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Pride 2022

Featured Top Picks • June 1, 2022 • Ryann Anderson

Happy Pride, readers! Each June, we come together to loudly and proudly celebrate the joys, victories and triumphs of the queer community! Pride is also an opportunity to reflect on the hardships and violence that the LGBTQ2+ community has faced throughout history, and a timely reminder of all the work that is left as we create a more equitable and accepting world. 

Whether you’re out and proud or cheering on the community as an ally, we’ve curated a list of what to read, where to shop, and bookish things to do this Pride.

What to Read

Swollening by Jason Purcell (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Part poetry, part memoir, Swollening examines the intersection of queerness and illness to showcase the undiagnosable pain and trauma caused by homophobia.

From the publisher: A tender debut poetry collection that examines the queer, sick body as a reaction to an ill world and asks it how to move on toward hope.

Cut to Fortress by Tawahum Bige (Nightwood Editions)

Poet Tawahum Bige describes themself as “a hopeless Two Spirit Nonbinary sadboy.” In this affecting debut collection, they consider the possibility of decolonization through a personal lens, using their connection to Dene and Cree culture.

From the publisher: A stunning debut poetry collection confronting colonialism, relationships, grief and intergenerational wounds.

Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry, edited by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli (Arsenal Pulp Press)

A star-studded anthology featuring contributors such as Amber Dawn, David Demchuk, Hiromi Goto, jaye simpson, Eddy Boudel Tan, Matthew J. Trafford, and Kai Cheng Thom. In this new collection, contributors use fiction and poetry to explore our conception of “monsters” through a queer lens.

From the publisher: In Queer Little Nightmares, creatures of myth and folklore seek belonging and intimate connection, cryptids challenge their outcast status, and classic movie monsters explore the experience of coming into queerness.

Available for pre-order! Releasing Fall, 2022.

Moving the Centre: Small Axe & Freedom Singer by Andrew Kushnir and Khari Wendell McClelland (Talonbooks)

A new play that follows a queer playwright as its protagonist, charting his interactions with activists, refugees, priests and ministers, journalists, fellow artists, Pride Week revellers, queer people. 

From the publisher: Small Axe invites us to sit with our differences in order to discover how intricately connected we are.

This Has Always Been a War: The Radicalization of a Working Class Queer by Lori Fox (Arsenal Pulp Press)

In this riveting collection of essays, activist Lori Fox explores the ways in which capitalism intersects with every aspect of our lives, and the ways in which this disproportionately affects women, queer, non-binary, and BIPOC individuals.

From the publisher: A powerful, personal critique of capitalist patriarchy as seen through the eyes of a queer radical.

My Two-Faced Luck by Brett Josef Grubisic (Now or Never Publishing)  

A captivating novel that follows a queer protagonist’s journey through rural New England in the 1920s, all the way up the west coast to River Bend City, British Columbia.

From the publisher: My Two-Faced Luck captures a singular voice as it divulges startling facts behind a rough passage through the upheavals of the twentieth century.

Available for pre-order! Releasing Summer, 2022.

Where to Shop

Looking for further reading? Your local independent bookseller is a great place to start. BC’s indies are known for curating inclusive and thought-provoking reading lists. If you’re looking for more reads this Pride Month, here are some more recommendations to get you started.

What to Do

If you’re looking to get out and celebrate with the community this month, here are just a few bookish events to get you feeling the spirit of Pride: