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Originally published in 1962, John D. Keefauver''s Tormented Virgin is one of a thousand pulp novels that sought to entice readers with a salacious story. The novel follows Gene through his romance with the young and attractive Faye, as well as his attraction to Mickey--the lesbian who is attempting to seduce Faye--and also Mark, his own best friend. This confusion of gender and attraction creates a subversively queer milieu for a novel. Keefauver''s novel is not only emblematic of mid-20th-century mainstream society''s view of bisexuality, but a growing awareness of sexual energy and the struggle of queer individuals in a ''''new America.'''' Lethe Press is proud to release this pulp novel, rescued from literary oblivion primarily for its provocative character, with a foreword by scholar Lee Mandelo and an afterword by author Scott Nicolay. Featuring new artwork by modern pulp master James O''Barr. 

From pirates, politicians, and pornographers to starlets, serial killers, and saints, Gay a Day showcases a multicultural mosaic of real-life stories. Each day features the biography of a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex person of note: their accomplishments, their loves, their tragedies, and their times. With every page you turn, you'll find beautiful heroics, chilling horrors, and secret histories that will scandalize you, and by the end of the year you'll be prouder than ever. A great read for people interested in the rich yet often hidden past of queer folk.

Twelve women. Twelve horrors disguised as love. In Anya Martin's new collection of horror tales: a teenage girl faces the consequences of wishing her dog could live forever; a romantic college student wakes a gargoyle in Paris; and a lonely woman finds her house infested with insects. History's darker depths are delved as an American jazz singer confronts her lover who has committed terrible war crimes as he descends into madness in post-WW2 Germany; and a couple experiences H.P. Lovecraft's Resonator machine via found footage from the Velvet Underground. In the publisher's favorite tale: Actress Elsa Lanchester reveals the true story of Bride of Frankenstein involving the preserved brain of Karl Marx's daughter in 1923 London.

During the last desperate days of the Vietnam War, American soldier Israel Broussard is assigned to a secret CIA PSYOP far behind enemy lines meant to drive terror into the heart of the North Vietnamese and end an unwinnable war. When the mission goes sideways, Broussard is plunged into a nightmare that he soon finds he is unable to escape, dragging a remnant of that night in the Laotian wilderness with him no matter how far he runs.Five years later, too damaged to return home and holed up in the slums of Bangkok, where he battles sleep, guilt, and a creeping sense of madness, Broussard discovers that he must journey back to the jungles of Laos in an attempt to set things right and reclaim what is left of his life. A fever dream with a Benzedrine chaser, I Am The River provides a daring, often surreal examination of the Vietnam War and the days after it, burrowing down past the bullets and battlefields to discover the lingering horror of warfare, the human consequences of organized violence, and the lasting effects of trauma on the psyche, and the soul.

In Forget the Sleepless Shores readers should expect to be captivated by many ghosts and spirits who inhabit brine, some from tears of heartache and loss, some from strange bodies of water, not necessarily found on the map but definitely discovered through charting a course though the perilous straits of author Taaffe's imagination, which is eerie and queer (by every definition of the word).

Eerie and unnerving events are welcome reads for horror and weird fiction aficionados, and Kurt Fawver's new collection does not fail to deliver. A group of work-study students grows obsessed with a particular, otherworldly room at the university library. A monster's mother wants her to assume a traditional life. A mysterious calling haunts an elderly man at a nursing home. And strange and macabre Halloween traditions draw a writer to a remote Pennsylvania town.

The stories in this year's selection are sometimes grim, sometimes cheerful, sometimes quirky—but always full of emotion. Editor Takács has assembled a wide range of non-cis experiences: from an intergalactic art heist to the everyday life of a trans woman through the lens of horror movies; non-binary parenting in the far future, to a unique method of traveling back to the past. Steampunk, ghosts, even deities, all can be found in these stories that show how transness can relate to and subvert so many themes at the heart of speculative fiction. The introduction also includes a section on year-to-year changes in transgender SFF, and assembled longer-form trans highlights.

