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.

May through June we are exploring the works from Cipher Press. For May we are reading "Romeo & Seahorse" by Nikolaj Tange Lange:

Romeo has Hepatitis again. Leaving his boyfriend behind, he dives into a frantic haze of hookups, drugs, and self-destruction in search of something like love. His delirious trip through squalid rooms, hospital wards, and nighttime parks is broken by flashes of first loves and sharp reflections on what it means to be a Romeo.

Romeo & Seahorse rips through addiction, desire, and queer belonging with a relentless, hallucinatory voice—messy, raw, and unforgettable.

Cipher Press is an independent publisher of queer fiction and non-fiction. Their aim is to amplify queer voices and to champion LGBTQIA+ writers in the UK and beyond.

They publish authors who are creating a new literary canon by disrupting existing narratives and retelling them in new ways. They want to publish the many different stories that make up our community. ( https://www.cipherpress.co.uk/ )

*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 by joining the Storygraph challenge for funsies.