GLBT writing enjoys a rich history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, subtext was the fashion, and stories by authors such as Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf resonated with gay audiences. Over the last 30 years, however, a wide range of styles and themes have gained popularity.

A new breed of authors, such as Patricia Nell Warren (The Front Runner) and John Rechy (City of Night), took our stories beyond the realm of pulp fiction. And writers such as Michael Cunningham, who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Hours, and Allan Hollingshurst, who snagged the coveted Booker Prize for the Line of Beauty, brought literary credibility to the genre. Now readers can find a wide array of titles to choose from in their local gay-friendly bookstores. Even big chains such as Borders Books and Barnes & Noble carry published works about our varied community, with many achieving crossover success.

Whether you’re interested in political commentary or simply the perfect beach read, here’s what is currently out on the shelves or coming soon to a bookstore near you.

Michael Tolliver Lives

Armistead Maupin

Harper Collins

$25.95, hardcover (June)

When Armistead Maupin wrote the Tales of the City series, he introduced readers to a cast of colorful characters set against the backdrop of San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s. One of those characters, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, was an endearingly sweet Southern boy, who was always on the prowl for male companionship – finding love and loss in the city by the bay.

In Maupin’s new book, Michael Tolliver Lives, the story focuses on Tolliver, who is now 55 years old and living with HIV.

Maupin is also the author of Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener.

Landing

Emma Donoghue

Harcourt

$25.00, hardcover (May)

Donoghue’s fifth novel, Landing, tests the theory “true love conquers all” when androgynous Jude Turner crosses paths with the worldly Sile O’Shaugnessy on a U.K.-bound flight. Somewhat serendipitous, Jude hails from Ireland, Canada, whereas Sile is from Ireland, the country. The women keep abreast of each other’s lives through written correspondence, eventually falling in love despite the miles between them.

The book has been described as “a delightful, old-fashioned love story with a uniquely 21-century twist.”

Donoghue’s other titles include Life Mask, Hood and Touchy Subjects.

When You Were Me

Robert Rodi

Kensington

$24.00, hardcover (May)

The adage “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” applies literally to the main character in When You Were Me. Jack Ackerly has devoted his entire life to accumulating wealth. Now, at the age of 53, Jack wishes he had spent his life cashing in on the riches that only youth affords.

In this be-careful-what-you-wish-for satire by Robert Rodi, Jack trades places with a 26-year-old party boy who has seen and done it all, setting the stage for a vintage Rodi-style examination of the gay haves and have-nots.

Rodi has penned six novels: Fag Hag, Closet Case, Drag Queen, Kept Boy, Bitch Goddess and What They Did to Princess Paragon.

Call Me by Your Name

Andre Aciman

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux

$23.00, hardcover (in stores now)

Egyptian-born author Andre Aciman delves into coming-of-age territory with his story of a young man’s sexual awakening. Seventeen-year-old Elio is living in his family’s coastal Italian home when he meets 24-year-old Oliver, a visiting scholar.

The two spend hours together bonding through physical exercise, but when flirtation leads to the consummation of fleshly desires, a new-found intimacy is discovered.

Aciman is also the author of Out of Egypt: a Memoir and False Papers.

Pink

Jennifer Harris

Harrington Park Press

$10.95, paperback (in stores now)

A lesbian author daydreams about the novel that will launch her into the literary stratosphere. She spends her days deep in belief that every aspect of her life will change for the better: her love life will improve and disposable income will equate happiness.

A deep-seated need to overcome her fears is the glue that holds this satire together.

Dying for a Change

Sean Reynolds

Suspect Thoughts Press

$16.95, paperback (May)

Set during the summer of 1965, Reynolds’ mystery unfolds when the civil rights movement and the Watts Riots are front-page news. One story not getting press, however, is the mysterious murder of renowned drag queen Miss Dove.

Enter Chan Parker, a black lesbian who is looking to sever her mob affiliations and make a clean break. Chan is enlisted by friend Henrietta Wild Child to help her investigate Dove’s murder.

On Picking Fruit

Arthur Wooten

Alyson Books

$14.95, paperback (in stores now)

All Curtis Jenkins wants is to find the elusive “Mr. Right.” Yet with each date, Curtis increasingly realizes that finding love ain’t easy when picking fruit.

Famed author Edmund White remarked of the novel, “If gallantry in our day is defined as facing adversity with screams of laughter, then this is the most gallant book I know of.”

Wooten has had a very interesting start to his literary career by self-publishing On Picking Fruit at age 50. Subsequently, Alyson Books discovered him and offered him a multi-book deal, the sequel to On Picking Fruit, titled Fruit Cocktail, is due out this spring.

Girl on a Stick

Kathleen Bryson

She Devil Press

$16.95, paperback (in stores now)

American girl Clementine Logan, now living in London, has a vision of the Virgin Mary while riding the bus. These religious visions continue at a furious pace, all starting when Clementine begins dating Norwegian-born Per.

As the apparitions reach a fever pitch, her relationship with Per becomes as twisted as a Rubik’s Cube. Just as puzzling is the memory of a past transgression by a local priest.

