Happy Pride Month! From the team and some of our queer VERVE authors, we’re bringing you our most anticipated LGBTQIA reads for 2026. Buckle up and find the next book to add to your TBR.
Ellie’s pick:
I’m a huge fan of ‘books about books’ and often turn to my copies of The Novel Cure, What Writers Read and Ex Libris to find new recommendations when my reading patterns need a refresh. This summer, I’m excited to grab a copy of The Queer Bookshelf: A Reader’s Guide by Layla McCay, which offers a history of classic queer literature as well as insights into the twenty-first century’s hottest LGBTQIA+ releases. Full of real recommendations and reviews from writers, readers and booksellers alike, it promises to cover everything ‘from literary fiction to memoir, to crime, fantasy, and young adult, and even cowboy romance’ – so I’m sure my TBR list will be expanding as I read!
Seth Insua’s pick:
One of the LGBTQIA+ books I’m most looking forward to this year is Big Man by Dean Atta.
Dean Atta is already one of the UK’s most celebrated queer writers, but Big Man marks his adult fiction debut, and the premise immediately grabbed me. The novel follows Big, a middle-aged Black British gay man living a quiet life in East London with his boyfriend, Little. When a mentor figure from his past re-enters his life, he’s forced to confront old wounds and long-buried trauma.
Big Man promises to explore queer life beyond the stories we don’t see nearly often enough: middle age, long-term relationships, chosen family, memory, community and what it means to grow older as a queer person. The author describes it as a novel about queer love, trauma and ageing, as well as a love letter to the people and places that shape us.
It’s out in September and I can’t wait!
Seth is the author of HUMAN, ANIMAL, a story of family, queerness and the wild. He also features in the VERVE anthology, Queerphoria.
Lisa’s pick:
I managed to pick up an advance copy of Hannah Levene’s novel A Pizza Hut, A Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut at our recent Indie Showcase – the novel will be published in July from Cipher Press. We teamed up with six other independent publishers for the showcase, including the wonderful Cipher Press who have aptly been described as ‘one of the most avant-garde publishers in the UK… with determination to publish genre-bending Queer writing rarely seen on shelves’. I was immediately drawn to the cover of Levene’s novel as I recognised it as a photo of the suburbs where I grew up – Watford – and was intrigued to read a queer novel set there, rather than rural spaces or big cities such as London or Manchester. The novel is described as ‘wildly inventive and funny… [and] counters the idea of the suburbs as a place queers leave and plays out the radical implications of staying put’. It is brilliant comic writing and a perfect novel to pre-order for your summer reading.
Maame Blue’s pick:
I am really looking forward to reading Dean Atta’s latest offering Big Man which is due for publication in September 2026. I love all his YA work and am excited to read his debut into the adult fiction space. The main character Big, is a middle-aged Black British gay man partnered and living in London, and I can never get enough of bold contemporary stories written about my home city. Plus, it’s refreshing to see a story centred around a character in the middle of their life, as there is so much more character history to play with and explore, alongside all the emotion and drama that comes with getting older and developing your identity. And I do love drama!
Maame is the author of The Rest of You, a beautiful tale of self-discovery, identity, womanhood and family secrets. She also features in the VERVE anthology, Queerphoria.
Jenna’s pick:
Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom is dubbed ‘the definitive literary Valley porn novel’ by the LA Times, Allie Rowbottom’s latest release follows two friends, Jude and Winnie, who find themselves swept up in 1980s LA’s booming adult entertainment industry. As their careers take them from strip clubs to magazine modelling and eventually into hardcore porn, the accompanying lifestyle leads to the disintegration of their friendship. A novel that promises to explore women’s desire and autonomy through a sapphic dynamic, within a notoriously misogynistic industry.
Demi’s pick:
Being published this July by Dead Ink Books is Kathe Koja’s Skin. A dark and haunting exploration of art and obsession, Skin begins when a sculptor and a dancer cross paths, the latter becoming the muse and inspiration of the former. But as this intense and toxic collaboration descends into abuse and violence, the reader must bear witness to how much pain these women will endure in the pursuit of artistic perfection. First published in 1993, I’m so glad Dead Ink are bringing this tormenting story of queer obsession to bookshops this year.
Dylin Hardcastle’s pick:
A few days ago, I attended an exhibition at Passage Gallery where I listened to visual artist, Jack Ball talk about the airport as a site for exploring transness in their work. Airports are, of course, places of border crossing. They are also places of surveillance where movement is heavily policed. This calls to mind the blurb I recently read for Bobuq Sayed’s debut novel, No God But Us, described as a ‘story of borders and boundaries transgressed… a deeply engrossing exploration of what it means to make a home at the margins of society.’ Already having been praised for its beauty and sensuality, No God But Us is my most anticipated read this pride.