WILLA & HESPER begins unexpectedly, with Willa, the more lyrical and likable of the two main characters, numbly attempting to process an assault in which she was pressed against a tree, pawed by an unidentified male, and then left to wonder why this attack had to happen outside her childhood temple. Today’s readers will key into the political undercurrents of the novel and the rising tide of hatred that crashes upon the characters in later chapters, when the novel, which begins in the middle of the Obama presidency, catches up to the 2016 presidential election.

THE FLIGHT PORTFOLIO is a fictionalized account of American Varian Fry’s attempt to aid refugees in Vichy France in 1940, before the U.S. entered World War II.

Justify My Sins is clearly a novel rather than a memoir, but the life of the protagonist, Victor Regina, resembles that of the author quite closely.

Berkson … went on to have a distinguished career as a poet, art critic, and teacher. He and O’Hara remained friends, colleagues, and sometime collaborators. For years, he kept a scrapbook about Frank O’Hara, archiving memories, quotations, reproductions of visual art, and other material related to his mentor.

These poems often connect one gay poet to another in a lovely and poignant way. The late Reginald Shepherd is memorialized by Timothy Liu and Roberto Santiago. The latter re-uses the title “You, Therefore” from one of the best poems in Shepherd’s 2007 collection Fata Morgana for a new poem that is wonderfully reminiscent of Shepherd’s own merger of line-flow and word-banging.

Lovejoy has done extensive historical research and deploys it well, recreating London in the 18th century down to graphic details, such as the smell of trash and human waste in the streets.

Flannelwood is a novel about love, loss, searching, and self-discovery. Much of the interaction between Bill and James is sensual and erotic. The narration is realistic but rich, at times bordering on poetic.

You Will Be Safe Here is smart and well-written, … a remarkably effective novel about the historic tensions that have informed South Africa since its birth. The fact that one of the main characters is gay is just one among a number of tensions.