Bryson has studied at the London Academy of the Performing Arts and has lived in Europe for 13 years.

Boston Boys Club

Johnny Diaz

Kensington

$15.00, paperback (April)

Boston’s South End is home to a group of friends who frequent a bar “where everybody knows your name” – and your last lay. Every Thursday, like clockwork, Tommy and his wingman Rico frequent The Club Café to get their pre-weekend party started. On one of these ritualistic excursions, Tommy meets Mikey, who in Bostonian terms is “wicked hot!” Added to the fray is former-reality-show-star-turned-model Kyle, whose life off-camera takes on an interesting angle.

Diaz contributes to The Boston Globe as a living/arts writer. He has also worked for The Miami Herald where he covered an array of stories, including Gianni Versace’s murder. He is also known as “that gay guy’s boyfriend” from “The Real World: Miami.”

Dog Years: A Memoir

Mark Doty

Harper Collins

$23.95, hardcover (March)

It’s widely-known that gay men treat their pets as if they were children. But what do we get in return from our four-legged friends? We receive unconditional love with the wag of a tail and not one ounce of judgment.

Mark Doty’s memoir chronicles how two canine companions helped him through the challenges of life and loss.

Doty is the author of several novels, as well as memoirs Heaven’s Coast and Firebird.

Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics

Jennifer Baumgardner

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux

$24.00, hardcover (in stores now)

Sexual choices get the spotlight in this unflinching look at how bisexuality can challenge the narrow labels of “gay” and “straight.” Baumgardner weaves personal accounts of her own bisexuality with controversial views regarding bisexuality as a whole.

Baumgardner is the scribe behind Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism and co-author of Manifesto.

Hear Us Out!: Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present

Nancy Garden

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux

$18.00, hardcover (April)

In Hear Us Out!: Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present, the gay revolution is traced from its early beginnings in the 1950s until today. From the closeted Eisenhower era and the rise of AIDS in the ’80s to the present, each period is dissected and defined by how the social and political climate played a part in charting our destiny.

Nancy Garden includes two short stories about her own coming out and how the political atmosphere of the time influenced her experience.

Garden has written many books, including The Year They Banned Books and Annie on My Mind.

Butch is a Noun

S. Bear Bergman

Suspect Thoughts Press

$16.95, paperback (in stores now)

Butch is a Noun is about struggling and finally coming to terms with being butch. The book illustrates the concepts of femme versus butch, and being butch within the context of being surrounding by other butches.

Butch is a Noun has an irreverent, humorous and touching quality, while providing insightful commentary on the way that labels affect the gay community.

S. Bear Bergman is an award-winning playwright and frequent university lecturer on issues relating to gender and sexuality. Bergman has also advised the boards of numerous universities on policies regarding transgender students.

Postcards from Heartthrob Town: A Gay Man’s Travel Tales

Gerard Wozek

Southern Tier Editions

$17.95, paperback (in stores now)

Postcards from Heartthrob Town is a blend of fiction and memoir. Nineteen stories come to the conclusion that the shortest trek to self discovery lies on the roads taken while traveling.

Poet Gerard Wozek illustrates each story with lyrical beauty, while at the same time making sure each essay is dripping with the emotional resonance of stepping outside of oneself while on sojourn.

Wozek has also written a poetry collection called Dervish, which has been said to “poignantly capture the ache of wanderlust in a gay man’s heart.”

She’s Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband

Helen Boyd

Seal Press

$15.95, paperback (in stores now)

Helen Boyd had long known that her husband was a cross dresser, but when he decides to completely transition to being a woman, it forces Boyd to confront the very nature of love.

As she struggles to grasp the full scope of her husband’s decision, she provides an insightful look at the role gender plays in both the context of a marriage and in the outside world.

Boyd has also written My Husband Betty, the prequel to She’s Not the Man I Married.

Gay Conservatives

Kenneth W. Cimino

Harrington Park Press

$17.95, paperback (May)

Gay Conservatives uncovers why gay conservative voters support politics that do not benefit or support gay lifestyle choices or community.

Other topics covered in Gay Conservatives include: the history of the gay movement, Stonewall, the impact of the AIDS crisis and the rise of “Queer Nation.”

Cimino is a visiting assistant professor of political science at Drake University, and has written many articles for Advocate.com.

Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography

Rupert Everett

Warner Books

$25.99, hardcover (in stores now)

Openly gay actor Rupert Everett has put pen to paper again, but this time he gives readers the chance to live in his own skin. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins recounts the actor’s first brush with catching the acting bug when attending a matinee showing of Mary Poppins.

Everett touches on his friendships with some of the most famous women in the world, including his co-star Madonna in The Next Best Thing. He also broaches what it means to be to an out gay actor in today’s Hollywood.

Everett has also written Hello, Darling, are You Working?

Aroused

Sean Wolfe

Kensington Books

$15.00, paperback (in stores

now)

What if Christopher Isherwood had written erotica? That’s what Aroused by Sean Wolfe is being likened to. This anthology examines the aspects of every season of a gay man’s sexuality – from a spring thaw when first experiences transpire to the winter of discontent, when older gay men strive to redefine what it means to be a viable sexual entity.