The eleventh and final volume in the series that offered readers the best gay-themed stories of the strange, uncanny, and fantastical! Work by such acclaimed authors as Richard Bowes, Sam J. Miller, Sean Eads, and John Chu. A library of all the books never written before their authors passed away; young men hiding their pain through weird body modifications; Captain Hook finally meets the Greek god Pan; even Oscar Wilde himself makes an appearance in this anthology by Lambda Literary Award-winning editor Steve Berman.

Mick Harris is disillusioned and disconnected from the world. Having come out after his glory days as the songwriter/bass player for metal act, Palace, he's all but given up on his dream of having a meaningful relationship, of leading a "normal," life. When a stranger calls to inform him that an old flame has died, leaving Mick's daughter alone in a hostile small Southern town, he sees an opportunity to build a meaningful connection with the girl. Of course, she is resistant to meeting her father. In fact, she hates him for having been absent her entire life, but the people close to her are dying horribly.

In the summer of 1955, sixteen-year-old Tommy Cadigan finds himself helpless in the face of desire, especially when the man that wears the face is his high school swimming coach, a young Korean War veteran who is still recovering from receiving a "blue ticket" discharging him from the military because of his homosexuality. Unsure if his infatuation is returned, Tommy distracts himself with the attention of a local bully, who hustles older men at night besides a decrepit zoo in Boise's park. Tommy soon finds himself in the midst of a scandal that threatens to ignite the entire town...and his life will never be the same.

Acres of Perhaps collects acclaimed weird fiction writer Will Ludwigsen's recent and most heartfelt stories; these are tales that delve into what crime means, could a person live a different life than the one of the moment, what humanity can do about the big and small evils of the world...as well as inspired serial killers, haunted presidents, cursed lead figurines, and a weird late-night 60s television show that meant much more to the fabric of reality than it let on. Written for lovers of the work of Patricia Highsmith and Cordwainer Smith, these stories are brutal and honest and strange.

Once a poem gets under the skin, it survives and takes on a life of its own. Author Gunn, who has spent years cataloging and exploring gay mysteries, gay pulps, and gay drama through the ages, turns to poetry for his last work. From the Introduction: "Facing my own mortality, I gradually became more forthcoming about my personal relations with the poems. And when I reached the second half of the twentieth century, I increasingly allowed my own taste to determine which poets I wanted to explore.... Each new book I publish becomes my favorite, but I think I have genuinely enjoyed writing this one the most, perhaps because I have been more willing to open up in ways I never had before." And so Gunn covers poetry that we can refer to as gay, in the modern sense, even if the modern sense of being gay had yet to happen. From the story of Gilgamesh and the biblical passages of David and Jonathan to Persian homoerotic poems to bawdy verse by the Earl of Rochester. Gunn addresses names familiar to many of us: Wilde and Whitman, Genet and Ginsburg, but also poets that deserve more attention, such as Roger Casement, Jaime Gil de Biedman, and Hal Duncan. This book will provide an engaging introduction to great works of poetry that will inspire gay men.

The Annotated Joseph and His Friend: The Story of America's First Gay Novel contains the original novel by Bayard Taylor, with annotations and commentary by L.A. Fields. Joseph and His Friend is the story of a young Pennsylvania farmer, Joseph Asten, and his marriage to Julia Blessing around the same time as a more powerful friendship arises in his life. Joseph's chance meeting with Philip Held casts doubts on the motivations of his bride-to-be, and as her duplicity is revealed during their marriage, Joseph's love for Philip becomes more and more vital to his survival.The notes accompanying each chapter of this book move from the private life of the man who inspired the story (Fitz-Greene Halleck), through the secrets of its author (Bayard Taylor), noting especially his private love for and public rivalry with Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass). The notes then expand on Whitman's unique position in gay and American history: the nascent coming-out letters Whitman called "avowals" from the likes of Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde; Whitman's witnessing of the Civil War, the Lincoln presidency, and his lover's chance attendance at Ford's Theater the night of Lincoln's assassination; as well as Whitman's own understanding and defense for writing honestly about the love of men.¿The structure of the project combines Taylor's original 1870 novel with brief strings of American history, contemporary anecdote, and curiosities from a more secret history. A new topic is positioned behind every chapter, providing the background that reveals just how important this novel was at the time, how rare it is now, and how daring it's always been to tell the truth.

