Edmund White’s Sacred Monsters offers a virtual portrait gallery of some of our most iconic literary and artistic figures (including John Cheever, David Hockney, John Singer Sargent, and Allen Ginsburg), and the phenomenal Samuel R. Delany returns with Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which will delight fans of his classic novel The Mad Man.

Novelist Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla examines the toll the closet takes on an Indian husband and wife living in contemporary Los Angeles in The Two Krishnas, while Charles Rice-Gonzalez takes readers to the South Bronx for a heartbreaking and tender look at first love between two Puerto Rican boys in Chulito.

I’m also excited by two new memoirs. In At Home with Myself, political strategist and civil rights leader David Mixner writes about his retreat to a contemplative life in the country at age 60 and recalls his four decades of activism. No less than 50 years are covered in Double Life, the half-century love story between Broadway and Hollywood’s Alan Shayne and his partner, artist Norman Sunshine.

Religion and spirituality are represented in several important works, including Rev. Mel White’s Holy Terror, a provocative call to arms for gay people to stand up to the Christian Right; Youth in Crisis, the first paperback edition of the deeply moving Crisis, which also tackles religious-based bigotry; and Perfect Light, personal stories by LGBT Buddhists.

The theme of well-being continues this fall with What Every Gay Man Needs to Know About Prostate Cancer, Gerald Perlman's essential guide to the topic.

Additionally, the list includes two knock out illustrated books: comics sensation Belasco will delight fans of no-holds-barred sex with his stunning Belasco’s Boo and the Bruthas, and Elisha Lim breaks down gender barriers with 100 Butches, a graphic memoir unlike any I have ever seen.

Lastly, the list wouldn’t be complete without a true crime story. In Cobra Killer, Andrew E. Stoner and Peter A. Conway recount in horrifying detail the grisly story of Harlow Cuadra and his partner Joe Kerkes, a pair of ex-military men turned hustlers, turned porn entrepreneurs, who murder a rival producer standing in the way of their ambitions.

I’m extremely proud of the debut list, as well as titles slated for next season, including new work by Ethan Mordden, Frank Browning, and Keith Boykin. As I hope the Magnus line-up attests, our literature is at its best when it bridges generations, cultures, genres, and interests, making LGBT writing more inclusive, more inspired, and more exciting than ever.

—Don Weise, Publisher