Books published by Arsenal Pulp Press

Sarah Schulman illuminates the differences between Conflict and Abuse in this revelatory book that addresses the contemporary culture of scapegoating.

A New York Times bestsellerThe original graphic novel adapted into the film Blue Is the Warmest Color, winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film FestivalIn this tender, bittersweet, full-color graphic novel, a young woman named Clementine discovers herself and the elusive magic of love when she meets a confident blue-haired girl named Emma: a lesbian love story for the ages that bristles with the energy of youth and rebellion and the eternal light of desire.First published in France by Glnat, the book has won several awards, including the Audience Prize at the Angoulme International Comics Festival, Europe's largest.The live-action, French-language film version of the book, entitled Blue Is the Warmest Color, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2013. Directed by director Abdellatif Kechiche and starring Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, the film generated both wide praise and controversy. It will be released in the US through Sundance Selects/IFC Films.Julie Maroh is an author and illustrator originally from northern France."e;Julie Maroh, who was just 19 when she started the comic, manages to convey the excitement, terror, and obsession of young loveand to show how wildly teenagers swing from one extreme emotion to the next ... Ultimately, Blue Is the Warmest Color is a sad story about loss and heartbreak, but while Emma and Clementines love lasts, its exhilarating and sustaining."e; Slate.com"e;A beautiful, moving graphic novel."e; Wall Street Journal"e;Blue Is the Warmest Color captures the entire life of a relationship in affecting and honest style."e; Comics Worth Reading"e;Delicate linework conveys wordless longing in this graphic novel about a lesbian relationship."e; New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)"e;A tragic yet beautifully wrought graphic novel."e; Salon.com"e;Love is a beautiful punishment in Marohs paean to confusion, passion, and discovery ... An elegantly impassioned love story."e; Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)"e;A lovely and wholehearted coming-out story ... the illustrations are infused with genuine, raw feeling. Wide-eyed Clementine wears every emotion on her sleeve, and teens will understand her journey perfectly."e; Kirkus Reviews "e;The electric emotions of falling in love and the difficult process of self-acceptance will resonate with all readers ... Marohs use of color is deliberate enough to be eye-catching in a world of grey tones, with Emmas bright blue hair capturing Clementines imagination, but is used sparingly enough that it supports and blends naturally with the story."e; Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)"e;It's not just the French who have a better handle on sexy material than Americans -- Canadians do, too ... Who's publishing it? Not an American publishing house but by Arsenal Pulp Press, a Canadian independent."e; Los Angeles Times

Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the rise of queer and trans communities that have defied and challenged those who have historically opposed them. Through bold, symbolic imagery and surrealist, overlapping landscapes, queer illustrator and curator Syan Rose shines a light on the faces and voices of these diverse, amorphous, messy, real and imagined queer and trans communities. <br><br>In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and healthcare practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life. <br><br><i>Our Work Is Everywhere</i> is a graphic nonfiction book that underscores the brilliance and passion of queer and trans resistance.<br><br>Includes a foreword by Lambda Literary Award-winning author and activist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of <i>Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.</i>

Lambda Literary Award winner, Best Gay FictionA revelatory novel about being queer and Muslim, set in war-torn Iraq in 2003. Ramy is a young gay Iraqi struggling to find a balance between his sexuality, religion, and culture. Ammar is a sheikh whose guidance Ramy seeks, and whose tolerance is tested by his belief in the teachings of the Qur'an. Full of quiet moments of beauty and raw depictions of violence, God in Pink poignantly captures the anguish and the fortitude of Islamic life in Iraq.Hasan Namir was born in Iraq in 1987. God in Pink is his first novel.

A spectacular graphic novel on the early years of the Vietnam war through the eyes of a young Vietnamese boy.

For fans of Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost: a graphic history that tells the complex and troubled story of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From the co-creator of the seminal craftivism book Yarn Bombing: a guide for creatives to make impactful, socially engaged art projects.

