(For context: the book mentions a dildo.)Īs well as a widening readership, social media has played a big role in the explosion of queer literature, giving books a chance to “defeat the gatekeepers,” in Schulman’s words. Author Carmen Maria Machado’s Into The Dream House, a bestselling experimental memoir about an abusive queer relationship, has been banned from multiple schools in Texas-at one, a parent brought a dildo to a school board meeting in protest. Indeed, across the U.S., queer books are being banned amidst a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ censorship laws, epitomized by the recent passing of the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” in Florida. “ Everything is more conservative in the United States right now, so the idea that something progressive is happening in corporate publishing is absurd, given the national tenor.” “You’re making a very big mistake,” says lesbian writer Sarah Schulman when I suggest it. To say we are in a golden era of queer publishing is a controversial assertion. They haven’t had as much support or crossover as they have now.” “But if you look at canonical queer fiction writers, many had to fight and bounce around the underground. “Queer writers have always been there, brave and unapologetic,” says Jackson Howard, a young, queer editor representing an impressive roster of LGBTQ+ writers at the publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux.