Happy new year friends & lovers! We made it, and I'm personally using reading a coping mechanism a lot more than usual in these first few weeks of January. I think I've already read 11 books...so let's talk about books some more!

In January we're reading Miss Major Speaks, February is going to be Is This A Cry For Help? by Emily Austin, and in March we're reading This is the Only Kingdom by Jaquira Diaz. I'm working on securing interviews with Emily and Jaquira, so stay tuned!

When chatting with some Bindery Babes on Discord, y'all pointed out that we haven't read any poetry in a long while! April is National Poetry Month too! One of you even suggested we read a book by the late Andrea Gibson, an incredible queer poet. I've chosen some of their books for this longlist, along with other standout queer poetry titles. Let me know what interests you most and if you have any other suggestions!

Thanks for your support Bindery Babes! xx Nina

• You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson

• Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson

• Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson

• The Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly

• Fragments of Wasted Devotion by Mia Arias Tsang

• Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry by Daniel Zomparelli

• Questions for Ada by Ijeoma Umebinyuo

• Inferno by Eileen Myles

• Not Me by Eileen Myles

• The New Fuck You: Adventures In Lesbian Reading by Eileen Myles

• The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell

• Devotions by Mary Oliver

• Upstream by Mary Oliver

• Blue Horses by Mary Oliver

• A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

• Couplets by Maggie Millner

• Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom

• Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry After Stonewall by Stephanie Burt

• We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics by Aeon Ginsberg