t remember her dog’s name . . . or how to make paintings as she used to. Then Marguerite passes off Sadi’s painting as her own. This lie—along with her dementia—becomes the dragon she must tame through the course of the story, while Sadi is haunted by the accident she is trying to forget, and the by fact that her mother and a potential insurance settlement rely on what she has forgotten. https://thistledownpress.com/product/sadis-dragons/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 13

Here’s a scene from Aether and Ego, my aethernaut steampunk retelling of Pride and Prejudice. The picture is adapted from one by Hugh Thomson from the 1894 P&P edition with the famous peacock cover in forest green stamped in gold. 💙📚 #BookSky #JaneAusten #PrideAndPrejudice #ButInSpace

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 13

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: The Lost Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, @douglasmcintyre.bsky.social & Save Your Prayers – Send Money by @jkirton.bsky.social, @talonbooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for 1. The Lost Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Douglas & McIntyre: From celebrated Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas comes a striking new collection tracing the origins and evolution of Haida Manga—a bold visual genre that blends North Pacific Indigenous iconography and framelines with the dynamic energy of graphic storytelling. https://douglas-mcintyre.com/products/9781771624671 and 2. Save Your Prayers – Send Money by Jónína Kirton, Talonbooks: Boldly takes on the wellness industry. Kirton delves into disability politics through the lived experience of a seventy-year-old Métis woman and recovering New Ager. A hybrid collection that moves fluidly between prose and poetry, Save Your Prayers – Send Money weaves intergenerational trauma and its impact on health through the daily realities of chronic pain and illness. These poems explore where healing might lie and how a peace might be found whether we heal or not. The weft supporting them all is the importance of belonging, of blood memory and cellular memory reaching back to our earliest Ancestors. https://talonbooks.com/books/save-your-prayers-send-money

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 12

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Oxford Soju Club by @jinwoo-park.com, @dundurnpress.bsky.social & Suddenly Light by @ninadunic.bsky.social, @invisibooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park, Dundurn Press: When North Korean spymaster Doha Kim is mysteriously killed in Oxford, his protégé, Yohan Kim, chases the only breadcrumb given to him in Doha’s last breath: “Soju Club, Dr. Ryu.” Meanwhile, a Korean American CIA agent, Yunah Choi, races to salvage her investigation of the North Korean spy cell in the aftermath of the assassination. At the centre of it all is the Soju Club, the only Korean restaurant in Oxford, owned by an immigrant from Seoul. As different factions move in with their own agendas, their fates become entangled, resulting in a bitter struggle that will determine whose truth will triumph. https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459755109-oxford-soju-club and Suddenly Light by Nina Dunic, Invisible Publishing: Fifteen stories replete with an intimate, nuanced, and quietly profound realism by the Trillium Book Award–winning author of The Clarion. With crisp and penetrating prose, the stories in Suddenly Light are bracing, buoyant, and test the delicate threads that tie us together. https://invisiblepublishing.com/product/suddenly-light/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 11

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Horse Girl Fever by @kevinmaloney.net, @clashbooks.bsky.social & Pandora by Ana Paula Pacheco, trans. by Julia Sanches, @transitbooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for Pandora by Ana Paula Pacheco, trans. Julia Sanches, Transit Books: Lit professor Ana plans her remote classes while confined to her apartment during lockdown. Her lover has died of Covid. In her place are a series of animals that demand Ana’s care and attention: an overbearing pangolin, a swarm of insects, a giant bat. Amid changes in medication and fraught faculty meetings, Ana begins to devise a syllabus on the financialization of art and life, posing questions about labor and intimacy she will use her own body to answer. Pandora is a hallucinatory portrait of a mind and a world in collapse, a razor-sharp meditation on desire, delusion, and the absurd endurance of the human. https://www.transitbooks.org/books/pandora AND Horse Girl Fever by Kevin Maloney, Clash Books: The cult author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim delivers a hilariously weird collection, part autofiction, part outlandish daydream, that celebrates the horse girl within all of us. A cuckolded husband finds a new identity as a ghost. A homeowner has a nervous breakdown while building a pergola. An angst-ridden teenager finds his spiritual equal in the mosh pit of an Alice in Chains concert. In fourteen brutally funny stories, Horse Girl Fever plunges the reader into a world of misfits—inept drug smugglers, tattooed office workers, and philosophical strip club bouncers—who fumble toward the light. https://www.clashbooks.com/new-products-2/kevin-maloney-horse-girl-fever-preorder

