I have a secret…I am a parade crier. In particular, that point in the Pride parade in which older couples walk by with signs that say “Together 50 years” or “Out and Proud for 4 decades.” It gets me in my feels every time. I know you know what I am talking about. Who doesn’t love a good queer happily ever after? Those incredible trailblazers give me hope for my own decade-long marriage.
Across the country, we have had setbacks this year in the queer community. Big ones. But they can’t dim our shine, and each and everyone of us is worthy of a love story. So this Pride Month, I wanted to connect you with three queer romance authors who bring me an absurd amount of joy: Adriana Herrera, Anita Kelly and Dominic Lim. Whether it’s an heiress desperate for a summer of fun before a loveless marriage, two sweet gay boys hiking the PCT together, or a piano genius and a Hollywood hunk tossed together by fate, these authors have gifted us with books worth swooning over. While we read the rainbow all year long, let’s stop this June and make time for stories that celebrate queer love and happiness. We hope you enjoy this month’s Authors IRL with a few of Parnassus’s favorites!
— Katie Garaby, Parnassus bookseller and co-host of Between the Covers romance book club
I love to watch:
Dominic Lim: So many things: cooking reality shows, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Abbott Elementary, The Golden Girls, Law & Order SVU, Marvel movies, and cat videos on Instagram. I’ve got way too many interests and not enough time.
Anita Kelly: I am actually really bad at watching things? TV, movies, etc., I seem to watch less and less as I get older. But I have made time recently to watch Somebody Somewhere, which I think is just so human and honest and hilarious and sad and queer and brilliantly done.
Adriana Herrera: Soft TV food competition TV. If you’ve read Mangos & Mistletoe you probably guessed I’m a GBBO. There is just something so soothing about watching people make great food, rooting for each other and becoming besties. A new show in that vein I am now obsessed with is The Great American Recipe on PBS!
Something I saw online that made me laugh, cry, or think:
DL: My Writers Grotto colleague, Jane Ciabattari, just wrote an article on the rise of books bans in the US for BBC. The recent trend of banning books—which are often by or about LGBTQIA+ individuals and/or people of color—makes me so sad, angry, and riled up all at once.
AK: I’ve recently started following Disappointing Affirmations on Instagram and every single thing he posts always makes me laugh. I wish I had a smarter answer for this, but sometimes you just need some harsh truths over a picture of a waterfall.
AH: This one is hard! I will say the podcast On Being is probably the one that does all of that for me. I have listened to it for years and sometimes refer to it as my church, because I usually listen to it on Sundays. It is phenomenal. If you want to try I’d say start with the conversation with Ocean Vuong.
A book I recently recommended:
DL: Rod Pulido’s Chasing Pacquiao. It’s a queer YA novel about a Filipino high school kid who is bullied and learns how to box to defend himself like his hero, Manny Pacquiao, but then finds out about Pacquiao’s homophobic beliefs. It’s beautifully written and thought-provoking, and it features two young Filipino men in a loving, supportive relationship. I wish I had this book growing up!
AK: Probably my favorite book I read this year was Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa. The things Jonny is able to accomplish in this book just…blew me away. My favorite romances that are coming out this summer are You, With a View by Jessica Joyce and With Love, from Cold World by Alicia Thompson, both of which I read in like 24 hours because I could not put them down. And a book that’s not coming out until 2024 but I’m going to scream about until then is The Prospects by KT Hoffman, which is a gay romance starring a trans baseball player that is so gorgeously written.
AH: Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk. Perfect sapphic noir-ish paranormal novella. Demons and dames…what else could you want?
I wish I knew more about:
DL: Tagalog, the main dialect of the Philippines. I didn’t learn it as a kid, so I’ve been studying it off and on for years. I’m still crawling my way toward being able to understand and speak it at the level that I’d like.
AK: Languages! I’ve always wished I could speak all the languages. And I always want to know more about plants, trees, the natural world.
AH: At this very moment I wish I could find more information about contraception in the Caribbean in the 19th century…for book writing reasons.
If I could teleport anywhere in the world, I’d go:
DL: The Philippines! Peter and I took a vacation to Manila and Boracay in January and I want to go back again.
AK: Somewhere where the water is so blue it doesn’t even seem real.
AH: Paris!
My favorite queer icon is:
DL: RuPaul. She’s been a queer pioneer for over thirty years. And now that drag is under fire in so many states, the influence she and her queens have on the public’s understanding of drag and the importance of gender expression diversity is even more crucial.
AK: Oh no, there are too many. With the publication of his book, I’ve been thinking a lot about Elliot Page and what an icon he’s always been. I also take a lot of personal comfort from Jonathan Van Ness, how they express gender and their overall positivity and honesty about who they are. Janelle Monae. Nikki Hiltz, who is a nonbinary runner I first heard about when a reader told me they reminded them of London, my character in Love & Other Disasters. But then I started actively following them, and I love how they stand up for being a trans and queer professional athlete.
AH: Tie between James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua and Audre Lorde.
An LGBTQI+ organization I love to support is:
DL: Transanta is a new organization I recently learned about that helps deliver gifts and messages of support to trans youth during the holiday season. I participated in their holiday campaign last year and will definitely keep doing so.
AK: Right now, I think any organization that works to support the legal defense of trans people is where our money and support needs to be focused. Many states have their own; nationally there’s the Transgender Law Center, The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and The National Center for Transgender Equality.
My first Pride celebration was:
DL: The March on Washington DC in 1993. I was a 1st-year at Oberlin College and traveled to the event stuffed in a small car with four lesbian/bisexual female-identified seniors. It took us six hours to get there, and it was worth every minute!
AK: In Boston, in college, after I’d come out. I grew up in a small town where there were hardly any out people, let alone any Pride celebrations, and the loud joyousness of it was so overwhelming but wonderful.
AH: 2003 New York City.
My favorite things about indie bookstores:
DL: The recommendations from the booksellers, and the booksellers themselves!
AK: I have honestly been blown away since becoming a published author at the support from indie booksellers, and how much that truly translates to sales that would not have occurred without the passion and talent of indie booksellers. I love how each store also has its own feel, its own important and singular community, but how each and every one feels like a safe haven to me. I could never visit enough indie bookstores or express my gratitude for them enough.
AH: That I always end up having extremely enthusiastic and loooong chats with the booksellers about recent favorite books…which usually leads to a few impulse purchases!
Grab a copy of Dominic, Anita, and Adriana’s newest books now!
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