Gaytheist

• Major review attention National media  
• Online/social media promotion Academic marketing 
• Buzz mailings to LGBTQ rights organizations 
• Advertising in the Gay and Lesbian Review Potential strategic partnerships:  Keshet, Jewish Queer Youth, the It Gets Better Project, GLAAD,  
• Promotion through the author’s Instagram account: @lonniecomics 
• Bookseller/Library promotions:  ARC giveaways through the ABA Advance Access Newsletter; Blad giveaways to librarians and educators who attend the NY Public Library Programming at NYComicCon  
• ARC giveaways at Winter Institute, ALA annual, the Brooklyn Book Festival, Toronto Comic Arts, and FlameCon in NYC.  
• Graphic novel panels at San Diego ComicCon, FlameCon in NYC, the Rainbow Book Fair in NYC, and NYComicCon.

Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews. “The animated evolution of a queer boy from his strict religious upbringing to a liberated adolescence. . . . Tokyo-based couple Mann and Gatts integrate their illustrative and authorial talents in this debut graphic memoir vividly detailing Mann's coming-of-age while cloaking his burgeoning homosexual feelings.”

Lonnie's Orthodox Jewish community has always been clear: it's not okay to be gay. Growing up in a devout family and going to school at a yeshiva, he's told by his parents, his teachers, and his friends that being gay is a sin and an abomination. But as he gets older, he realizes that he likes boys, and wonders what kind of life he will be able to live. As Lonnie expands his world beyond the yeshiva to theater camp, college classes, and movie nights, he sees that the life he wants isn't compatible with the life of his parents — and his whole religious community.

This emotional graphic novel explores the fissures between identity and religion and charts Lonnie's journey from a kid who loved the rules of the Orthodox Jewish tradition to becoming increasingly independent and defiant, embracing his gay identity and developing his own chosen family.