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 10

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Chasing Freedom & If This Is Freedom, both by Gloria Ann Wesley from @fernpub.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for books by Gloria Ann Wesley from Fernwood Publishing: Chasing Freedom: The American Revolutionary War ends, and the fate of slaves in the colonies is on the line. Sarah Redmond, a slave on a South Carolina plantation, is rounded up and sent to New York to prepare for her journey to a new home somewhere in the British colonies. The Redmonds are assigned to a ship bound for the first all-black community in North America: Birchtown, Nova Scotia. With their Certificates of Freedom in hand, Lydia and Sarah wait anxiously, hoping beyond hope that their new life will bring acceptance and happiness. But once they reach Birchtown they find that their new home is barren, cold and isolated – and in a world slow to forget old fears and hate, their Certificates offer them freedom in name only. https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/chasing-freedom AND If This Is Freedom: If This Is Freedom continues the story of struggle for Loyalist settlers in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. In the black settlement of Birchtown, times are especially hard for the former slaves. They face the difficulties of a hardscrabble existence and continued discrimination from their white counterparts. https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/if-this-is-freedom

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 9

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Crawl: Stories by @maxdelsohn.bsky.social, @graywolfpress.bsky.social & Kiss Marry Kill by Yemi Dipeolu, @faberbooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for Kiss Marry Kill by Yemi Dipeolu, Faber Books: Ife’s new husband is arrested at their wedding – for the murder of his ex. Now Ife must decide who to believe in this pulse-racing thriller about love, marriage and obsession. https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571395866-kiss-marry-kill/
and Crawl: Stories by Max Delsohn, Graywolf Press: What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you? The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. People called it paradise, but baby, it wasn’t. https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/crawl

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 8

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Half-Earth by @btrewart.bsky.social, @palimpsestpress.bsky.social/Anstruther Books & Layaway Child: Stories by @csuther.bsky.social, @houseofanansi.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #bookstagram

Book covers for Layaway Child: Stories by Chanel Sutherland, House of Anansi Press: Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents. In lyrical, linked stories, Sutherland traces the lives of mothers working abroad as housekeepers and nannies, and the children they left behind. From lush island childhoods marked by absence and community, to the cold, alienating spaces of Canadian cities, Layaway Child captures the complexity of growing up between worlds. https://houseofanansi.com/collections/bipoc-voices/products/layaway-child
AND for Half-Earth by Blair Trewartha, Palimpsest Press/Anstruther Books: In his second full-length poetry collection, Blair Trewartha explores what it means to survive in a world beset by climate crisis and the ever-distorting realities of digitized human life. Throughout, the poet weaves dreamlike narratives and excavates scenes of deep history that connect to both family and illness, all the while questioning how to raise young children through a pandemic and the advent of Artificial Intelligence. Rather than sermonizing or catastrophizing, Trewartha presents moments that exist on the brink of both the past and the future, replete with prehistoric tusks frozen in forgotten tundra, a decaying family farmhouse, firestorms, the zeitgeist by algorithm, and a toddler’s visualization of death. https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/half-earth-blair-trewartha/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 7

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Another Landscape by Judy Gaudet, Island Studies Press & Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life With the Tree Planters by Charlotte Gill, @greystonebooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life With the Tree Planters by Charlotte Gill, Greystone Books: A vivid, intimate look at the life of a tree planter on the Pacific Northwest coast, exposing the brutal, exhilarating realities of modern reforestation, a unique subculture, and the importance and wonders of forests. https://greystonebooks.com/collections/adults/products/eating-dirt-1 AND for Another Landscape by Judy Gaudet, Island Studies Press: Another Landscape addresses the ordinary wonders of a life shared with her partner and their dog, where “Nothing is needed. Everything is here between us.” These poems gather small but notable moments of Island life and insist we look closer, for “this is life, as long as we have it.” https://nimbus.ca/store/another-landscape.html

