Today, Sapph-Lit’s first book release as a Bindery imprint is published.
Saturn Returning by Kim Narby is officially out in the world for everyone to read. I hope this story makes you laugh, cry, get annoyed as all hell, scream, throw your book across the room only to immediately pick it back up and keep reading because you need to know what happens next, giggle and kick your feet, recommend the book to a friend, lend your annotated copy out. Silvia, Trace and Jordan are the most complicated, messy, real characters I’ve read in a long while. They may be fictional, but I know these lesbians — I’ve met them at bars and parties, on Hinge and Feeld, in college and at work. Thank you to Kim for bringing them to life and trusting me to share them with the world.
When Kim signed a finished copy of SR for me yesterday at her launch party, she signed it: “Here is to sapphic literature. Here is to messy girls. The mess only makes us stronger.” I couldn’t agree more.
As the founder of Sapph-Lit, all I’ve ever wanted to do for the last 5 years is be a bridge. By that, I mean Sapph-Lit was never about me. I am not Sapph-Lit. You, dear reader, are. For the past 5 years I’ve been lucky enough to connect readers to books that make them feel less alone. Connecting them with each other in the hopes that they make lifelong friends. Almost every single time I go to an event, I meet folks who say they met through Sapph-Lit. Sometimes they joined in the last year. Sometimes they remember our days on Geneva and our first ever official meetup in Central Park September 2021, just a few short months after we read One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston as our inaugural book pick.
So much has happened to me, to Sapph-Lit, in 5 years time — I cannot deny that at times it has been a little messy (I wouldn’t be me without a little bit of mess, just like our 3 girls in Saturn Returning) — but that purpose of our community has never changed. I am still a very happy, sometimes very tired and overwhelmed but nevertheless incredibly proud, bridge.
One of the ways Sapph-Lit has evolved is now I get to connect Sapph-Lit authors with an audience before their book is even ready to be published. When I first read Saturn Returning, it was because you all told me to. Our Bindery subscribers read a sentence of Kim’s pitch letter and said, in an overwhelming majority, “Nina needs to read that one first.” You all understood Kim and our three characters before I did. I read all 259 pages of the original manuscript in one sitting, and this is the email I immediately upon finishing sent Shira, our acquisitions director here at Bindery, at 8:52pm on December 6th, 2024.
SATURN RETURNING by Kim Narby is 1000% my first book. It's exactly what I love in a sapphic read -- the messiness of DYKETTE, the earnestness of OLD ENOUGH, the complex yet breezy conversations about sexuality of DETRANSITION, BABY. I would love to make this work. Fingers crossed it does because it's so special.
And from then till now, Bindery Babes were there every step of the way: through rounds and rounds edits, having a say in the cover design, meeting Kim for the first time on Zoom, being the first to receive ARCs, pre-orders, BookCon and events galore, and now PUB DAY. Here’s to Saturn Returning, to Kim, to all you Sapph-Litties around the world, and to hopefully many more books to come (here's looking at you, Creative Differences).
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for it all.
xx Nina
