Queer Life, Queer Love 2: The Second Anthology

by Matt Bates (Editor), Julia Bell (Editor), Sarah Beal (Editor)

The winning entries from an international competition to capture the best of queer writing from around the globe.

Following the critically acclaimed Queer Life, Queer Love comes the second anthology, championing the fiction, poetry, memoir, essay, and flash fiction of new and emerging writers alongside established authors.

The anthology will comprise 30 pieces of writing, the winning entries from an international competition to capture the best of queer writing today. This is writing that explores characters, stories and experiences beyond the mainstream. Celebrating the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but in essence, the view from outside.

Genres: LGBT, Queer

288 pages, Paperback

Published August 8, 2023

Reviews

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I worked my way through this anthology very slowly at first but I found the back half had more entries that held my interest. It's always tough for me to review collections and anthologies. I have to say that I did not find that this collection had as much coherence as I've seen in others and honestly, it's not a particularly uplifting group of stories. So if, like me, you read a lot of romance, you might find this a bit dreary. That said, I did appreciate the diverse representation among the authors, characters and subjects and I'm glad to have read it.

And there were indeed some very memorable gems among the ~45 entries that were more uplifting and hopeful (or just more compelling):

1. I Want to Suck This Man's Toes by Adam Zmith
2. A Character Sketch by Gaar Adams
3. Doing Admin in Gaza by Sharon Shaw
4. Nobody's Sons by Jonathan Pizarro
5. Elevated People by Lukas Georgiou
6. This Day by George Hodsun
7. Bo by Tom Spencer
8. Talking to Ghosts on Geary St. by Marilyn Smith
9. To a Moustache by Martha Benedict

I received a digital Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley and Muswell Press in exchange for an honest review.

[Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

i quite liked this! As always with anthologies, some hits and some misses, but I always love discovering new queer writers. I found that the diversity of style made it more difficult (especially for the poetry, I think I can either be reading poetry or not reading poetry, but going from prose to poetry so quickly made it hard to get into for me). However, the large range of themes and stories explored in this made the reading experience very enjoyable, I'm sure everyone can find something to love in there!

So happy to find Adam Zmith and Swithun Cooper in this, writers I discovered in Unreal Sex: An Anthology of Queer Erotic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror and adored! I also particularly loved the contributions of Sharon Shaw, George Hodson, Nikki Ummel, Jonathan Kemp, Tom Spencer and Finn Brown.

I received this book as an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks to Netgalley and Muswell Press!

[Kirb · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Matt Bates for providing me with a copy of this book.

Overall, I found this collection to be a little underwhelming. There were a few standout stories, but apart from that it was not memorable. The stories I'd recommend are "Talking to Ghosts Geary St." by Marilyn Smith, "Nobody's Sons" by Jonathan Pizarro, "The Artist is Present" by Sarah Keenan, and "Doing Admin in Gaza" by Sharon Shaw. I'd probably purchase this book for those alone, but unfortunately the rest of the stories don't quite hold up.

Additionally, some stories are quite explicit, while others have more of a YA feel, so I'm not quite sure what audience I'd recommend this to.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of these essays was vulnerable and filled with the uniqueness that is queer life and queer love. Some are hard to read and had me tearing up, others were funny and poignant. I think this is a great representative book of what it means to live and love as a queer individual.

[Sarah Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you very much to Tim McDonald and Fiona Brownlee from Muswell press who sent me a copy of this collection of stories and poems for review. The book is published by Maslow press in August 2023
This is the second book in the series and this collection was well collated and included a selection of stories and poems by authors who are already well known and published as well as some up and coming writers .
The book includes pieces from the whole of queer life including lesbian and transsexual stories rather than concentrating solely on gay men .
I found it notable that although some pieces were about gay sex the majority were more broadly about gay life and love as the title suggests .As a whole the collection is a positive affirmation of Gay life an uplifting joyous read .
It is difficult to single out individual authors from such a group but the stories that stuck in my mind were The gay Gibraltan sea side love story Nobody’s Sons by Jonathon Pizarro ,Two Butches walk into a bra shop by Max Hartley .I want to suck This Man’s Toes by Adam Zmith and Bo a coming of age story by Tom Spencer .
There were a few pieces that I could t immediately locate the queer link these were mostly poems and may well reflect my own lack of experience reading poetry
I have not read the first book in the series but enjoyed this one so will be adding it to the to be read pile

[B.S. Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best way to support Pride Month is to listen to and lift up Queer voices — so this is definitely the perfect book for that.

