"Snakeskin Press is doing what indie-publishing does best. It is going to bat for underrepresented stories and take big swings on risky projects that trad-publishing won’t touch. Even while the domination of the Big Five grows, indie publishers will continue to come out with the stories that need to be told." Read the full article here: https://www.trillmag.com/culture/books/snakeskin-press-this-indie-publication-uplifts-emerging-queer-authors/

"The problem isn’t where the metaphorical goal post lies, however, but rather the journey to reach it. If the goal post is to comprehend literary fiction, the solution isn’t to water down the literature. The solution is to create pathways for people to expand their reading comprehension. This can look like book clubs that encourage the sharing of ideas and interpretations. It can also look like larger, systemic changes like access to higher education for those who seek it." R

"Growing up in Victorville, I always lamented the limitations of my hometown. My criticisms ranged from the practical struggle of being a kid without access to age-appropriate activities or the infrastructure to get me there, to my perception that surely everyone here must have settled. It felt as if the town that raised me was secretly a purgatory that people just found themselves trapped in." Read the full article here: https://www.trillmag.com/life/people/my-small-town-not

The romance genre has long been a tool for writers and readers alike to flesh out their fantasies and come to understand their needs and desires. For women readers, this can be an invaluable way to counteract the societal messaging that shames women for their sexualities. Fiction then becomes a sandbox to play in and explore within the safety of one’s own mind — women can explore wild fantasies without having to get too caught up in logistics. Read the full article here:...

"This misaligned process of taking shape in all the wrong ways as a young trans and disabled person was not one that I saw commonly represented in literature. Authors seemed unwilling to face the reality of a disabled, queer body, or perhaps publishers were afraid of platforming those kinds of stories. I came to find comfort in the next best thing: books about bodies that are queered through horrific transformations." Read the full essay here: https://larbpublab.org/2026/07/2

"The biggest criticism I can muster for Like Real People Do is the irrelevant Hozier reference in the title. Beyond that, this is a near-perfect romance novel packed with lovable characters, chemistry all around, and well executed representation of various underrepresented identities. For everyone aching to feed their appetite for hockey romances, this is a must-read." The full review can be read at: https://readbya.substack.com/p/like-real-people-do-2022-e-l-massey

"I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is one of those dystopian stories that unnerve you more and more as you realize how in-reach its fictional world is to our reality. In a world where the prison industrial system is scrapped in favor of a system of shame and surveillance, those who are convicted of a crime are given an additional shadow, stripping them of their rights and subjecting them to public ridicule. Gone are any semblances of rehabilitation or forgiveness. This story e

"We are not at a point where trans teens making it past adolescence can be taken for granted. It is still vital to let young trans people know that they are seen. They need to see that there are others like them. But is the growing selection of books depicting transmasc teenagers showing them that they also have a future? And when they reach adulthood, what model of trans- adulthood/manhood/masculinity do they have?" The full essay can be read at: https://readbya.substack.com

"Chloe Brown has spent much of her adulthood being fussed over by her well-meaning family and not a lot of time living her life to the fullest. After nearly being hit by a drunk driver while on a walk, Chloe questions the way she has been living her life and compiles a list of ways she wants to “get a life.” Two months later, she has moved out of her family’s mansion, into her own apartment, and is ready to vigilantly tackle the next items on her list. To do so, Chloe enlists

"When I attended an author event with Tiffany Crum, she said something that made this book click for me, “I wanted more thrill in my romance, and more romance in my thrillers.” This mindset seemed to guide her in creating this book, which is a heavily character-focused thriller about two survival/comedy podcasters Benny and Joy, in the aftermath of Joy’s sudden disappearance with her husband Xander. Readers are then given a dual perspective of Benny grappling with Joy’s disap

"Just off the plane at LAX, Sara Hussain, in this dystopian novel, is stopped by TSA and told that a governmental algorithm has computed that she is at an elevated risk of committing a crime. They are convinced that Sara is a danger to her husband, corroborated by unknown factors, principally her dreams. Unable to clear her name of crimes she has not committed nor has she been charged with, Sara is put into a “retention center” filled with women similarly being imprisoned bas

In this essay, Adrian explores the role of character point of view in books and video games to make the consumer of the media feel more or less implicated in the actions of the character. They discuss the illusion of choice in video games that may contribute to a sense of implication, opposed to the distance a reader may feel towards a book character, particularly when their actions are written in the third person. The full essay can be read at: https://readbya.substack.com/p