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 6

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Jordan K. Jarboe, @lethepress.bsky.social & Puck by @samanthaallen.bsky.social, Zando Projects. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for Puck by Samantha Allen, Zando Projects: In this A Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired romcom, Puck is the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia’s marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples—without anyone finding out. https://zandoprojects.com/books/puck-paperback AND Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel, Jordan K. Jarboe, Lethe Press: In this debut collection of body-horror fairy tales and mid-apocalyptic Catholic cyberpunk, Jarboe addresses the staggering and urgent question of how build and nurture meaning, love, and safety in a larger world/society that might not be "fixable." Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror. https://www.lethepressbooks.com/product-page/everyone-on-the-moon-is-essential-personnel

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 5

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: colouring books by Jackie Traverse from @fernpub.bsky.social: Resilience: Honouring the Children of Residential Schools & IKWE Honouring Women: An Indigenous Art Colouring Book for Adults and Children. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 4

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Even the Milky Way is Undocumented by Amy Shimshon-Santo, @unsolicitedpress.bsky.social & Aether and Ego by Joanne Merriam, Inanna Publications. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for Even the Milky Way is Undocumented by Amy Shimshon-Santo, Unsolicited Press: A testament to the lost, the loved, the courageous. Each poem is the past and the future. Each page turns for those built by families that span political borders -- families that see borders as nothing more than lines drawn by an invisible hand that's long forgotten that we belong to the earth and not the other way around. https://www.unsolicitedpress.com/shop/p/eventhemilkyway AND for Aether and Ego by Joanne Merriam, Inanna Publications: Elizabeth Bennet is a part of the second generation embarking on a centuries-long flight to Alpha Centauri, working in the signal room and studying engineering aboard a massive centrifugal ship. When she is thrown into the orbit of the conventional Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth finds him haughty and intolerable. But then her younger sister elopes. For all of their progress in the new society of the ship, a woman can still be ruined by an imprudent attachment. Can Elizabeth and Darcy save Lydia’s reputation, learn to like each other, and avoid being convicted of murder? Out 15 September – pre-order now: https://inanna.ca/product/aether-and-ego/ or in the US, https://bookshop.org/a/96356/9781834210261

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 3

Took this for Gander discussion - TBR pile next to my writing space (I have another next to my bed & a third that's digital). Books by @elliottgish.bsky.social @brittnibrinn.bsky.social @julianmortsmith.bsky.social @davidlywrites.bsky.social @inkstainedwreck.ca etc. Alt-text for commentary.

A pile of books, spines out. From top to bottom:
* One Sunday Without Desire by Cecelia Frey, this one is from my publisher and so far it's kind of gutting!
* Grey Dog by Elliott Gish, which I haven't started yet.
* Misplaced by Brittni Brinn, same.
* The World of Dew and Other Stories by Julian Mortimer Smith, of which I've read the first story - amazing - and hope to get through more this weekend.
* ARCs for Not All Dragons by David Ly and The Library Cosmic by Ben Berman Ghan, both of which I got at TriCon and intend to read... soon! Once I'm done the ones above them.
* on Tattrie's To Leave A Warrior Behind which I've actually finished and therefore shouldn't be in this pile, so I'll have to find a spot on the bookshelves. It's a biography of Charles Saunders, the Sword and Soul pioneer, and everybody who cares about sword and sorcery and/or history of sci-fi should read it.

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 3

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by @zenaldehyde.bsky.social, Homeward Books & Syl-Lo-Therapy by Crystal Hurdle, @guernicaeditions.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by Zen Cho, Homeward Books: It’s the Roaring Twenties, and writer Jade Yeo is exploring all the passions and perils of London high society. When she writes a scathing review of Bloomsbury luminary Sebastian Hardie, she’s hardly expecting an invitation to his next party, much less to find herself the object of his romantic attentions. Irresistibly drawn to the prospect of adventure, Jade is intrigued to find that Hardie’s charismatic wife supports his dalliances. But exciting as the Hardies are, a life of fancy dinner parties and bohemian drama is not the freedom Jade has worked for. Forced to confront her real desires, she must decide whether to succumb to the Hardies’ stifling fantasies—or seize real life with the tenacity it demands. Out June 16. https://www.homewardbooks.com/books/the-perilous-life-of-jade-yeo AND for Syl-Lo-Therapy by Crystal Hurdle, Guernica Editions: Ripped from the confines of their books and storied mythologies, Sylvia Plath and Nabokov’s Lolita Haze react, redact, reclaim—using food, math, bees, fashion, film, literary criticism, art, sexual identity, bibliotherapy, blood jets of poetry (and more)—on their parallel anachronistic rides. Syl-Lo-Therapy combines the best of creative vision with meticulous research. A deep dive into both Sylvia Plath and Nabokov’s Lolita, two books in one. Out September 2026. https://guernicaeditions.com/products/syl-lo-therapy

