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Here’s all the latest queer book news you need to know, including the passing of revolutionary trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, the opening of a Black lesbian bookstore in Brooklyn, and the announcement of the release date for the last Heartstopper volume. Plus, I’ve got links to all the latest queer book recommendations, reviews, and listicles across the internet that are worth your click.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has died at the age of 78. She was a Black trans elder who has been fighting for the community for decades and was a veteran of the Stonewall Riots. She worked for the Mattachine Midwest gay rights’ organization, started Miss Major’s Angels of Care to take care of gay men dying of AIDS in the 1980s, was the executive director of the Transgender Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, and built a safe haven for trans people called tilfi. She also wrote a memoir called Miss Major Speaks.
 Miss Major Speaks by Miss Major with Toshio MeronekWhen a queer elder speaks, it’s up to all of us to listen. In this memoir, legendary Black trans activist Miss Major shares her story, as well as the many lessons she’s learned along the way. She offers firsthand accounts of defining moments and periods in queer history—the Stonewall Riots, 1960s ballroom culture, and the AIDS epidemic. This is the best kind of history book, written by someone who lived through it. —Laura Sackton |
You can read more about Miss Major’s life at Autostraddle: Trans Activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Lived a Long, Beautiful Life.
In September 2024, Tiffany Dockery was laid off from her job at Google. It was a turning point. She said, “I felt like God was saying, ‘All right, at what point are you going to actually do something that you believe in?'” Her answer? She cashed out her 401(k) to open a bookstore and wine bar for Black lesbians in Brooklyn, called Gladys Books & Wine. A year later, she held a grand opening, and the small space was crammed full of Black women celebrating.
As The New York Times write-up explains, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn has “seen an exodus of Black residents in recent years, in part because of a housing shortage and high rents.” The neighborhood had 75% Black residents in the 1990s, and that number has dropped to 40% in 2023. The bookstore is a way to build community.
And the community showed up. I can’t recommend reading the NYT article highly enough, if just for the photos and videos. The small bookstore was shoulder-to-shoulder with people—mostly Black women—dancing and laughing. The bookstore hosted a reading that was standing room only. It shows how much the community is hungry for spaces like this and is ready to support the people making it happen.
This is such a bright spot amongst the news of book bans of BIPOC and queer books and the general extreme right-wing swing happening culturally and politically at the moment. It’s a good reminder that positive things are still happening, and we need to show up for the people creating these spaces.
If you’re in or near Brooklyn, check out Gladys Books & Wine! They have all sorts of events on the calendar. And if you’re not nearby, you can also buy books from them online: they even have collections of Lesbian Stories, Black Queer Futures, and Resistance Reads. You can also follow them on Instagram and TikTok.
Heartstopper is one of the most successful queer book series of all time, and now, it’s coming to a close. Alice Oseman has announced we’ll be getting volume six on July 7, 2026 (July 2 in the UK). So far, here’s the publisher description for the final volume:
“Everyone in school knows Nick and Charlie. Everyone knows they’re going to be together forever. But Charlie’s busy with his bid to become head boy. And while Nick is preparing to leave for college, he’s starting to wonder who he’ll be… without Charlie.”
You can preorder volume six now.