The Queer Writer: May 2025

Nothing here for now! I'm currently focused on my debut, THE LILAC PEOPLE, and nurturing my career as a published author, but I plan to return to teaching eventually. In the meantime, I'm working on some class alternatives. More on that soon!

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

The Glade by Naseem Jamnia

Pina’s first trip to summer camp is a chance to escape her overbearing parents and finally go on an adventure with her best friend, Jo. But Camp Clear Skies hides a secret: a clearing in the deep woods the older kids call “the Glade.” After falling asleep here, Pina and Jo are able to enter one another’s dreams, transforming into superheroes and knights in shining armor, fighting back their nightmares in epic adventures. At first, the friends think they’ve discovered a secret more exciting than any video game—until Pina’s nightmares start leaking out into waking life. Worse, something seems to have followed them back from those dreams…and whatever it is, it’s taking over Jo. Jo has always been the superhero in their friendship, but Pina can’t just abandon them to their fate. To save her friend, Pina journeys deeper into the Glade than she ever has before, facing the worst of her own fears and Jo’s. There, she must confront the consciousness trying to steal her friend’s body and learn what happened twenty years ago that shut down Camp Clear Skies and changed the Glade forever.

So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis

So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations--who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers. De Robertis creates a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life: kids growing up, navigating family issues and finding community, coming out and changing how they identify over the years, building movements and weathering the AIDS crisis, and sharing wisdom for future generations. Often narrating experiences that took place before they had the array of language that exists today to self-identify beyond the gender binary, this generation lived through remarkable changes in American culture, shaped American culture, and yet rarely takes center stage in the history books. Their stories feel particularly urgent in the current political moment, but also remind readers that their experiences are not new, and that young trans and nonbinary people today belong to a long lineage.

Trans History: A Graphic Novel: From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett

What does “trans” mean, and what does it mean to be trans? Diversity in human sex and gender is not a modern phenomenon, as readers will discover through illustrated stories and records that introduce historical figures ranging from the controversial Roman emperor Elagabalus to the swashbuckling seventeenth-century conquistador Antonio de Erauso to veterans of the Stonewall uprising Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. In addition to these individual profiles, the book explores some of the societal roles played by trans people beginning in ancient times and shows how European ideas about gender were spread across the globe. It explains how the science of sexology and the growing acceptance of (and backlash to) gender nonconformity have helped to shape what it means to be trans today. Illustrated conversations with modern activists, scholars, and creatives highlight the breadth of current trans experiences and give readers a deeper sense of the diversity of trans people, a group numbering in the millions. Extensive source notes provide further resources. Moving, funny, heartbreaking, and empowering, this remarkable compendium from trans creators Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett is packed with research on every dynamic page.

Edge of the World: An Anthology of Queer Travel Writing by Alden Jones (ed.)

These lively essays by luminary writers offer a queer perspective on how people experience other cultures and how other cultures receive queer people. This anthology of essays includes the perspectives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans American authors from multiple ethnic identities, showcasing the travel writing of both established and emerging authors across a wide age spectrum to address these central questions. Contributors include Alexander Chee, Edmund White, Daisy Hernández, Putsata Reang, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Denne Michele Norris, Garrard Conley, Andrew Ellis Evans, Nicole Shawan Junior, Raluca Albu, KB Brookins, Genevieve Hudson, Zoë Sprankle, Sara Orozco, and Calvin Gimpelevich. Their essays take the reader to different areas of the world including Spain, Ukraine, Florida, New York City, Mexico, Cambodia, Russia, Senegal, Berlin, and more.

I Hope This Helps by Samiya Bashir

I Hope This Helps reflects on the excruciating metamorphosis of an artist, "a twinkle-textured disco-ball Jenga set" constrained and shaped by the limits of our reality: time, money, work, not to mention compounding global crises. Think of a river constrained by levees, a bonsai clipped and bent, a human body bursting through shapewear. Begging the question, what can it mean to thrive in the world as it is, Bashir says, "Rats thrive in sewers so / maybe I'm thriving." In these moving, sometimes harrowing meditations, Bashir reveals her vulnerable inner life, how she has built herself brick by brick into an artist.

