pride

I started writing queer characters and themes for the reason that I hear many other LGBTQIA+ writers cite: these were the stories that I wanted to read. When I sold my first novel, in 1984, most of us added, these were the stories I wanted to read, and that I couldn’t find anywhere else. These days, I hear that less, and there has certainly been a boom in queer SF/F. You don’t have to be part of a whisper network to hear which books have queer content, or learn to interpret publishers’ coded references.

It’s time for the latest Pride Storybundle! Once again, Catherine Lundoff and I have pulled together a collection of outstanding LGBTQIA+ SF/F, with five books in the main bundle and ten in the bonus. You’ll find the usual mix of newer writers and new works, plus some older ones, as well as a mix of novels, novellas, and short story collections. There’s science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, solarpunk, cyberpunk, and more, ranging in tone from deeply serious to extremely funny, all written by authors who are at the top of their game.

The annual Pride Storybundle is in full swing — many thanks for Catherine Lundoff for taking over most of the curation this year, and to Jason Chen for letting us make this an annual event. When I started this five years ago, I was thinking of it as a one-off. I had co-edited Lethe Press’s annual lesbian SF/F anthology, Daughters of Russ, and been struck by the number of stories we had to consider — and I knew we had missed some.