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 2

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: River of Dreams by Robin Blackburn McBride, @guernicaeditions.bsky.social & What You Should Worry About by Meryl Branch-McTiernan, @akashicbooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for What You Should Worry About by Meryl Branch-McTiernan, Akashic Books: Layla Moody is trying to worm her way into a party at the Sundance Film Festival. When she’s not picking up other people’s abandoned drinks or skinny-dipping in the hot tub, she’s trying to gain access to someone who can jump-start her stymied career as a Hollywood television writer. After a run-in with one of her creative heroines, she lands an opportunity to get her show produced. The only catch is, she has to return to New York, which she’s been avoiding since her father’s death. But soon all is thwarted when COVID-19 shuts down the entertainment industry and any opportunity to propel her life forward. Finally, in spite of warnings and stay-at-home orders, she throws caution to the wind and joins a share house on Fire Island where she spent summers in her twenties. https://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/what-you-should-worry-about/
AND for River of Dreams by Robin Blackburn McBride, Guernica Editions: Toronto, 1914. Avery Conlon’s world turns upside down in an instant. Overhearing a comment that casts doubt on her blood ties with the mother raising her, the despairing twelve-year-old runs away—but ends up falling through a river of ice. Dragged out and on the edge of death, she awakens with secret, heightened powers of perception… and a vision of a strange woman. Learning to navigate her new abilities to sense what others cannot, and dreaming repeatedly of a mysterious silvery boy, Avery vows to track down the truth of her past. https://guernicaeditions.com/products/river-of-dreams

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jul 1

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Frequently Asked White Questions by Ajay Parasram and Alex Khasnabish & White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions, both @fernpub.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts 💙📚 #BookSky #bookish #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book covers for Frequently Asked White Questions by Ajay Parasram and Alex Khasnabish, Fernwood Publishing: Are you a white person with questions about how race affects different situations, but you feel awkward, shy, or afraid to ask the people of colour in your life? Are you a racialized person who is tired of answering the same questions over and over? This book is for you: a basic guide for people learning about racial privilege. Khasnabish and Parasram answer ten of the most common questions asked of them by people seeking to understand how race structures our every day. With humour and compassion, this book offers relatable advice and a practical entry point into conversations about race. https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/frequently-asked-white-questions AND for White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions edited by Amanda Gebhard, Sheelah McLean, and Verna St. Denis, Fernwood Publishing: Racism is normalized as benevolence in the helping professions of education, social work, public health and justice. What might it look like to transform these professions with anti-racist education and a serious reckoning with colonial history? https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/books/white-benevolence

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 30

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Roux for Two by @aurora-rey.bsky.social, @boldstrokesbooks.bsky.social & The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by @bogiperson.bsky.social, @lethepress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Roux for Two by Aurora Rey, Bold Strokes Books: When her celebrity chef boss is taken down in a sexual harassment scandal, Chelsea Boudreaux’s dream of getting her own cooking show comes true. Her hometown of Duchesne, Louisiana, provides the perfect backdrop for her modern takes on traditional Cajun fare. Bryce Cormier never left Duchesne and has no regrets, except that falling in love as a trans guy in a tiny town is easier said than done. When Chelsea comes home after more than a decade away, Bryce thinks he may have found the perfect woman. At least until Chelsea’s burgeoning celebrity spills over and turns his world upside down. https://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/books/roux-for-two-by-aurora-rey-4187-b

Book cover for The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács, Lethe Press: This collection from the Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of Transcendent 2 offers plenty of thrills - and bonus tentacles - for readers of LGBTQ-focused speculative literature. The stories range from magical space opera to cheerful body horror and historical fantasy, always with a sense of hope amid adversity. The mystical and magical merge with the scientific and technological: sacred texts gain new interpretations in the light of nuclear physics, and people save a forest with computer science. Cephalopods build alliances and research their past, Jewish shapeshifters speak to extraterrestrial planetminds, and Hungarian horse archers summon ancient terrors. https://www.lethepressbooks.com/product-page/the-trans-space-octopus-congregation

