The Most Banned Book in America is Getting an Updated Edition—And More Queer Book News

5 days ago 7

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

I always enjoy spotlighting the interesting writing about queer books popping up around the internet. Today, I have a must-read article about the reality of navigating writing as a transfem author. Also, Maia Kobabe has announced a new annotated edition of Gender Queer coming out next year! Finally, I have a collection of queer book lists you should know about, including upcoming 2026 releases, witchy queer books, books by intersex authors, and more.

Trans Women’s Writing is Under Threat

Talia Bhatt’s new article at the Verge, “Trans women are building their own publishing world, and it’s under threat,” is the best piece of writing on queer lit I’ve seen in a long time. Bhatt addresses the barriers to entry in the traditional publishing model for transfem authors, both because of outright transphobia as well as structural discrimination, like being required to provide a “comp” title despite the industry publishing very few transfem books to compare them to.

In response, trans women have carved out their own space in the indie and self-publishing scene. Alyson Greaves, author of the Sisters of Dorley series, discusses getting her start in fanfiction, building an audience there and on social media, and now helping to support her writing by publishing serially on Patreon.

Our Queerest Shelves

But self-publishing comes with its own risks. Not only does it require a ton of leg work from writers—including editing, cover design, and marketing—but it also requires building an audience on platforms that come with their own risks. Social media is how many, if not most, self-published authors find readers, but trans women face “harsher moderation and censorship than most users across pretty much every major platform,” as well as harassment that usually is not moderated.

Dr. Michael Ann DeVito, a “professor of human-computer interaction, expert on social networks, and a trans woman herself,” says, “The choice for trans women that need social media for the kind of visibility that helps build communities and provide career and creative opportunities is horribly stark: you either deal with the constant, traumatizing abuse, or you abandon all the work you’ve done and the goals you were pursuing.”

Now, anti-trans censorship is on the rise, both of books and of online content. Earlier this year, Itch.io delisted all “NSFW” content in response to pressure from payment processors. Several transfem books were included in this, making them almost impossible for readers to find.

Bhatt concludes, “Trans women creators did not sign up to fight a reactionary anti-trans propaganda wave, but the intensifying anti-feminist and anti-queer sentiments mean that it is more vital than ever for our voices to be heard.”

Gender Queer is Getting a New Annotated Edition

In 2019, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir Gender Queer was published, which follows eir experience growing up asexual and nonbinary. As book bans rose across the U.S. in 2020 onwards, it became a target: Gender Queer was the #1 most challenged book in the country in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and it was the second most challenged book in 2024.

In May 2026, we’re getting an updated version of this story: Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition. This edition includes 40 more pages of content, a new cover, exclusive art, a foreword by ND Stevenson, and more.

The original pages are accompanied by annotations from 16 different contributors, including comics scholars, queer and trans cartoonists, and people who appear in the book, like Maia Kobabe’s sibling.

Kobabe says, “It’s been almost seven years since I wrote the final words of this memoir; revisiting these pages today, in a radically different and less accepting political climate, sparked a lot of new thoughts for me as well. I hope readers enjoy this even richer text full of community voices.”

You can preview pages from the annotated edition on Kobabe’s Patreon (no log-in required).

Are You Planning Your 2026 TBR Yet?

It’s only October, but we’re already seeing the first “Best Books of 2025” lists coming in, which means the “Most Anticipated Books of 2026” season is fast approaching. Lavender Books is ahead of the curve with this list of Aster’s most anticipated queer 2026 releases, including Espíritu (Cemetery Boys #2) by Aiden Thomas, Charmed and Dangerous by Shelly Page, Last First Kiss by Julian Winters, and Ship Happens by Mason Deaver.

There’s a separate list for sapphic books out in 2026, including As Long as You Loathe Me by Swati Hegde, Summer Official by Rebekah Weatherspoon, and The Perfect Match by Adiba Jaigirdar.

You can also go down a rabbit hole with Goodreads lists of 2026 LGBTQIA+ books, but remember that anyone can add to these, so it’s worth double-checking the titles included.

Soon, I will be building my spreadsheet of upcoming 2026 queer book releases in earnest, and I am both excited for and dreading going through a million blog and Instagram lists as they pop up.