The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story by Brandy Schillace

Set in interwar Germany, The Intermediaries tells the forgotten story of the Institute for Sexual Science, the world's first center for homosexual and transgender rights. Headed by a gay Jewish man, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the institute aided in the first gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments, acting as a rebellious base of operations in the face of rising prejudice, nationalism, and Nazi propaganda. An expert in medical history, Brandy Schillace tells the story of the Institute through the eyes of Dora Richter, an Institute patient whom we follow in her quest to transition and live as a woman. While the colorful but ultimately tragic arc of Weimar Berlin is well documented, The Intermediaries is the first book to assert the inseparable, interdependent relationship of sex science to both the queer rights movement and the permissive Weimar culture, tracking how political factions perverted that same science to suit their own ends. This riveting book brings together forgotten scientific and surgical discoveries (including previously untranslated archival material from Berlin) with the politics and social history that galvanized the first stirrings of the trans rights movement. Through its unforgettable characters and immersive, urgent storytelling, The Intermediaries charts the relationships between nascent sexual science, queer civil rights, and the fight against fascism. It tells riveting stories of LGBTQ pioneers--a surprising, long-suppressed history--and offers a cautionary tale in the face of today's oppressive anti-trans legislation.

And Introducing Dexter Gaines: A Novel of Old Hollywood by Mark B. Perry

HOLLYWOOD, 1952. Blessed with the smoldering good looks that destine him for the silver screen, the unfortunately named Dan Root arrives on the scene as a naïve but ambitious 21-year-old. Mentored and exploited by a powerful and dashing Svengali-like producer and his beguiling wife (a movie star whose career is on the tragic cusp between fame and fade out), Dan is transformed into the promising young actor, Dexter Gaines. Soon their three lives become dangerously entangled by sexual awakening and unrequited love, but when their passion and deceit lead to a crushing discovery and attempted murder, Dexter is forced to choose between stardom and survival. Four decades later, a heartbreaking event compels Dan to return to the city of lost dreams and confront his past. It is only then he begins to unravel the twists and turns of a long-ago emotional mystery, to make peace with his past and his foiled chance at stardom.

milktooth by Jaime Burnet

Sorcha is over the hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties. At thirty-one what she wants, more than anything, is to have a baby. Then she meets Chris— with her buttoned-up plaid, 90s heartthrob hair, and grand romantic gestures— and things get serious. Fast. Though Sorcha's friends find her new partner problematic, Sorcha has an explanation for everything. As Chris's moods turn volatile and Sorcha becomes increasingly isolated, Chris paints an idyllic picture of domestic bliss in Cape Breton. Sorcha is all in: if her conservative religious upbringing taught her anything, it's how to save. Plus, Chris promises Sorcha the thing she wants most— a baby. But when Sorcha becomes pregnant and Chris's abuse escalates, Sorcha realizes she must escape the life they've built together, just as she escaped her own stifling family years before. When Sorcha's estranged Aunt Agnes, a retired midwife, messages Sorcha out of the blue, her bothy in the Scottish Highlands seems the perfect place to hide. As the bundle of cells in Sorcha's belly diligently divides, she daydreams that Agnes will deliver the baby and they'll stay in Scotland, where Chris can't find them. And where, just maybe, Sorcha could build the sort of family she's always ached for.

Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell

It’s 1989, and Joe Agabian and his best friend Ronnie set out to spend their first summer working in the hedonistic gay paradise of Fire Island Pines. Joe is desperate to let loose and finally move beyond the heartbreak of having lost his boyfriend to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The two friends are quickly taken in by a pair of quirky, older house cleaners. But something seems off, and Joe starts to suspect the two older men of being up to something otherworldly. In truth, Howie and Lenny are members of a secret disco witch coven tasked with protecting the island—and young men like Joe—from the relentless tragedies ravaging their community. The only problem is, having lost too many of their fellow witches to the epidemic, the coven’s protective powers have been seriously damaged. Unaware of all the mystical shenanigans going on, Joe starts to fall for the super-cute bisexual ferryman who just happens to have webbed feet and an unusual ability to hold his breath underwater. But Joe’s longing to find love is tripped up by his own troublesome past as well as the lure of a mysterious hunk he keeps seeing around the island—a man Howie and Lenny warn may be a harbinger of impending doom. The Disco Witches need to find help—fast—if they’re to save Joe and the island from the Great Darkness. But how? Fans of spicy queer romances with a dash of fantasy will fall in love with this stunning novel of community, love, sex, magic, and hope in desperate times.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.

Checked Out by Katie Fricas

An aspiring cartoonist and book lovin' lesbian, Louise works a dead-end day job at a shoe store, where she spends most of her time brooding over a coworker who will never quite love her back. By night, she works diligently and obsessively on her graphic novel—the true story of a carrier pigeon who rescued a battalion of soldiers in WWI. When Louise unexpectedly lands a new job at a private library on the Upper East Side, she feels like her graphic novel will finally take off—surely the oldest library in New York has excellent holdings on pigeons and WWI. But what she finds in the stacks might be less revelatory than her discoveries between the sheets and buried in her own family history.

