Chelsea Wolfe is the darkest thing in the woods
September 21, 2026
What if the quickest way to heal is to run towards the hurt, not away from it?
Read More »
Lexi Covalsen
Read an excerpt from Rosie Turner’s queer dating guide, Girlfriend Material
September 20, 2026
The number one question I get asked on social media is: “How is dating a woman different from dating a man?”
Read More »
Hallie Elizabeth Newton on her debut novel Agnes Lives!: ‘a Fucked-Up Mrs Dalloway of Our Time’
September 16, 2026
Agnes exists in a pre-Trump, pre-COVID, pre-#MeToo New York.
Read More »
Step aside, Sappho! Meet the Scottish lesbian poet hiding in a 500-year-old manuscript
September 16, 2026
Ashley Douglas, unravels the story of Marie Maitland’s secret lesbian love poetry
Read More »
Karishma Jobanputra’s debut collection, The Body of the Thing, will make you fall in love with short stories
September 10, 2026
“Normal Jean Baker of Troy”: the debut short story collection from a British-Indian writer listed for the Brick Lane Short Story Prize.
Read More »
Why do we know so little about the women who raise us? ‘And I Am the Arrow’ looks for the answer
September 4, 2026
From Lost Lambs to Lázár, writers are exploring secrets, power and inheritance. Pia Ghosh-Roy asks how well we can ever know the people we call family.
Read More »
You haven’t read a lesbian breakup novel quite like this before: Ruth Novaczek on Wrongness
August 28, 2026
“Violette Leduc first taught me that happy endings aren’t very queer”: in her 60s, Ruth Novaczek had her heart broken by a woman in her 20s.
Read More »
A book lover’s guide to Dolly Parton
August 27, 2026
“If I’m remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books”: a reading list for the queen of East Tennessee.
Read More »
In the age of ‘rizz’ and AI slop, Wodcast wants us to take words seriously
August 25, 2026
When was the last time you opened a dictionary and looked up the meaning of a word?
Read More »
Foot Locker and Adidas Celebrate 60 Years of Notting Hill Carnival With Black British Talent
August 20, 2026
60 years after the first Notting Hill Carnival festival exploded into the West London streets, the 2026 festival is getting a new look and sound with Rhythm and Roots, a Foot Locker x adidas project that forefronts…
Read More »
Why Simon Wroe’s Ghost Month is the ultimate modern London novel
August 13, 2026
Every September, the spirits of the dead return before vanishing four weeks later in a puff of green ash.
Read More »
Not another Holocaust novel: Rebecca Birrell on art, survival, and Venus, Vanishing
August 6, 2026
Rebecca Birrell walks into the café in canary yellow and chartreuse.
Read More »
Weird books are back: Cold’s guide to the 2026 Booker Prize longlist
July 29, 2026
“We’re due a return of weird literature”: 13 works chosen from 163 titles, and it seems the prophecy has come to pass.
Read More »
Ann Scott’s Lesbian Cult Novel, ‘Superstars’, is Finally Available in English
July 16, 2026
Diaristic, hedonistic, full of sex, drugs and techno music: a group of queer women chasing fame, and love, on the cusp of a new millennium.
Read More »
Was Leonardo da Vinci Queer? Inside the History That Inspired Phil Melanson’s ‘Florenzer’
July 6, 2026
In April 1476 a young artist was arrested by Florence’s vice squad, the scarily-named Office of the Night, on charges of sodomy.
Read More »
Books to read in a heatwave
June 28, 2026
From Paris to London, Europe is in the thick of a heat wave, with temperatures almost reaching 41C in the City of Lights, and 35.7C in London.
Read More »
In Said the Dead, Doireann Ní Ghríofa Unearths an Irish Victorian Mental Hospital
June 23, 2026
A book about a book, stamped “FEMALE CASE BOOK 22”: the case book of the first woman doctor to work in Ireland’s asylum service.
Read More »
These are our favourite indie bookshops in the U.K.
