June is Pride Month! It’s a time to recognize and celebrate people in the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is about love, acceptance, and being proud of who you are. One great way to celebrate is by reading books that share LGBTQ+ voices and stories.
Books help us understand each other. For LGBTQ+ people, reading stories with characters like them can help them feel seen and accepted. For others, reading these stories builds empathy and helps us learn more about people who may be different from us.
Books can also teach us about LGBTQ+ history, struggles, and victories. Reading is a powerful way to show support during Pride Month, especially when you buy books written by LGBTQ+ authors.
If you’re looking to add some pride to your bookshelf, we have two authors at Old Scratch Press who recently published books of poetry that would be great additions to your to-be-read list!
On May 1, Morgan was awarded Second Place in the Delaware Press Association Communications Awards for her book, The Song of North Mountain which was released by Old Scratch Press in May 2024. Not only did Morgan write the poems in this collection, she also did the interior artwork and illustrated the book’s cover. North Mountain is part of a 55-mile mountain ridge in the northern Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Morgan says her collection of poems is a love song to that ridge.
Here is her poem, Ghost Light, which won also won Second Place in the DPAC Awards in its category.
Ghost Light
Looking back along the ridge
a thin rib of light briefly
illuminates the forest floor
and silhouettes trees stark against winter sky.
Look too soon
and you miss the mystery
of Dillon’s Mountain’s brief farewell
to nightsky and stars and sweet Venus.
Look too late
and the slumbering giant
lumbers slowly
into its ordinary dayspring.
But if you should,
by chance or intent,
catch the moment,
you will see life
and hope
renewed
in a sudden shaft of dawnbreak.
You can follow Morgan on Facebook and Instagram or visit her website.
Robert Fleming is a gay man who writes and creates art about gay, transgender, and universal themes. After coming-out, he published in LGBTQ magazines. He says that when he” stopped obsessing about being gay”, he realized that his sexual orientation is only one part of who he is. This enabled him to write on universal human themes and crossover into publishing in straight magazines.
For pride, one his favorite poems is one he wrote, Passed Over , that was published in 2020 in Trees In A Garden Of Ashes by Local Gems Press. Robert is grateful to James Wagner, the editor of Local Gems Press, who published many of his gay and transgender works.
For pride 2025, Robert recommends to submit to publish in Oddball magazine that has categories in nonsexual orientation and pride (LGBTQ). You can find submission guidelines here.
Robert is the author of the Amazon best-selling visual poetry book, White Noir.
Here is a link to his visual artist profile.
Follow Robert at Facebook
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 