Wolfe has also written Close Contact and contributed to the anthology Man of My Dreams.

Invert(e): Flagrantly Queer Culture, Poli

tics, Sex and Dish

Greg Wharton and Ian Phillips, Eds.

Suspect Thoughts Press

$12.95, paperback (July)

Invert(e) is an anthology that also serves as part periodical and part journal. It includes conversations culled from artists, authors and activists about pop culture, politicians and, of course, sex.

The eclectic authors take on such timely topics as body image, gender, movies, drug addiction, the “down low” phenomenon, gay TV and a plethora of subjects that make up our gay existence.

Editors Greg Wharton and Ian Philips spearhead Suspect Thoughts Press, among other publishing ventures, and are the editors behind the 2004 Lambda Award-winning I Do/I Don’t: Queers on Marriage.

With more than five works of fiction and three nonfiction titles under his belt, author William J. Mann has not only made a name for himself in literary circles, but he is also a noted historian. His works about well-known stars like Katharine Hepburn and William Haines have won much recognition and awards.

Straddling the line between writing fiction and nonfiction does have its plusses and minuses, as Mann explained to the Gay & Lesbian Times.

“It’s difficult to choose between them. They use different parts of the brain, different parts of my experiences. I don’t think I could do one without the other,” Mann said. “When I am working on fiction, I get to have free reign and I can change storylines. Whereas nonfiction, of course, you’re constrained by the facts and history. But at the same time it’s just as challenging to find the story in nonfiction.”

Mann’s fiction titles include the popular The Men From the Boys and follow-up Where the Boys Are. This story details the lives of gay couple Jeff and Lloyd over the seasons of their lives. Mann will continue these characters’ stories, and others, in Men Who Love Men, which will be released this March.

“I’ve followed these characters now for 10 years. We’ve seen them go through passages in their lives,” he said. “What I am hoping to do is use those three books as a mirror on gay life over the last decade for various generations…. I am hoping that what readers get from the whole series is a walk through gay life over the last 12 years.”

As an author who has had a fair share of success in the gay fiction genre, Mann sees it heading in this direction:

“It’s always been difficult to characterize gay fiction. I think it’s always been an artificial genre. ‘What is gay fiction?’ That’s the eternal question,” Mann explained. “I think what we are seeing now is that we’re writing stories that matter to us. I also think what’s great is that we are also seeing stories that are branching out [and] that have more universal appeal. So many writers now are writing stories that are informed by their own experiences by being gay, but, in fact, these stories are being read by more than just gay people. So I think we’re seeing an opening. I think we’re seeing an expansion of the genre.”

Michelle Tea, editor of the anthology Baby Remember My Name, has managed to assemble 22 distinct voices that capture the pain of first love, coming out and coming into one’s own as a sexual being. Baby Remember My Name is being hailed as a literary touchstone, not only for readers but for a new generation of writers alike. It offers a wide array of experiences from up-and-coming queer girl writers.

This territory of offering fresh voices to the masses is nothing new for Tea. She is the co-founder of the San Francisco-based Sister Spit, an all-girl word troupe. She also spearheads the monthly Radar Reading Series at the San Francisco Public Library.

Tea spoke with the Gay & Lesbian Times about the importance of hearing queer voices loud and clear.

“I don’t champion a particular voice over anyone else’s, other than perhaps I’m always fighting for more girls to get heard, and more queers and people who have working class backgrounds. Essentially, I’m looking to get people out there who have a hard time getting an audience on their own, for whatever the reason may be,” Tea said.

Tea knows firsthand about the publishing world and is a Lambda Award-winning author. Her works include Valencia, Chelsea Whistle, Rent Girl and Rose of No Man’s Land.

She has mined the rich experiences of her life to strike writing gold in a number of memoirs. The process can be both librating and challenging, as she explained.

“It’s difficult, it’s cathartic, it’s really fun – sometimes it’s really easy, sometimes it’s really hard. It’s a really complex experience, and not that different than writing a novel, but it has the additional problems or challenges that come after it’s published that you’ve bared all to the public.”

This baring of soul has resonated with readers.

“What I look for when I’m reading a book is a sense of connection. At the same time, I look for insight into different ways of thinking and different ways of living your life. I hope that people come away feeling like they engaged with a good piece of writing,” Tea said.

1. Adventures of a Bird-Shit Foreigner

by Sulayman X

2. Rhapsody in Blood

by John Morgan Wilson

3. Vesuvius Club

by Mark Gatiss

4. My Lucky Star

by Joe Keenan

5. Exiles in America

by Christopher Bram

1. The Devil Inside

by Ali Vali

2. Behind the Pine Curtain

by Gerri Hill

3. Turn Back Time

by Radclyffe

4. Whitewater Rendezvous

by Kim Baldwin

5. Beneath the Willow

by Kenna White

Special thanks to Mark Hernandez, Keith Benton and Jenn Craig for compiling above list.