Edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley
Dzanc Books
6/3/2025, paperback
SKU: 9781938603310
A follow-up to their runaway success Peach Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavory Women, editors Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley return with Be Gay, Do Crime, a celebration of queer chaos from an all-queer author lineup featuring Myriam Gurba, Emily Austin, Alissa Nutting, and Francesca Ekwuyasi
A trans woman makes increasingly frequent hoax calls to a business where she's had a negative experience, watching the consequences with perverse joy. A group of aging queers turns to bank robbery to stop the sale of their bungalow complex to a development company. As the president prepares to give a speech, two women lurk among the journalists, ready to shoot him. And an aspiring author takes to stealing items from strangers' homes in a kind of cosmic redistribution each time one of her relationships fail.
In sixteen brilliant, wild-eyed stories, Be Gay, Do Crime delivers a celebration and reckoning of why queer people turn to crime-unintentionally, as a means of survival, as protest, as rescue, or to right injustices big and small.
Reviews:
"Audacious, outrageous, alternately tender-hearted and razor-sharp- a celebration of the edgy intersection of resilience and revolution. With fearless exuberance, the authors of these stories lean hard into all that is messy and magical about queer existence, honoring the joy of defiance and the legacy of communities who must defy both social norms and the long arm of the law to survive. Fans of Dorothy Allison, Joey Comeau, and Amber Dawn will find many treasures in this dazzling collection." -- Kai Cheng Thom, author of Fierce Femmes & Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir and Falling Back in Love With Being Human
"A collection that is truly firing on all cylinders. The stories are propulsive, compelling, and incredibly enthralling. Immensely enjoyable. I couldn't put it down!" -- Kristen Arnett, NYT bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
"This irrepressible, riotous, and very gay collection of stories from some of our best emerging writers charms and entertains, leaving the reader veering in a getaway car between laugh-out-loud and gasp-out-loud." -- Sarah Thankam Matthews, author of All This Could Be Different
About the Editors:
Molly Llewellyn is a twenty-something queer, disabled book blogger from the UK. She previously co-edited Peach Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavory Women, published by Dzanc Books in 2023. She's a big fan of "weird women" lit and anything that is the color green.
Kristel Buckley is an editor, publicist and former publisher from the Big Smoke. She is more than happy to talk your ear off about the unfaithful representation of women in history, and her passion is a more equitable, inclusive future for all stories from all voices. She lives in the UK.