Jason Purcell's debut collection of poems rests at the intersection of queerness and illness, staking a place for the queer body that has been made sick through living in this world. Part poetic experiment and part memoir, Swollening attempts to diagnose what has been undiagnosable, tracing an uneven path from a lifetime of swallowing bad feelingshomophobia in its external and internalized manifestations, heteronormativity, anxiety surrounding desire, aversion to sexto a body in revolt.In poems that speak using the grammar and logics of sickness, Purcell offers a dizzying collision of word and image that is the language of pain alongside the banality of living on. Beginning by reading his own life and body closely and slowly zooming out to read illness in the world, Purcell comes to ask: how might a sick, queer body forgive itself for a natural reaction to living in a sick world and go on toward hope? In Swollening, Purcell coughs up his own poetics of illness, his own aesthetics of pain, to form a tender collection that lands straight in the gut.

An unflinching shapeshifter, Beast at Every Threshold dances between familial hauntings and cultural histories, intimate hungers and broader griefs. Memories become malleable, pop culture provides a backdrop to glittery queer love, and folklore speaks back as a radical tool of survival. With unapologetic precision, Natalie Wee unravels constructs of "e;otherness"e; and names language our most familiar weapon, illuminating the intersections of queerness, diaspora, and loss with obsessive, inexhaustible ferocityand in resurrecting the self rendered a site of violence, makes visible the "e;Beast at Every Threshold."e;Beguiling and deeply imagined, Wee's poems explore thresholds of marginality, queerness, immigration, nationhood, and reinvention of the self through myth.

This Is My Real Name is the memoir of Cid V Brunet, who spent ten years (using the name Michelle) working as a dancer at strip clubs. From her very first lapdance in a small-town bar to working at high-end clubs, Michelle learns she must follow the unspoken rules that will allow her to succeed in the competitive industry. Along the way, she and her coworkers encounter compelling clients and unreasonable bosses and navigate their own relationships to drugs and alcohol. Michelle and her friends rely on each other's camaraderie and strength in an industry that can be both toxic and deeply rewarding.Deeply personal, This Is My Real Name demystifies stripping as a career with great respect and candor, while at the same time exploring the complex, sex-positive reationships (queer and otherwise) that make it meaningful.

By two of the co-authors of the acclaimed children's book From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea: the moving beautifully told story of Laika, the dog who learned the names of the stars. Laika is an orphaned stray dog who lives in the streets of Moscow in the then Soviet Union. Although she is loved by her pack, Laika longs one day to learn the names of the stars, since she knows that all dogs become stars when they dieincluding her parents. One day, a Russian scientist named Vlad offers Laika the chance to travel to the stars by helping him with an important experiment, an event that will change the entire world. Part fable, part dog story, part history lesson, young and older readers alike will find themselves captivated by Laika's brave and loving heart, and by her story, which holds important lessons about world peace, science, and the deep bonds between humans and every other creature with whom we share the planet. Ages 3 to 8.

An enthralling and incisive anthology of personal essays on the persistent impact of the AIDS crisis on queer lives.

In 1984 Los Angeles, Alex is a tomboy who would rather wear her hair short and her older brother's hand-me-downs, and Wolf is a troubled kid who's been wearing the same soldier's uniform ever since his mom died. They temporarily set their worries aside when their street is torn up by digging machines and transformed into a muddy wonderland with endless possibilities. To pass the hot summer days, the two best friends seize the opportunity to turn Muscatel Avenue into a battleground and launch a gleeful street war against the rival neighborhood kids.But when Alex and Wolf make their headquarters inside a deep trench, Alex's grandmother warns them that some buried things want to be found and some want to stay hidden and forgotten. Although she has the wisdom of someone who has survived the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Flu, and immigration to a new country, the kids ignore her warning, unearthing more than they bargained for. This exuberant novel perfectly capture the summers of youth, when anything feels possible and an adventure is always around the corner. Bursting with life and feeling, both the people and the land come alive in a tale interwoven with Mexican-American identity, experience, and history. The Street Belongs to Us is a story of family, friendship, and unconditional acceptance, even when it breaks your heart.

A wildly disarming memoir by comedian Alex Wood on how he overcame his multiple addictions.