The Hellum and Neal Series in LGBTQIA+ Literature

The Mathematics of Change breaks open and breaks down the equation of midlife, proving balance is imaginary and change the only possible solution. The aching and terrible excitement of Carol's affair with her graduate school professor has settled, fifteen years later, into the frustrated complacency of faculty wife responsibilities and motherhood. Carol wants more, but can't have more. She can't have as much, surely, as her best friend, the painfully enigmatic Mitch, who keeps their long-ago erotic relationship irritatingly compartmentalized and spends too much time in her secret lair of an engineering lab. She can't have what the gorgeous new faculty member Abby has — a publishing career, slinky dresses, and a way of prying out vulnerable and damaging confessions from even causal acquaintances. Mitch knows Carol wants more, but she also knows it can't come from her. She's grappling with the terror that comes from knowing she could have everything. Her lab is on the verge of a breakthrough, and then there's Reginald: warm, funny, British, impossibly long-distance, compelling. Except, she's not really talking to Reginald, unless she can't help it. Meanwhile, Carol is talking to her too much and desperately yanking their past out of the mothballs, and Abby's primary scholarship seems to be predatory and tempting advances. Mitch could have more than she ever thought possible, but she can't work out the math. A darkly witty debut novel from the recipient of the 2017 Al-Simak Award for Fiction from Arcturus and The Chicago Review of Books.

"Maybe my map will help a little. If only to comfort, to say: someone else visited this place; someone else survived to make this map." When Sarah Hahn Campbell learned of the sudden and inexplicable death of her partner, Lia, she was thousands of miles away from the Alaska town where they made a life together. Lia's mental deterioration had forced her to flee to protect her daughter's safety and her own emotional well-being — but she never stopped loving Lia, never believed their relationship over. The unexpected news of Lia's death plunged her into terrible grief, guilt, and self-doubt, raising painful questions she couldn't find the answers to. Grief Map is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of the aftermath, a lyrical guide to her journey in the landscape of love through loss and beyond, to the rediscovery of hope and the possibility of happiness. With passion and fearless dedication, Campbell explores the history of her relationship, her discovery of lesbian identity, and the innumerable gifts and hardships of love to offer an account that is part memoir, part poetry, part elegy — a map that is universal, and will speak to anyone who has loved.

"A nuanced and sexy take on growing up and learning to accept who you are." —Teen Vogue Nick Melnikov doesn't know where he belongs. He was just a kid when his Russian-Jewish family immigrated to Michigan. Now he's in London for university, overwhelmed by unexpected memories. Socially anxious, intensely private, and closeted, Nick doesn't expect to fall in so quickly with a tight-knit group of students from his college, and it's both exhilarating and scary. Hanging out with them is a roller coaster of serious awkward and incredible longing, especially when the most intimidating of the group, Dex, looks his way. Dex Cartwell knows exactly who he is: a black queer guy who doesn't give a toss what anybody thinks of him. He is absolutely, one-hundred-percent, totally in control of his life. Apart, maybe, from the stress of his family's abrupt move to an affluent, largely white town. And worrying about his younger brother feeling increasingly isolated as a result. And the persistent broken heart he's been nursing for a while . . . When Nick and Dex meet, both find themselves intrigued. Countless late-night conversations only sharpen their attraction. But the last thing Nick wants is to face his deepest secret, and the last thing Dex needs is another heartache. Dex has had to fight too hard for his right to be where he is. Nick isn't even sure where he's from. So how can either of them tell where this is going? A master of building tender and meaningful characters with heartbreaking stakes, Liz Jacobs deftly introduces audiences to the compelling, deeply personal narratives possible in coming-of-age and New Adult romance. ABROAD is an instant classic that approaches LGBTQIA+ and immigrant experiences from a powerful own-voices perspective.