More than a celebration, this Pride Month feels like a time for fighting back against the encroaching censorship and even outlawing of LGBTQ+ books—and people. But there’s still time for pleasure, which can be found in abundance in these recent novels and story collections.

The New Life by Tom Crewe (Scribner, Jan. 3): Crewe’s novel is set in 1894 London, when men could be thrown in jail for being gay—and Oscar Wilde’s trial and imprisonment for “gross indecency” are incorporated into the plot. Two men who don’t know each other but share an appreciation for Walt Whitman collaborate on a book about the lives of gay men, hoping to prove they shouldn’t be branded criminals. “A smart, sensual debut,” according to our starred review.

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (Liveright, Jan. 24): Written in the collective “we,” Schwartz’s “formally inventive blend of fiction, biography, linguistics, and history…follows the lives of women writers, artists, actors, dancers, and activists who lived in the early 20^th century: Eleanora Duse, Virginia Woolf, Radclyffe Hall, Natalie Barney, Romaine Brooks, and more,” as our starred review said. “An exciting, luxurious work of speculative biography.”

Behind the Scenes by Karelia Stetz-Waters (Forever, Jan. 31): Rose is a 38-year-old business consultant; 40-year-old Ash is a talented filmmaker who needs help creating a proposal for her latest project. Sparks fly. “It’s lovely to see a romance about two women older than their 20s,” said our starred review. “A delight from start to finish.” Plus there are rescue dogs.

Tell the Rest by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Akashic, March 7): Delia and Ernest were teenagers when they were sent to conversion therapy camp, and they escaped together. Now in their late 30s, they’re both drawn back to Oregon as “they come to terms with the spiritual abuse they suffered” at camp, according to our starred review. “A heartening, issues-driven book.”

Chlorine by Jade Song (Morrow, March 28): When Ren Yu joins her high school swim team, she finds herself pushing her limits in all kinds of ways. Our review said: “Part body horror, part science fiction, part queer teenage romance, Song’s debut novel dives into the deep end of bodily and psychological metamorphosis.”

A Safe Girl To Love by Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press, April 4): Plett’s story collection explores the lives of trans women, and there’s often what our reviewer called “a feeling that the other shoe could drop at any moment.…In ways ranging from fun to awkward, from endearing to heartbreaking, [her characters] grapple with what that might mean for their physical or emotional safety.…A collection driven by deeply human, sometimes humorous, but always exquisitely rendered details.”

This Brutal House by Niven Govinden (Deep Vellum, May 9): English novelist Govinden’s latest is set in New York’s Ballroom scene and focuses on the Mothers, community leaders who are protesting at City Hall against the way the authorities have ignored missing people from within their community. “Govinden emphasizes the queer characters’ treatment by often callous officials and establishes a world where both elation and danger aren’t far away,” according to our review.

Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style by Paul Rudnick (Atria, June 6): I’ve been a Rudnick fan since his alter ego, Libby Gelman-Waxner, began writing hilarious movie reviews for Premiere magazine in the late 1980s. His new novel is “a gay love story for the ages from one of the great comic voices of his generation,” according to our starred review.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.