Athlete Is Agender: True Stories of LGBTQ+ People in Sports by Katherine Locke (ed.) and Nicole Melleby (ed.)

Find your strength in: Adam Rippon's unbelievable journey from figure-skating Olympic alternate to the first openly gay Olympic medalist in his sport; CeCé Telfer's career as a trans track star and her unwavering commitment to run for the future freedom of trans athletes; em dickson's relationship to eir gender identity and how sailing, a sport that doesn't categorize athletes by gender, helped em embrace eir power and identity, and many other invaluable true stories. Featuring testimonies by world-class athletes and award-winning children's book authors, as well as profiles on culture-defining figures like Megan Rapinoe and Billie Jean King, Athlete Is Agender is a lifesaving book not to be missed.

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan

Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and fuccbois rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity. Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends, and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fall-out of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means. Can we be more than our worst mistakes? Is it possible to make peace with the past? 

A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa Crane

Star point guard Mack Morris’s senior year of high school begins with twin cataclysms: the death of her father and the arrival of transfer student Liv Cooper. On the court, Mack and Liv discover an electrifying, game-winning chemistry; off the court, they fall into an equally intoxicating more-than-friendship that is out-of-bounds for their small Pennsylvania town in 2004, and for Liv’s conservative mother. As Mack’s desire and grief collide with drugs, sex, and the looming college signing deadline, she is forced to reckon with the disconnect between her past and her future—and fight for the life she wants for herself, whether or not Liv will be on the court beside her.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls. As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself. 

Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity by Lee Mandelo (ed.)

From self-styled knights fighting in dystopian city streets to conservationists finding love in the Appalachian forests; from social media posts about domestic “bliss” in a lottery-based, state-housing skyscraper to herding feral cats off of one’s scientific equipment; from street drugs that create doppelgangers to dance-club cruising at the edge of the galaxy—Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity interrogates the farthest borders of the sci-fi landscape to imagine how queer life will look centuries in the future—or ten years from now. Filled with brutal honesty, raw emotions, sexual escapades, and delightful whimsy, Amplitudes speaks to the longstanding tradition of queer fiction as protest. This essential collection serves as an evolving map of our celebrations, anxieties, wishes, pitfalls, and—most of all—our rallying cry that we're here, we're queer—and the future is ours!

And They Were Roommates by Page Powars

Romance is the last thing on Charlie’s mind. On his first day at Valentine Academy for Boys, Charlie’s carefully crafted plan to hide his identity as the school’s only trans student is set in motion. Only to be immediately destroyed. Charlie has been assigned the worst roommate in the world (possibly the universe): Jasper Grimes, the boy who broke Charlie’s heart the year before he transitioned. Except, Jasper doesn’t recognize Charlie. Who knows how long until Jasper realizes the truth? Charlie has one shot at freedom and a dorm room all to himself, but only if he helps Jasper write love letters on behalf of their fellow students first. No problem. Charlie can help Jasper with some silly letters. Long nights spent discussing deep romantic feelings with Jasper? Surely, no unintended consequences will arise…

Kiss Me, Maybe by Gabriella Gamez

Librarian Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed. But after posting a video about her late bloomer status and ace identity, she's finally ready to get some firsts out of the way. Using her new influencer status to come up with a scavenger hunt idea in which the winner earns her first kiss, Angela realizes she may need some help to pull off the event. Enter Krystal Ramirez, hot bartender and Angela's unrequited crush of five years. Despite vowing that romantic love isn't for her, Krystal seems awfully determined to help Angela pull off the scavenger hunt and find true love. There's just one problem: the connection between Angela and Krystal is getting stronger and stronger the more they hang out, until Angela isn't sure she wants to go through with the scavenger hunt after all. But Krystal is convinced that she isn't capable of love and before long, Angela realizes she's falling head over heels for a woman who may never love her back.

