Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories

by Nina Waters (Lead Editor), Robin S. Blackwood, E. V. Dean

Transforming the core settings of “dark academia” to be cozy and snug, “Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories” features 22 delightful, charming science fiction and fantasy stories set at colleges, universities, libraries, and other places where people pursue academic excellence – and all feature queer characters! From field research shenanigans to cooking adventures, from space station education departments to eldritch libraries, our awesome authors have brought their vivid imaginings to life in this anthology. We can’t wait to share it with you!

Genres: Fantasy, Queer

350 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2025

About the author

Claire Houck (she/they/he), pen name Nina Waters, fandom name unforth, is the founder and sole proprietor of Duck Prints Press LLC. She is queer, 40 years old, married to the lovely Lisa, and a mother of two. Claire has been writing fanfiction since the young age of seven, when she penned (well, two-finger typed and printed dot matrix) the timeless classic “the story of my littl ponies and the glob.” Since then, her spelling, grammar and prose have improved immensely. She has written over two hundred short stories, a number of novellas, and 16 novels—some original, some fanfiction—including “A Glimmer of Hope,” which was successfully Kickstarted and self-published in fall, 2016. She’s also had two short stories published. Before she became a full-time writer, Claire had a career as a professional grant writer and program evaluator, providing consultation services for the New York City Department of Education and other non-profit education organizations.

Reviews

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC courtesy of Duck Prints Press in exchange for an honest review.

(To be clear this is the first arc I ever requested or recieved. I did so because author May Barros shared about this press and I stumbled across this collection. I will continue to read from them because I am impressed with their entire mission and purpose.)

This is a really strong anthology that felt like the equivalent of a cup of tea on a rainy day surrounded by soft things and your closest friends. It was such a warm happy space to exist in. Also as a bonus it offers little tags at the beginning. I felt like I was reading fanfics except it was original works. Exceptional. Exactly what I wanted. In fact I am now offended all books don't offer this.

I want to give a brief sense of each story to entice you.

1. Courtship by Marginalia by Eliza J. Fitzwilliam - Similar energy to A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske but with time travel components.

2. The Case Of The Lost Grimoire by Robin S. Blackwood. Sherlock Holme meets Harry Potter but the detectives are in a queer platonic relationship. Yes I want an entire series thanks.

3. What We Call Ourselves by Lyonel Loy. Reminiscent of Carry On by Rainbow Rowell due to surviving after a war and the heavy grief of that. But also entirely unlike anything I have ever read. Haunting in a serene peaceful way.

4. Beautiful and True by Mare Griffen. Offers a little of the Last Unicorn whimsy vibes mixed with a more queer personal element.

5. Living Legends by Nicola Kapron. A lighter, different, kinder variation of Addie Larue. You have components of learning to exist through time along with a romance spanning that. And of course obviously it is queer.

6. Writ of Evocation by D.E Towry. Think first chapter from the Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi except this story is about the boy in that chapter so to speak. Nautical elements along with a library. Amazing.

7. Belonging by Sven. Kind of gave me Hands of the Emperor vibes mixed with partnered assignments remain complicated in any and all worlds.

8. Field Research by Dei Walker. Cultivation story so think NPCs in a DnD world. You're getting to explore their world. Also air bender temples (kind of) from Avatar adjacent.

9. Cat In The Library by Bettina Juszak. Studio Ghibli should use this story for one of their films, I'm just saying. It would translate so well.

10. Some Strange Alchemy by Rhosyn Goodfellow. Gives Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood vibes except remove the fake dating and add in horror elements. Make it gay too. Sold.

11. Fair Winds and Fortune by Maggie Page. This felt somehow like if Diana Wynne Jones had written a book for an older audience. I would've loved to explore this world more.

12. C8H10N4O2 by Mina Kramek. Star trek but blue uniform edition. I kind of feel like that perfectly encapsulates this one. Nailed it.

13. Life Cycles of Leaf Sprites by Zel Howland. Okay, hear me out. Tiny flying fantasy geckos (my mental image at least) and dragons along with a main character that is ultra dedicated to studying said geckos. Emily Wilde in a different font.

14. Queenright by Lee Pini. Gave Tavia Lark energy except a lot less angst. I want to go find a magic secret tunnel with my love.

15. Partnered Up by Cassia King. Think Legends and Lattes except school setting. That's the vibe. Also cool to see professors coming up and enacting studies and doing professor things.

16. Late or Never by E.V Dean. Grandma decides she is going to get her magic degree but also ghosts. We applaud it.

17. Clockwork Warmth by Jessica Mason. Reminded me of The Invention of Hugo Cabret paired with Mages and Mechanics by Devin Harnois.

18. A Curatorial Puzzle of the Heart by Robin Huntington. Kind of like if author Cat Sebastian and the show Charmed had a baby.

19. Family Meal by Shannon Lippert. Star Trek culinary experience episode served hot except it would be like a side character in the show going to cooking school since her life fell apart.

20. Historians by Indigo J.H. So take the show Haunted Hotel and translate it to a university. Also make it where only one character can see and talk to the ghosts. Make it a little more serious and a little more literary, and that's the closest comparison I can come up with.

21. Escape the Stacks by Vee Sloane. Okay this is gonna sound unhinged. But take the format of a cozy paranormal mystery with a little bit of Candy Land game vibes and this feels kind of similar. I am really not quite sure who or what to compare this too. But it was delightful.

