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The Guardian

Same-sex love is an intimate joy our fiction still neglects | Julie Cohen

Romantic novels have long ignored LGBT writers and readers, but theses are stories that need to be told
by Julie Cohen Sep 29, 2018 3 minutes
‘It’s important that novels reinforce the message that everyone is deserving of love.’ Photograph: frankiefotografie/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Romantic novels are one of the bestselling genres of fiction worldwide; one gets purchased every two seconds in the UK, and for good reason – love is probably the most profound emotion any of us will ever experience. Yet the cliche of a romantic novel is “boy meets girl”. What about “boy meets boy” or “girl meets girl” – or simply “person meets person”? Those storylines are few and far between. That’s why I’ve founded a, to nurture LGBT romantic authors and their novels.

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