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 29

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Casanova's Echo by @alivali.bsky.social, @boldstrokesbooks.bsky.social & Sharp Pink Claws, edited by Oliver Fugler, Ashley Fortier, and @elitareq.bsky.social, @metonymypress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram

Book cover for Casanova's Echo by Ali Vali, Bold Strokes Books: Rowan Whitney believed love was like the romance novels she read growing up, until her engagement party exploded in very public heartbreak. With New York gossiping about the scandal, Rowan and her sister escape to Venice for the summer. Dante Morosini grew up in one of the most romantic cities in the world, but even though she’s a professor teaching romance, she isn’t a believer. The women in her life are temporary. So the last thing she needs is her new, extremely aggravating American neighbor stirring up feelings. https://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/books/casanovas-echo-by-ali-vali-4944-b

Book cover for Sharp Pink Claws, edited by Oliver Fugler, Ashley Fortier, and Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, Metonymy Press: These multi-genre anthologies are filled with politically engaged, formally innovative, and embodied writing by some of the most important queer and trans writers of the twenty-first century. Volume 2 contributors: Kai Cheng Thom, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, Grace Kwan, jiaqing wilson-yang, Markus Harwood-Jones, and Valérie Bah. https://metonymypress.com/products/sharp-pink-claws/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 28

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Disembark: Stories by Jen Currin, @houseofanansi.bsky.social & A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut by Hannah Levene, @cipherpress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut by Hannah Levene, Cipher Press: Herb and Lara are busy slinging coffees in their hometown – of Watford! While Herb dreams of leaving to write big gay plays for a big gay world, Lara’s dedication to being in the here and now keeps her firmly rooted. Plus she’s fallen madly in love with Cynthia, a high-femme roboteer here to finish her PhD, teaching her way through robot post-doc hell, stamping on the brains of robo-boys as she goes. Soon Watford will use Cynthia’s inventions to reinvent itself into the communised Watford Underburg, but not yet. https://www.cipherpress.co.uk/a-pizza-hut-a-pizza-hut-kentucky-fried-chicken-and-a-pizza-hut

Book cover for Disembark: Stories by Jen Currin, House of Anansi: Award–winning author Jen Currin presents remarkable and sometimes magical new stories of queer friendship and love, against the backdrop of city life. https://houseofanansi.com/collections/lgbtq-stories/products/disembark

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 27

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: The Body Riddle by Sam K. MacKinnon & Broughtupsy by @christinajcooke.bsky.social, both from @houseofanansi.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke, House of Anansi: Akúa is returning home to Jamaica for the first time in ten years. Her younger brother has died suddenly, and Akúa hopes to reconnect with her estranged older sister, Tamika. Over three fateful weeks, the sisters visit significant places from their childhood where Akúa spreads her brother’s ashes. But time spent with Tamika only seems to make apparent how different they are and how alone Akúa feels. Then Akúa meets Jayda, a brash stripper who reveals a different side of Kingston. As the two women grow closer, Akúa is forced to confront the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what it means to be a gay woman in Jamaica. https://houseofanansi.com/collections/lgbtq-stories/products/broughtupsy

Book cover for The Body Riddle by Sam K. MacKinnon, House of Anansi Press: When Lex finally receives a date for their chest surgery, they’re not sure if they want to go through with it. But it’s been a year since they’ve had sex with their cis partner, Ada, who believes Lex’s surgery will rekindle their kinky dynamic. When surgery doesn’t have the outcome either expects, Lex, in the spirit of their non-monogamous relationship, tries to support Ada's new romance with Noah, a cis man. But Lex’s jealousy spirals—Is Ada replacing them? And does she prefer cis masculinity after all? Then Lex meets Sadie, a magnetic nonbinary coworker who awakens a new attraction. Lex thought they were only attracted to women and has never dated another trans person. Unsure about their changing sexuality, Lex hides the budding romance from Ada. As secrets build, Lex must decide what kind of love—and life—they really want. https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-body-riddle