Hardly Creatures by Rob Macaisa Colgate

Brilliant and innovative, Rob Macaisa Colgate's debut poetry collection, Hardly Creatures, takes the form--visually and metaphorically--of an accessible art museum. Through nine sections that act as gallery rooms, the book shepherds the reader through the radiance and mess of the disability community. At the heart of the collection is an exploration and recognition of access intimacy. Marked with universal access symbols to guide the way, poems mimic sensory rooms, tactile replicas, benches for resting, and more; "the body of a poem" itself is reimagined through formal experimentation, as abecedarians are scrambled out of order and sestinas are pressurized into new sequences. These poems also play with pop culture allusions, social media posts, and the infinite possibilities within queer love and deep friendships. With lyrical clarity and attention to language, Hardly Creatures reaches out and offers inventive, heartfelt insights for all readers, and celebrates the disability community through the lens of a visionary new voice in poetry.

Want a previously published book showcased? Let me know! The given work must: 1) be written by a self-identified member of the LGBTQ+ community, 2) be published within the last five years, 3) has not yet appeared on the ICYMI list, and 4) wasn't included in the Anticipated Books section within the last three months. All genres and independently-published works welcome.

Disclosure: I'm an affiliate of Bookshop.org. Any purchase through my storefront supports local bookstores and earns me a commission. Win-win!

Nothing this time around! See you next month!

Bi Women Quarterly Summer 2025: Finding Community

• What: "How do bi+ people find community? Write about your experience navigating the world as a bi+ person and trying to find your own community, whether that be a friend group, chosen family, knitting circle, or so on. Did you join a club or organization that led to you making some of your closest queer friends? Did you meet your best friend on a dating app? Did you start a group or meetup? Explain how you successfully overcame the struggles society forces upon us as LGBTQ+ individuals and how, through it all, you found your own community."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: May 1st, 2025

Sinister Wisdom: Jewish Dykes Unite!

• What: "Sinister Wisdom is seeking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and genre-bending works from Jewish dykes of all kinds — and we mean all. Jews of all origins, converts, Jews with tattoos, patrilineal Jews, Jews who have never stepped foot in a synagogue before, etc. No matter how religious you are or how much you may feel like a “fake Jew,” submit to us! We want your Jewish lesbian joy and your Jewish lesbian pain. We want your yearning, your gossip, your fashion tips, your love stories, your too-good-to-keep-to-yourself lesbian sexcapades and fantasies. Tell us about your grief, your confusion, your dating horror stories, your anxiety, your heartbreak, your intergenerational trauma."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: June 20th, 2025

NeuroQueer Books: Spoon Knife 10: Polarities

• What: "Our NeuroQueer Books imprint is for fiction, memoir, and other literary work, with a focus on themes of queerness and neurodivergence. The theme for Spoon Knife 10 will be Polarities. Polarities: pairs of opposite forces or qualities or tendencies. Good and evil. Love and hate. Life and death. Heroism and villainy. Feminine and masculine. Night and day. Vice and virtue. Old and new. Order and chaos. The public persona and the hidden shadow self. The mundane everyday world and that which lies beyond. What polarity lies at the heart of your story? In what ways does it manifest? What happens when the two sides of the polarity come into contact or conflict, or when one transforms into the other?"
• Fee: $0
• Pay: "$30 plus 1 cent per word"
• Deadline: July 31st, 2025

Wayfarer Books Radical Authenticity Prize for Trans & Non-binary Writers

• What: "This prize is open to those who identify within the Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender non-conforming spectrum. This prize is open to works of poetry, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and essay collections. (No fiction, please.) While we welcome all themes—especially those that highlight the experiences of marginalized communities—the material/themes of your entry do not need to be about the transgender/non-binary experience to be eligible."
• Fee: $20
• Pay: "We pay authors anywhere from 8-12% of the list price on print; 25% on eBook; 25% on Audiobook."
• Deadline: February 1st, 2026

Sinister Wisdom: Barbie: the Movie

• What: "In this special issue, Sinister Wisdom will explore lesbians' reactions to Barbie: The Movie. How do we voice the joy and gratitude of this cultural moment where lesbian lives and lesbian culture is expressed in the movie with a major musical plotline from the Indigo Girls and two out dykes with major roles in this movie, now the highest grossing movie in Warner Brothers' history? What else do we think and feel about this cultural moment? Were you expecting to feel deeply personally touched by Barbie? What was a special scene that reflects your dyke life? Were you surprised or shocked by your reaction to the film? How do we understand Barbie's continuing life and its relationship to lesbians and lesbian culture?"
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: TBD

ALOCASIA

• What: "ALOCASIA accepts creative writing of all genres from queer writers on a rolling basis with no reading fee. We appreciate both traditional work, as well as the weird, erotic, explicit, anti-colonial, and whatever you can come up with. This is a journal about plants, gardens, gardening, parks, and indoor horticulture. Please don’t send us work that isn’t about plants."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

