Queer Fiction Reading Group

Welcome to our Queer Fiction Reading Group!

This is an inclusive reading group open to anyone to come together to read and discuss LGBTQIA+ literature, with titles handpicked by Sanna. Through a queer lens we’ll explore everything from overlooked queer classics to groundbreaking works of contemporary literary fiction.

For February we are exploring Nicola Dinan's 2023 debut Bellies. Buoyed by a voice as tender, effervescent and wryly funny as the cast of characters it centers, this is an unforgettable story of youth, intimacy, hunger and heartbreak; at once boldly original yet fiercely familiar, which unabashedly holds a mirror up to our most vulnerable selves and desires.

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition.

From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their relationship and friend circle in the wake of Ming’s transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises—some personal, some professional, some life-altering—Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: Is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?

*Winner of the 2024 Polari First Book Prize
*Finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction