PITCH FEST IS NOW OVER!!! Same deal as last time! Here are some excerpts from pitch letters that are standing out to me. Which one is your favorite? Do you still prefer your favorite pitch from Part 1? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll below!

1. BOOK ONE is an upmarket novel set against the backdrop of a grocery store in Oklahoma. Beginning in 2002 and spanning seventeen years, the story explores how time and place shape one's relationship to sexuality, in the vein of Oisín McKenna's Evenings and Weekends, and delves into themes of inherited grief and identity, similar to Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!. When our FMC interviews an author famous for writing a queer story, she uncovers a connection between the author and the mother of her childhood best friend/girl crush. As she untangles the mother's history, she begins to see her past mistakes mirroring her present — and must confront her relationship with her sexuality and her unresolved feelings for her childhood best friend—or risk losing the fresh start she’s been granted.

2. BOOK TWO is literary-leaning upmarket fiction with the 3-POV structure and gender/ maternity preoccupations of Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters; the dark humor and academic milieu of Vladimir by Julia May Jones; and the many characters and isolated, haunted setting of The Guest List by Lucy Foley. On a remote archeological site famous for fertility goddesses and bodies buried beneath homes, our FMC uncovers a personal history she must reckon with before everything she has worked for comes crashing down.

3. BOOK THREE is about a woman with mental illness living in the world full of darkness and greed and pain and war, but it is also filled with the sound of the sea, and light through leaves, and hot bread melting butter at your lips. Through nature writing and hope, through romance and friendship it speaks to the pain of the media cycle and everything happening on screen, and feeling like there is nothing to be done about it. It is a book that asks how we are supposed to continue living in this world. It is about a long and sturdy friendship and love. It is about coming home to yourself and the strength you need to change yourself. It’s about the healing powers of art and community and it is, above all else, a hopeful story of mental illness.

4. BOOK FOUR is an adult sapphic romance pitched as Normal People meets Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets Past Lives. An aspiring British actress and an American musician throw themselves into a long distance relationship just as their respective careers take off. Over years, their ambitions, their own failings, and the times, threaten to divide them, but will they find a way for their paths to continue to cross in spite of it all?

5. BOOK FIVE occupies the intersection between contemporary romance and women's fiction, with emphasis on workplace, family, and romantic relationships. Featuring an f/f romance at its center, the two main characters are cis women, with one identifying as bisexual (a hotshot equestrienne and bluegrass heiress) and one as lesbian (a museum archivist working an exhibition on female jockeys). With its horse racing pro sports context, this book should appeal to fans of authors like Melissa Brayden, Rachel Spangler, and Celeste Castro. Tropes featured include jock/nerd, butch/femme, celeb/normie, and a road trip element.

Pitch Fest is almost over and I have a total of 12 amazing pitches to review. Here's a selection 5 that are currently standing out to me for what Sapph-Lit is looking for (contemporary and upmarket, adult sapphic romance / literary fiction). I'd love to know what you're drawn to the most. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

1. BOOK ONE is a contemporary sapphic literary coming-of- age rom-dram that follows an ensemble cast of teen girls trying to survive their senior year of high school in the 90s. A group of girlfriends go on a quest to find fame by stalking the film set of Chasing Amy through the Jersey Shore and into New York City. This novel highlights the unusual status Chasing Amy holds in the queer canon, which is similarly explored by trans filmmaker Sav Rodgers, in Chasing, Chasing Amy. It portrays realistic trauma like in Kathleen Glasgow’s You’d Be Home Now, and the dynamic friendships found in Lily Dancyger’s First Love: Essays on Friendship. As it was with teenage girls in the 90s, their best friends are their therapists. But it’s becoming impossible for the girls to be honest to each other about their struggles, when they can’t even be honest with themselves.

2. BOOK TWO is a sapphic contemporary adult fiction set in a small coastal Maine town about the power of second chances and really good bread. Tiny Beautiful Things meets Housemates in this sweet and humorous story about grief, loss and getting back up after life knocks you down. Together, two women embark on a journey through the past and their own present, discovering things about themselves and who they might be becoming, together and apart.

3. BOOK THREE follows a twenty-something, hot mess, avoidant extraordinaire, who’s desperately seeking purpose in life while blowing everything up in the process. As our FMC stumbles through the chaos of love, loss, and family drama, she discovers that the road to sobriety is anything but straight. This heartfelt yet humorous story explores themes such as addiction, grief, and self-acceptance in a both a humorous and relatable way, showing just how messy the journey to self-discovery can be. It will appeal to readers who enjoyed Rosewater by Liv Little and Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly.

4. BOOK FOUR is a fake dating contemporary adult romance written for lovers of pop music, fandom, and all things queer. When the FMC's journal of secretly-written love songs is lost, stolen, and uploaded online, public uproar threatens to destroy all that remains of her carefully constructed image. Comparable titles include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. This work seeks to balance commercial appeal with realistically flawed characters and complex struggles, asking the ultimate question: How much are we willing to sacrifice for our ambitions?

5. BOOK FIVE is a queer literary novel about the people who raised us when our parents couldn’t, and the slow, tender heartbreak of realizing that even the longest friendships —those built over decades of shared beds, shared secrets, and shared grief—aren’t always built to last. Over the course of three consecutive wedding weekends, six long-time friends—entangled, loyal, and increasingly unhinged—begin to unravel. Secrets come out, loyalties shift, new romances bloom, and old wounds crack open. This book offers unfiltered access to each character’s inner world, where nothing is off-limits—especially not their most salacious or controversial thoughts. It’s for readers who love the fierce chosen-family dynamics of Ghosts by Dolly Alderton, the chaotic tenderness of Malibu Rising, and the sharp, witty intimacy of Red, White & Royal Blue (with more veils, vows, and meltdowns).

Happy April friends & lovers! It's that time again -- I'm crowdsourcing suggestions from our Bindery community for our next book poll. This time, we're voting for July's nonfiction pick, which we will read in honor Disability Pride Month 💖

Sharing my longlist below based on some research I did and suggestions I've received already, let me know what resonates with you! If you have standout favorites, name them and we'll vote on them in Discord! If you have any other ideas, drop them in the comments and we'll include those as well!! :)

Thanks for your support Bindery Babes! xx Nina

• Disability Visibility by Alice Wong

• Disability Intimacy by Alice Wong

• Queer Silence On Disability and Rhetorical Absence by J. Logan Smilges

• Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare

• Rehearsals for Dying Digressions on Love and Cancer by Ariel Gore 

• The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World by Tiffany Yu

• The Future Is Disabled Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

• Living the Edges: A Disabled Women's Reader by Diana Driedger

• Leg by Greg Marshall

• Notes from a Queer Cripple: How to Cultivate Queer Disabled Joy by Andrew Gurza

• Queer Disability through History: The Queer and Disabled Movements through their Personalities by Daisy Holder

• Bless the Blood by Walela Nehanda