The title for Krys Malcolm Belc’s memoir comes from the legal designation assigned to him as a nonbinary transmasculine parent. The book begins with Belc’s experience as a pregnant transmasculine person, something that broadened his sense of identity. His memoir is comprised of interconnected essays that do not always follow a linear timeline but, when pieced together, paint a picture both of Belc’s developing sense of self throughout his life and the pivotal moments that showed him that he did not fit into the rigid...

June 2021 marks the eighth annual National Immigrant Heritage Month, a time to acknowledge and honor the contributions and achievements of immigrants in the United States. Despite the country's designation as a "Nation of Immigrants," immigration has always been—and in the new Biden Administration, continues to be—a controversial issue (most recently with Vice President Kamala Harris telling migrants “do not come” to the United States during a visit to Guatemala). The migrant crisis at the border is ongoing, the refugee crisis worldwide is at historic...

TV writer and former Rookie editor Danielle Henderson’s new memoir, The Ugly Cry (Out June 8 from Viking), is a testament to the fact that most childhoods cannot be distilled into pure tragedy or pure comedy. She revisits her curiosity and confusion while coming of age in the ’80s as a Black girl in a white neighborhood in upstate New York, and her recollections oscillate between the tragic (various forms of abuse), the comic (a song to accompany outdoor peeing), and the tragicomic (her...

The LGBTQ+ community is vast and experiences are varied. In honor of Pride month, here are nine LGBTQ+ authors from around the world whose works offer compelling insight into the diversity of the community while exploring the universal complexities of identity and sexuality, and celebrating the joy and comfort of love and community. 1. Beijing Comrades by Bei Tong, translated by Scott E. MyersImage via Feminist PressOne of the first LGBTQ+ novels to come out of China, this now cult-classic of Chinese queer literature was originally...

August doesn’t believe in magic or time travel. She doesn’t even believe in love at first sight—that is, until she meets Jane, a kind-hearted, magnetic girl who takes the same subway every day. But as August learns more about her enigmatic crush, she realizes that Jane is actually displaced from the 1970s, trapped on the Q train, and unsure how any of this happened. It’s up to August to help figure out how Jane got stuck in time, while keeping her feelings at bay. Much...

Journalist, podcaster, educator, and social-media maven Ashley C. Ford has written one of the most anticipated memoirs of the season. Somebody’s Daughter (out June 1) chronicles her upbringing in Indiana within a family forever altered by her father’s incarceration. Here, she shares how she gets her many writing jobs done. –Emily RemsYou write in a variety of different arenas—print magazines, websites, anthologies, audio, TV, social media. Did writing your memoir change your routine?I started working on the book before any of my other writing work,...

Book publishing was put under a microscope last year when people started buying up anti-racist titles by the thousands in response to that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. The result of this scrutiny? A public awareness of just how glaringly white the industry is. Former editorial assistant Zakiya Dalila Harris plunges readers directly into the publishing world with The Other Black Girl, a slow-burning thriller centered on microaggressions and gaslighting with a seriously unsettling twist. Book loving, 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is determined to...

May is International Masturbation Month! The month is coming (ha) to a close, but there’s still a few more days to celebrate May’s lesser known designation. There’s still quite a bit of stigma surrounding masturbation, and while some people are experts on their own pleasure, not everyone is comfortable exploring or even knows how to start. Regardless of your level of expertise, here are six books to facilitate your exploration of masturbation, sexuality, and reaching better orgasms overall. 1. Getting Off by Jamye WaxmanImage via Seal...

Writer, editor, educator, and social commentator Roxane Gay is really shaking things up in the world of publishing. With notable works such as Bad Feminist, Hunger: A Memoir Of (My) Body, and An Untamed State, Gay has become widely acknowledged as one of the most remarkable thought leaders and changemakers of our time. Her recent big announcement that she’ll be heading her very own publishing imprint is a very powerful indication that Roxane Gay is here to stay, and more importantly, that she’s highly invested in...

The Horton family packs into their aging minivan for an annual summer tour of revival meetings at the beginning of this swift, gripping debut novel. A year and 304 pages later, nothing is the same, including the memorable young woman at the heart of this story of magical realism. Miriam is 15 years old, daughter of a famous faith healer and a grieving mother, sibling to a preacher-in-training brother and a special-needs sister. The women of Baptist churches, tent revivals, and soul salvation are often...