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 26

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Death Valley Blooms by @whatsmacksaid.bsky.social & The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas, both from @neonhemlock.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Death Valley Blooms by S.M. Mack, Neon Hemlock: Every decade or so, vast quantities and varieties of wildflowers bloom all at once in Death Valley. But unbeknownst to the wider world, these super blooms are powered by a woman’s life. Mar Ramse lost her mother to Death Valley as a teenager and would give anything to break her family’s curse, but now the desert whispers its call to her. However, she still has a single ace up her sleeve: neither she nor her brother will ever have children. Is it enough for the desert to release its grip on her family? https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/death-valley-blooms

Book cover for The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas, Neon Hemlock: Set in an alternate version of the British Isles where South Asian imperial interest colonized much of the globe thanks to their advanced technology, Professor Laxman Yadav is dating Saviour, one of the world’s most famous superheroes, while also investigating possibly the most important archeological find of all time. Equal parts pulp caper and meta-textual academic text, this novella leans as heavily on footnotes as it does on explorations of queer romance. https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/iron-below-remembers

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 26

🌟🎉 This contest is still ongoing over at IG. Get in on it, Canadian friends! 🌟🎉 #bookgiveaway #contest #arcgiveaway #bookcontest #BookSky

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 25

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: The Haunting of Adrian Yates by @markusbones.bsky.social, @metonymypress.bsky.social & Weather and Beasts and Growing Things by Charlotte Suttee, @lethepress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Weather and Beasts and Growing Things by Charlotte Suttee, Lethe Press: In 2079, Stevven Pane (they/them) operates an unsanctioned GreenRoof, an urban garden atop a condemned apartment on the coast of South Carolina. The city seeks to evict Stevven, along with nine-year-old Eli, "Earther" Gino, gossip magazine journalist Barbara, and BluBerry, a sentient plant. When this motley crew is forced to navigate a neoliberal cyberpunk urban landscape, miles of abandoned highways riddled with oil cults and cannibals, and swamps of uncanny critters in the hopes of reaching a new home, the last place Stevven ever trusted is the University grounds nestled in the foothills of Tennessee. https://www.lethepressbooks.com/product-page/weather-and-beasts-and-growing-things

Book cover for The Haunting of Adrian Yates by Markus Harwood-Jones, Metonymy Press: Adrian Yates expected his summer would involve sharing Slurpees with his best friend Zoomer and pretending not to hear his dads’ whispered fighting. And that’s exactly how it was going, until the night Sorel appeared in the graveyard by Adrian’s apartment. Sorel gets Adrian in ways no one else has; the fact that he’s not technically alive only makes things exciting. But Sorel can’t always control his otherworldly behaviour, and Zoomer’s worried he might be hiding something. On stormy summer nights behind the cemetery’s iron gates, Adrian and Sorel meet in secret and the pair begin to experiment with consensual possession. Despite the warning signs, Adrian is certain he has everything under control—until suddenly he finds himself fighting for his life. https://metonymypress.com/products/haunting-adrian-yates-harwood-jones/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 24

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: The Dead Withheld by @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app, @neonhemlock.bsky.social & Ours by @lisacaroauthor.bsky.social, Painted Hearts Publishing. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for The Dead Withheld by L.D. Lewis, Neon Hemlock: Meet Dizzy Carter: private investigator/blues enthusiast/deadwalker witch. In this sapphic paranormal neo-noir, we follow her exploits in the neon-drenched desert city of San Guin as a break in the cold case of her wife’s murder leads to her stepping on the toes of some ambitious demons. https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/the-dead-withheld

Book cover for Ours by Lisa Caro, Painted Hearts Publishing: The invisible mafia princess of the Vicente crime family. Spencer Snow never dreamed that’s who she would see cowering in a bed while her crime boss father yelled at her. Now he has ‘gifted’ his daughter to her and Spencer offers Luna somewhere to stay while she rests and recuperates. She never anticipated finding the young woman so intriguing she just wants to kiss her all the time. https://www.paintedheartspublishing.com/ours

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 23

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: loudest when startled by @lunareyhall.com & Three Queerdos and a Baby by Nina Packebush @sunnypaws.bsky.social, both @yesyesbooks.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Three Queerdos and a Baby by Nina Packebush, Yes Yes Books: Three Queerdos and a Baby, the second volume in Nina Packebush's groundbreaking YA series as it is also a stand alone novel, follows Banjo, a queer teen mom (the first ever queer teen mom to be represented in YA fiction!), as she navigates grief, motherhood, her developing self with support from her family, friends, and partner while surviving a world that is hostile to who she is. https://www.yesyesbooks.com/product-page/three-queerdos-and-a-baby-1