This novella-length collection of Erehwynan Idylls offers readers an indulgent and weird agglomeration of randy boys and revelations, as the embodiment of a small breeze--actually the gene-spliced child of the gods Zephyros and Ares--flirts and seduces fleshlings on a terraformed future Mars. Hal Duncan's acclaimed style is both alethic and erudite and offers a fresh telling of philosophical musings and classic Greek mythology for 21st century readers.

Manhattan,1962. Frederick Bailey is a quiet, cultured, closeted architect reluctantly drawn into the effort to save Pennsylvania Station from being demolished. But when he meets Curt, a vibrant, immature gay activist more than half his age, he is overtaken by passions he hasn't felt in years, putting everything he cares about-his friends, his family, his career and reputation-at risk. As the elegant old train station is dismantled piece by piece to make way for the crass new Madison Square Garden sports arena, Frederick must undergo a reckoning he has dreaded all his life. Award-winning author Patrick E. Horrigan delves into the fractured psyches of mid-twentieth-century gay men, conjuring a picture of New York City and the nation on the brink of explosive cultural change.

Angela Dunnewald's sense of self, of direction, is fraying. She finds herself lost and alone despite a calendar full of society events, charity meetings, shopping dates, and dinners her aloof husband expects her to attend. Her best friend is a vivacious flirt, but Angela only strays when she discovers a young drifter haunting the grounds of her house. Desire to be intimate unlocks the need for achievement; Angela becomes unrecognizable to her peers and to herself. Legter's new novel offers betrayal, passion, secrets, and truth, all from inside a world that threatens to suffocate to the vanishing point.

Madena, upstate New York. Like any other small town, everybody keeps an eye on everybody else's business without recognizing the secrets that connect them. The wheelchair-bound Celeste conjures up lives from what she sees and thinks she sees while peering through binoculars from her kitchen fan vent. Fifteen-year old Persephone trades sex for tattoo sessions that get her high and help her forget her girlfriend doesn't love her. Theo was the high-school bad boy who couldn't have the respectable girl he adored from afar, but now, sitting behind the counter of the last video store in town, worries wretchedly about the restless daughter he never understood. Natalie, trying to grasp the last shreds of respectability, would do anything to forget the baby she gave up long ago, including betray her husband and son. Celeste, longing to connect, combines truth with fantasy, intervenes and interferes, finally understanding that things have gone terribly wrong and that she stands at the heart of disaster. Connected Underneath is a lyrical, scalpel-keen dissection of the ties that bind and of those that dissolve.

There are fantastical stories with actual transgender characters, some for whom that is central and others for whom that isn't. And there are stories without transgender characters, but with metaphors and symbolism in their place, genuine expressions of self through such speculative fiction tropes as shapeshifting and programming. Transgender individuals see themselves in transformative characters, those outsiders, before seeing themselves as human protagonists. Those feelings are still valid. But though the stories involve transformation and outsiders, sometimes the change is one of self-realization. This anthology will be a welcome read for those who are ready to transcend gender through the lens of science fiction, fantasy, and other works of imaginative fiction.

Are you prepared to enter acclaimed author Hal Duncan's world of scruffians and scamps and sodomites? Beware, for it is filled with the gay pirate gods of Love and Death, immortal scoundrels, and young men who find themselves forced to become villains. But who amongst us does not adore a gamin antihero? These fantastical tales from the fringes of an imaginative realm of supernatural fairies and human fey will captivate the reader. Light a smoke, raise a cup of whiskey, and seek a careful spot to cruise the Scruffians!This deluxe edition of Scruffians! contains one never-before-published short story and over forty full-color photographs that compliment the fantastical and homoerotic elements of Duncan's imaginative tales.