It’s hard to give an accurate review of this, because it contains 30 pieces of work with such unique voices, styles and topics that can’t be summed up with an overall critique. But the common themes between them is radical acceptance, love and understanding and that shines from the pages. It goes from dating, to family, to identity and belonging, to society and gives a unique queer lens on life and love that was a joy to read.

From lyrical poetry, to clever short stories, mini-memoirs and think pieces, and thoughtful essays — there is a breadth of knowledge and experience that went into creating this collection along with the talent that is definitely in most of the works inside. It’s easily readable and you can definitely jump in and out as you like (but you probably won’t want to put it down)

[Rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

… so I had this arc via NetGalley so thank you.
This is an anthology about queer love and queer life (duh). I really thought this would be about queer joy, because of the title… but haha nope there are stories that were hard to read, like stories about death, missed love stories,…
Not all the stories did it for me, and to be honest, a lot of the stories did not do it for me. Like there are some that were amazing, that made me feel so much. But not enough for me to give it 4 stars. Also, even if it’s a queer anthology trans women and transfem writers were clearly missing most of the time. It felt like a lot of men (cis and trans), and some non-binary people.

[Jenny Blacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mixed selection of pieces, all with queer love as a theme.

Some of the pieces I loved, some less so, but that is the risk you take with a collection! I suspect you'll find something in here you love, regardless of your taste

A little bit of extra love for the cover!

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

This book was pretty good, but I felt like I was way too stupid for it most of the time. Me and poetry just don't really get along well I guess. There were some good story's in there tho!
Don't have the energy for a longer review, but I would recommend this book to people if you want to read some lgbt+ poetry and short stories.

[Educator · Rating 5 out of 5]

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974


I enjoyed reading this book. It gives you a glimpse into the mind of LGBTQIA persons and their experiences. Though a work of fiction, some of the stories feel like real life. I will locate and read volume 1 and look forward to volume 3. A good read for Pride month.

[Kayrah]

This was a beautiful collection of heartfelt stories. Some were difficult to read but beautiful all the same

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[mags♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly beautiful and thought-provoking.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Fatin Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

What a wonderful read! A few entries are emotion-provoking but overall this collection is brilliant.

[Connor Girvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 / 5 stars

[ana lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

idk happy pride month! some of the pieces were cool others simply weren't... i do not think i would Recommend but im not like upset that i bought it

[Anna Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very general stories, not much to be yearning for after reading.

[Beth Counselman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies can be hit or miss but always expose me to new types of writing that I may not gravitate towards. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the works and highly recommend it!

[Ailsa Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely variety of queer voices - v diverse mixture of fiction/poetry, variable quality but some standouts that moved me or made me laugh even though each had minimal words

[pvp_Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually ok with anthologies but this one just wasn't for me. For short stories I come from a speculative fiction background so maybe I'm just not used to short stories not really having a strong idea behind them which is usually easier to find with SF. In spite of this, my favorite stories from this anthology were the simple slice-of-life ones which gave a glimpse of someone's everyday life, There were some really touching or heart-wrenching or simply just cozy stories I really liked. However, there were also a lot of stories that were just ok, and some were really meh or even confusing. Also, the stories I liked better were usually in the second half of the book, so by that time I've felt disappointed several times already.
What I really liked is that though there are some recurring themes, there's still a nice variety to them. I was also surprised - as not a big fan of poetry and someone who doesn't really understand contemporary poetry - I actually liked quite a few of them as well.
The atmosphere of this selection has an overall melancholy which I liked.

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kayleigh Doucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this collection and how varied it is, and I like the little descriptions of the authors at the end of each section - with a notable mention to Jonathan Pizarro!

[Shayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a varied, lovely collection of work - it's hard to review it as one piece because I found some of the essays and stories more compelling than others, but they were all beautiful.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a beautiful collection of stories and poems. I especially liked Coupling by Kath Gifford which blended a speech by Margaret Thatcher with her original work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.