Book cover for loudest when startled by luna rey hall, Yes Yes Books: The poems in loudest when startled, luna rey hall’s debut collection, explore the ways in which gun violence has become part of the fundamental nature of relationships, family, and American masculinity—so much so that the bullet has been rendered benign, just another news story, just another obituary, just another walk down the street. The poetry in loudest when startled follows two brothers born into gun culture as they navigate their relationship to anger, loss, and guns in entirely different ways with different outcomes yet leaving us with a sense that we are all both predator and prey. https://www.yesyesbooks.com/product-page/loudest-when-startled-by-lukas-ray-hall

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 22

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Head Over Heelflip by @thesansan.bsky.social, @boldstrokesbooks.bsky.social & Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge by Harvey Brownstone, @ecwpress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Head Over Heelflip by Sander Santiago, Bold Strokes Books: For most, the Colorado Amateur Street Sports Tour means a chance to see some local skateparks and fun antics as participants compete for some unusual point prizes. While he doesn’t expect to go pro as a skateboarder or BMX biker, Arturo hopes winning will jump-start his career in media. To win, his team must snag one of the bigger prizes, which means marrying his best friend Thomas “Pirate” Jefferson. Invited onto the team because he’s that good, Thomas must win to prove he deserves to be there. To secure the biggest prizes, he’ll do almost anything, even marry his crush—Arturo “Uno” Ortiz. Although his feelings are a secret, his attraction gets harder to hide when the competition starts to push their relationship out into the open. When pressure drives a wedge through his team, Thomas is going to need more than a win to keep everyone he loves. https://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/books/head-over-heelflip-by-sander-santiago-4385-b

Book cover for Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge by Harvey Brownstone, ECW Press: This searing and unforgettable memoir chronicles the turbulent trajectory of Canada’s first openly gay judge. Harvey Brownstone recounts the astonishing obstacles he confronted and surmounted with fearless resolve, including parental rejection, poverty, depression, homophobia, institutional inertia, and professional sabotage. https://ecwpress.com/collections/books/products/without-prejudice

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 21

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: Shy Trans Banshee by Tony Santorella, @atlanticbooks.bsky.social & The Spectral Woman: Transfemininity and the Abolition of Gender by @ciaracr.bsky.social, @plutopress.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers

Book cover for Shy Trans Banshee: The Supernatural Mystery That's an Absolute Scream by Tony Santorella, Atlantic Books: The much-anticipated follow-up to word-of-mouth bestseller Bored Gay Werewolf. Brian, Nik and Darby – three friends practiced in fighting supernatural crime (when Brian’s not committing it as a werewolf once a month) – have been sent to London to try to track down a missing colleague. Prowling around the city, they stumble across a clairvoyancy smuggling ring. Who’s kidnapping all the fortune tellers in Soho and why? And is it coincidence, fate or something more sinister that Maeve, a timid trans woman taking time out of her job to track down her birth mother, turns up on the gang’s doorstep… and has the uncanny ability to know just what’s going to happen next?https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/shy-trans-banshee/

Book cover for The Spectral Woman: Transfemininity and the Abolition of Gender by Ciara Cremin, Pluto Press: What if the feminine holds the power to undo domination itself? In The Spectral Woman, Ciara Cremin reveals the feminine as the force which can abolish the rigid categories of sex and gender that sustain class exploitation, androcentrism and repression. With bold, incisive arguments, she explores the transformative potential of feminine jouissance, offering a radical path towards emancipation. Rejecting the myths of diversity, difference and individualism, she confronts the illusions of liberal humanism, arguing for a utopian femininity that challenges the psychic impairments perpetuated by capitalist, colonial and patriarchal systems. https://www.plutobooks.com/product/the-spectral-woman/

Joanne Merriam@joannemerriam· Jun 20

Daily(ish) #SmallPress #books: A Body Made Home: They Black Trans Love by Kai Marshall Green, Feminist Press & Dreaming of Man by Nikoline Kaiser, @neonhemlock.bsky.social. See alt-text. #DSPBposts #bookish 💙📚 #BookSky #bookstodon #booktok #booksta #bookstagram #booklovers