22. Caffeine and the Unsleeping by Lucy K.R. The first similar title that pops in my head is My Roommate Is A Vampire. Except this is a coffee shop in a library and said Vampire is not enthused. But the human is cute so they awkwardly flirt their way together.

My favorites in this anthology are: What We Call Ourselves, Field Research, Life Cycles of Leaf Sprites, Clockwork Warmth, Family Meal, Escape the Stacks, and Caffeine and the Unsleeping. All of the stories engaged though on such a wide range of school type stories and I remain charmed by them.

You should read this. In fact you should read it right now. And then tell me which stories you liked best and how badly I did in my attempts to entice you.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really excited to get a chance to read Duck Prints Press' upcoming cozy anthology, Scholarly Pursuits. It is a collection of some really incredible queer short stories.

In total, there are 22 short stories in this collection, and the book is just under 400 pages. The stories have a nice mix of queer representation, with a focus on academia.

I love the variety in the stories. There are several really great fantasy stories, as well as some paranormal and even science fiction stories. There are plenty of romance and other relationship stories, too!

For lovers of Achillean romance, The Cat in the Library by Bettina Juszak, A Curatorial Puzzle of the Heart by Robin Huntington, and Caffeine and the Unsleeping by Lucy K.R. can't be missed! If you're looking for a Sapphic romance, Beautiful and True by Mare Griffen is incredibly sweet and heartfelt. Late or Never by E.V. Dean is also a real highlight of the collection, with an elderly bisexual main character and a touching message.

For friendship stories, two of my favorite stories in the collection are The Case of the Lost Grimoire by Robin S. Blackwood and Field Research by Dei Walker. There are two very different friendships in these two stories, but both relationships are delightful! I couldn't get enough of these two!

For asexual and aromantic rep, there's Belonging by Swev, which I loved and think a lot of aroace readers will identify with.

There is also lots of great trans rep! Both The Life Cycle of Leaf Sprites by Zel Howland and Writ of Evocation by D.E. Towery have fantastic trans main characters. Some Strange Alchemy by Rhosyn Goodfellow is a charming romance featuring a non-binary character. Another great romance involving a non-binary character is Living Legends by Nicola Kapron, which involves two immortals!

I genuinely liked every story in this collection. There were no duds, and quite a few were 5-star reads for me.

This was my first anthology from Duck Prints Press, but it certainly won't be my last. All of these authors are excellent, and this was put together expertly. I highly recommend this to all readers of queer fantasy. You're certain to find at least a few new favorite short stories in this!




* I received an advanced copy of this book for free, thanks to the publisher. *

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole time I was reading I was just :) good soup

Pros:
- once again this is an anthology with no bad stories. All of these were enjoyable and sweet and cute and cozy
- surprise sci-fi! I wasn't expecting it but it was a delightful surprise!
- I loved loved loved the variety of academia we got! It wasn't just one angle, but dozens! A cooking school??? On a space station?? Yes please
- NY STATE MUSEUM REPPPP WHAT (I didn't realize I cared so much about that museum but I was frothing at the mouth about it)
- the love of the physical printed word in this story touched my sad little "head hurty when read off screens" heart
- the dwarf library detective I never knew I needed
- clockwork birds 🥺
- MAGIC PUZZLE BOX
- I read this so slowly because I was just savoring it. Genuinely couldn't get myself to read at my normal speed because I wanted to appreciate each and every word.

Cons:
- can we um. Can we have some of these as full length novels 👉 👈 as a treat?

Overall:
I LOVED IT. I'm gonna be hard pressed to find a better book than this for the whole month of December and I will be buying multiple copies for my friends :)

[ech0reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Duck Prints Press for sending me a copy for review.

It's a little difficult to write a review for a anthology because I don't want to give all the details away and ruin the experience for anyone who hasn't read them. However, I will say that I would have done anything to have access to a book like this when I was younger. My teen years were a slog of wading through books with all cishet characters, forced-feeling cishet romances, or a single queer person, either sidelined or used for laughs. It means the absolute world to me to be able to read a collection of 22 stories, ALL of them queer. It felt so healing. I especially loved Courtship, The Case Of The Lost Grimoire, A Curatorial Puzzle of the Heart, Caffeine and the Unsleeping, and Escape the Stacks.

Obviously this won't be everyones cup of tea, but the stories are full of queer joy and it warms my heart to be able to have access to an anthology like this.

[Briar Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be delightful!

I was very excited to get an ARC from the Duck Prints Press ARC program to honestly review, but through the first few stories I wasn’t sure how I was going to end up feeling about this anthology. Once I reached “The Cat in the Library” I was thoroughly charmed, though, and it, “The Life Cycle of Leaf Sprites,” “A Clockwork Warmth,” and “Escape the Stacks” ended up being my favorites. I would happily read a whole novel or novella set in the world of “The Life Cycle of Leaf Sprites.”

Not every story in this anthology was a hit for me—a few of the worlds felt a bit shallow, and occasionally coziness turned saccharine—but none were bad either, and I thought the ones I called out as favorites had well-built worlds, interesting characters, and plenty of depth.

Overall, SCHOLARLY PURSUITS turned out to be exactly the dose of coziness I needed as we head into the dark days of deep autumn here in the northern hemisphere.