The small queer press is a continuous 2025 book club at The Pond aiming to uplift queer published works from smaller -mostly indie- presses focusing on diverse stories of LGBTQIA+ life and people.

The book club will run in 2-3 month cycles, each quarter focusing on a different press.

August through October we are exploring the works from Amethyst Editions. For August we are reading : “The Summer of Dead Birds” by Ali Liebegott:

Ali Liebegott is reeling from a fresh, painful divorce. She wallows in grief and overassigns meaning to everyday circumstance, clinging to an aging Dalmatian and obsessing over dead birds. Going through the motions of teaching and walking her dog, she eventually decides to hit the Ali and Rorschach at the Center of the World. This autobiographical novel-in-verse is a chronicle of mourning and survival, documenting depression and picking apart failed intimacy. But Ali Liebegott’s poetry is laced with compassion, for herself and the reader and the world, as she learns to balance the sting of death with the tender strangeness of life.

The Amethyst Editions imprint champions emerging queer writers who employ genre-bending narratives and experimental writing styles, and works that complicate the conversation around LGBTQ+ experiences beyond a coming out story.

Amethyst Editions was founded by artist and author Michelle Tea, and is an imprint under The Feminist Press. Read more about them here: https://www.feministpress.org/amethyst-editions-info

*no reader commitment!*
- read the book, or start reading it
- show up to the discussion
- no sign ups needed
- you can go to one, or some, or all
- book club is held monthly
- 2-3 month cycles highlighting a different queer press
- facebook events will be available
- the books are available at The Pond at a -10% discount
- the books are in english, mostly fiction

If you want to join the bookclub remotely, or track your reading for these books, you can joining the Storygraph challenge for funsies.