Rough Cut Press

• What: "We seek work of all genres by writers from the LGBTQIA community. We do not define or gatekeep what it means to be a queer writer: if you think your work belongs here, then it belongs here. To get a sense of what we publish please read some of our former issues. We don’t know what we like until we see it. Each month we announce a different theme, but don’t worry if the work you submit doesn’t quite fit: we often build issues and themes around work that takes us by surprise."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $25
• Deadline: rolling

Screen Door Review

• What: "Screen Door Review is a triannual literary magazine that publishes poetry and flash fiction authored by individuals belonging to the southern queer (lgbtq) community of the United States. The purpose of the magazine is to provide a platform of expression to those whose identities—at least in part—derive from the complicated relationship between queer person and place. Specifically, queer person and the South. Through publication, we aim to not only express, but also validate and give value to these voices, which are oftentimes overlooked, undermined, condemned, or silenced."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

AC|DC: A Journal for the Bent

• What: "AC|DC currently publishes new short fiction or creative nonfiction by LGBTQIA+ authors on Tuesdays. AC|DC is always open for submissions. Take a look at what’s on the site to decide if your work might be a good fit. We have a preference for the dark and raw but are open to all."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: rolling

The Bitchin' Kitsch

• What: "The B’K is a quarterly art and lit, online and printed magazine prioritizing traditionally marginalized creators, but open to all."
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $10
• Deadline: rolling

Bella Books Call for Submissions

• What: "At Bella Books, we believe stories about women-loving-women are essential to our lives—and so do our readers. We are interested in acquiring manuscripts that tell captivating and unique stories across all genres—including romance, mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc. We want our books to reflect and celebrate the diversity of our lesbian, sapphic, queer, bisexual, and gender non-conforming community—in all our glorious shapes, sizes and colors. Our desire to publish diverse voices is perennial. We don’t want to tell your stories for you—we want to amplify your voices....We publish romance, mystery, action/thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, erotica and general fiction. At this time, we are particularly interested in acquiring romance manuscripts."
• Fee: N/A
• Pay: N/A
• Deadline: rolling

Baest Journal

• What: Baest Journal, "a journal of queer forms and affects," seeks to publish work by queer writers and artists.
• Fee: $0
• Pay: $0
• Deadline: rolling

Run, algo, run: Desiring at AWP.

by Greta Rainbow

But this was not Up in the Air and the only people wearing suits were the guys who had fashioned their book fair booth as a flatscreen TV advertising a generative-AI visual storytelling product, volume on. They looked like they had dressed on a chatbot’s recommendation of appropriate attire, and now they appeared as cardboard cutouts fated to simulate the referent of “man at a convention center.” They left on the second day.

...A relationship with the machine is possible. It will constitute non-monogamy while being smooth and frictionless. It will service your existing needs, but can it locate that which you didn’t know you wanted? As Daisy Alioto wrote last year, “AI cannot pay attention. It can prioritize information and tasks, but to truly pay attention requires a brain and a body… When we fall in love with someone’s mind, it has far less to do with what they create and more to do with what they direct their attention toward.”

AI cannot desire. Desire cannot be accounted for. It springs up and ruins you; desire is unproductive. An AI agent would look at the list of conference attendees and tell me who would be most relevant to network with, and it wouldn’t be the retired yacht broker turned aspiring novelist who struck up a conversation in the coffee line. An AI agent cannot write a story about AWP while manning a booth at AWP and later read it to an audience of AWP attendees, as Chris Molnar, editorial director of Archway Editions, did. His story imagines all the AWP attendees are granted their own reading, and then all the writers “who could not afford to travel to these Conferences of the damned” demand that they be allowed to read in bookstores and and bars, too, until military action must be taken to suppress the onslaught, and the era of the readings ends forever.

An Overview of the 2025 Tariffs

by American Booksellers Association

**Given the fluid nature of these tariff impositions, ABA will continue to update this page as necessary.

...It is likely that tariffs will increase the price of books and shipping, mainly because of how they could impact the cost of producing books (imported paper and ink except Canada and Mexico if USMCA-compliant) and possible increases in fuel prices. Much will depend on how publishers and suppliers respond to the tariffs–where they source paper and ink and other items to produce books. That said, even small input cost increases might nudge book prices up 5%-10%. Inflation from broader tariff impacts could amplify this; and some economists project tariffs could cost the average household $3,800 per year according to an analysis by Yale University, and will impact low-income households the hardest. This, of course, would likely shrink consumer spending on books.