My Movie, He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, and 98 Wounds

David Pratt’s wonderfully strange novel Bob the Book won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction last year. In his follow-up collection of short fiction, My Movie (Chelsea Station Editions), Pratt shifts his focus from anthropomorphic books to the alternate realities of film and the occasional absurdity of gay life. If you like a read that’s as poignant as it is funny—or you’re looking for a fresh take on the surreal—don’t miss these 14 stories.

Stephen S. Mills is another newcomer, whose first collection of poems, He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices (Sibling Rivalry Press), is out this month. The poems, which look to pop culture, human rights violations, and (quite a bit) to gay serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer for inspiration, are smart, accessible, and odd in just the right way.

Justin Chin is an established poet and essayist venturing into new territory of his own with his first book of short stories, 98 Wounds (Manic D Press). Chin is a skilled and exacting writer whose stories deal primarily with the underside of human life—deviance, drug use and desire all coming under his examination. Not a light read, but well worth the commitment.