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The Center blog is teeming with tips and inspiration for starting and maintaining your writing practice.

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5 reading recs for PRIDE month '24

June is Pride month. At the Center, we stand with the LGBTQIA community this month and every month, because dignity is being able to live and belong as you are, trans rights matter, and love is love.

This Pride month, we encourage you to buy books by LGBTQIA authors from LGBTQIA-owned bookstores. As always, Bookshop.org is an invaluable resource for both; unless otherwise noted, all book links in this post lead to Bookshop.org, where your purchases support independent bookstores across the U.S.

Here is Bookshop’s complete PRIDE 2024 curated list (plus 15% discount code through June 30), with some of our favorite recent releases in more detail below.

beyond a book review_sentences as paragraph in the last white man, purple text over lightened image of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: Sentences as paragraphs in The Last White Man

This novel offers an important perspective on identity and privilege as well as an artful structural choice by the author.

Beyond a book review_alternate futures in womb city text over a photo of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: Alternate Futures in Womb City

A look at a genre-bending, Afrofuturist, speculative novel that grapples with gender, the ethics of AI, and the question of whether balance and hope are possible.

Beyond a Book Review_Beginning at the end in Tomb Sweeping over image of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: Beginning at the End in Tomb Sweeping

Tomb Sweeping is a collection of 15 character-driven short stories about Chinese or Chinese-American characters written by Alexandra Chang.

beyond a book review_the what if of the deep sky, purple text over lightened image of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: The "What if?" of The Deep Sky

The future Yume Kitasei imagined for us is one that mirrors our present when it comes to diversity.

6 books to read during Black History Month heading in red over a photo of a stack of books with the top book open on a black background

6 books to read during Black History Month

What better way to celebrate Black voices than through books?

closeup of an open book with a red ribbon bookmark under headline 6 publications for aspiring essayists to bookmark

Six publications for aspiring essayists to bookmark

Where I go on the web to read nonfiction that expands my understanding of what essays are and what they can do.

5 books to read this fall in burgundy text over image of a stack of books on fall leaves with green trees in background

5 books to read this fall

Fall 2023 book recommendations—because go ahead, buy more books!

beyond a book review_grief and hope in all we are told not to touch, purple text over lightened image of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: Grief and Hope in All We Are Told Not to Touch

Why do we write? How do we navigate grief? What gives us hope?

beyond a book review_once upon a time in dovelion, purple text over lightened image of an open book

Beyond a Book Review: Once Upon a Time in Dovelion

Read Shawna's review of a novel with a built-in writing prompt for you to try.