June 20, 2026
Independent bookshops are thriving, not dying.
Read More »
Do You Have Good Taste? Ione Gamble and ‘The Polyester Book of Bad Taste’ Have the Answer
June 18, 2026
Polyester Zine has been pushing the kitsch agenda since it launched in 2014, encouraging readers to “Have faith in your own bad taste” – a motto derived from the king of camp himself, John Waters.
Read More »
‘Bait’ Explores Desire, Boredom and Violence Through The Eyes Of A 13-Year-Old Girl
June 15, 2026
“Is there anything more to say?” Jailbait, Lolita, nymphette, tease — the Lolita-bites-back narrative through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl.
Read More »
Want a Baby? Niamh Campbell Has a Message for You
June 4, 2026
About twenty minutes into my conversation with Niamh Campbell, a baby cries out into the dark room.
Read More »
E.R. Fightmaster Is Ready to Be a Queer Elder
June 4, 2026
Fightmaster pings onto my computer screen, my eyes can’t help but roam over the home studio behind them, looking for clues.
Read More »
Ten Books That Unravel Marilyn Monroe’s Life
June 1, 2026
Marilyn Monroe, born 100 years ago today, lived many lives and went by many names.
Read More »
K-Pop Fans Raise Hell in ‘Holy Boy’ by Lee Heejoo
April 18, 2026
“Don’t you think even Yosep’s excretions make him beautiful?” ponders a young woman in a cafe.
Read More »
Books That Made the Bunny Creepy
April 6, 2026
Welcome back big guy (the Easter Bunny, that is).
Read More »
“I’m glad that I didn’t grow up in a castle”: Nelio Biedermann on writing Lázár
March 26, 2026
Lázár is the rocket that has carried this 22-year-old into the stratosphere: war, magical realism, four generations of an aristocratic Hungarian family.
Read More »
10 books to read for St. Patrick’s Day
March 17, 2026
Whatever you want to call it, there’s no denying that we’ve all become a bit obsessed with Irish culture in recent years.
Read More »
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency
March 5, 2026
I had travelled two hours by train and god knows how many clammy minutes on tubes to get here: the entrance to Gagosian.
Read More »
Cold’s Literature & Film Editors on “Wuthering Heights”
March 2, 2026
And if you’ve been online at all since Valentine’s Day, you’ll know which film we mean.
Read More »
“It’s About People Trying to Love Each Other and Failing”: Madeleine Dunnigan on her debut novel ‘Jean’
February 13, 2026
When Madeleine Dunnigan appears on my laptop screen, the day before her debut novel is published, she’s wearing a citrus green sweater and a smile.
Read More »
Cold’s 26 Most Anticipated Reads Of 2026
February 6, 2026
From Coyoacán to Mitteleuropa, to London, Baghdad, and back again, books are taking us places this year.
Read More »
Six Scottish Poets We’re Reading for Burns Night
January 25, 2026
As skirts are hiked mid-ceilidh and forks are raised above plates of haggis, we’re looking beyond Scotland’s national bard and towards the future of Scottish poetry.
Read More »
“Hamnet” is sweeping awards season. But why?
January 16, 2026
On Monday, Irish-born actress Jessie Buckley won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for her role as William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes Hathaway – historically known as Anne – in the big-screen adaptation of…
Read More »
When I say “ban,” people ask, ‘What did you do?’
December 11, 2025
That’s the thing: Hamza Ashraf didn’t do anything.
Read More »
Reading in the Dark: Our Picks for Nonfiction November
December 2, 2025
The sky is ink black outside the train window, mince pies glint from every shop counter, and ice crystals crackle under our boots.
Read More »
Through the Portal: A Conversation with Dakota Warren
November 28, 2025
Through the Portal: A Conversation with Dakota Warren Written by: Lexi Covalsen Edited by: Lily-Rose Morris-Zumin Photos by: Luvi Camera When Dakota Warren first appears on my screen, the light from her laptop…
Read More »
