Your Favorite Queer Authors’ Favorite Queer Books

“Miss Major has seen just about everything there is to see as a fighter for queer and trans liberation in modern America. This book is an indelible addition to the historical record.“

“I love how Zaina Arafat describes the overflowing too-muchness of sprawling between countries, cultures, and relationships in this novel about a Palestinian-American girl and her endless yearning.”

“I love this series so much, I’ve found a way to recommend it for every prompt from romance to space epic. I do think it can scratch any itch.”

“Masterful, audacious storytelling. Relentless, unsentimental, a completely wild ride.”

“A wonderful queer noir fever dream.” (blurb)

“Messy lesbians fight a horrifying monster in a small town. Sophisticated and petrifying, it genre splices so well that it’s not a splice any more. I’ve never read anything like it!” (blurb)

“Tillie Walden is my favorite graphic novelist. Her artwork is minimal, but packed with emotion, and so much is said in her works with relatively little dialogue. Spinning is a graphic memoir about Walden’s life as a teen figure skater, and how the intense, demanding world of ice skating influenced her struggle to come to terms with being gay.”

“The Magic Fish is a beautiful graphic novel that explores and interweaves identity, history, and magical stories, and shows how stories can act as a language for things that are often difficult to express. … This book made me think about the power of art and stories, and how they can say so much without having to say much at all. An incredibly poignant, beautiful expression of identity and familial love.“

“I couldn’t write a graphic novel recommendation list without including webcomic classic Check, Please! After seven years of online updates, Ngozi Ukazu’s ice-hockey/romance/slice-of-life webcomic concluded this year (to many tears!) and it has now been published in full in two gorgeous physical editions. It’s safe to say that Check, Please! influenced a huge number of webcomic creators and graphic novelists, and will remain a YA comics classic for many years to come.”

“This is the book that launched the trans writing scene in Brooklyn that changed my own life. The scene had a basic premise: trans women writing for other trans women. It seems simple, but it had revolutionary effects, similar to Toni Morrison’s famous declaration that she ‘writes for Black women.’ When we trans women wrote for each other, we never had to stop to explain our transness. It was full-out story all the time—and it turned out, everyone else could keep up. Meanwhile, the bar was higher—it’s more difficult to impress other trans women about trans issues, to tell stories they haven’t heard or even experienced. Nevada—the story of a trans woman on a road trip—was the book that taught us how to do this, and it remains an original.”

“Solomon is, to my mind, one of the most exciting queer writers of this generation: taking on race, gender, colonialism, environmental collapse, sex and love in gorgeous sci/fi and speculative fiction. “

“Biography of X is the most ambitious book I’ve ever read from a writer of my own generation. Epic world-building revealed through intimate emotion and dangerously honed sentences; a story that mixes fact and fiction to create a new register of truth, a register that belongs entirely to Catherine Lacey. I’m awed.“

“As a former punkish goth kid who was obsessed with horror, I found myself in Elatsoe’s exquisitely written pages. Elatsoe‘s Lipan Apache asexual protagonist has gumption, heart, and a ghost dog companion. I’m not sure what else readers could ask for.“

“Wildthorn explores the deep injustices present in the life of not just gender nonconforming women, but in the lives of poor, disabled, and other marginalized women who can not fit into a sanist society in which personhood is hinged on conforming to an extremely narrow, oppressive set of norms…. While at times a difficult ride, it’s ultimately reaffirming.“

“Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a classic for a reason.

The story of a young lesbian rebelling against her strict religious upbringing will be relatable for many young people who find themselves at odds with a society who punishes them for not being straight.”

“This is one of my favorite books of all time. Reading Felix Ever After was the first time I read a book where the character actually felt like me.”

“Heartfelt and hilarious, Dear Wendy shows how powerful and life-changing platonic love can be. Ann Zhao tenderly explores the importance of found family, queer platonic love, and the joy and comfort that comes with finding people who get you better than anyone else.”

“Dragons and gods, magic and power, So Let Them Burn is a thrilling epic about family, strength, and the real costs of war. Masterfully told, this exceptional debut is destined to be an instant classic for all adventure-filled fantasy fans. Truly DAZZLING, I am OBSESSED.”

“If a personal queer bible could be such a thing, this would be mine…

This book shines as one of the most vital prehistories of how queer art is possible today and its impact is still felt all around you, even if you’ve never read it. I will forever be indebted, not only to this book but also David’s life and work.”

“Memorial dares to insist on the mundane, thoroughly lived life as a site of perennial hope, joy, and abundance. It casts a fresh take on the American family that becomes truer because of its disparate origins, the queerness of its genesis, and the buoyed wonder it finds in surviving grief and loss towards the rare and forgiving ground of difficult, hard-won love. All of this done in sentences clean and clear as cut glass. This book, in what feels like a new vision for the 21st century novel, made me happy.”

“A deeply felt and rich enactment of love, loneliness and personal triumph that leaves an indelible mark on modern Queer life. With the poet’s precision and capacious resistance to resolution, wherein doubt is transformed into force, McMillan’s first foray into fiction is a magical one.”

“This book is the most fun a reader can have while still gritting their teeth in fear! Enchantingly eerie and upsettingly lovely, A Botanical Daughter is an intoxicating hybrid of blood, botany, and old-timey charm.”

“The literary equivalent of swallowing a mouthful of maggots and liking it. Rumfitt is a master of disgust, twisting the horrors of transphobia into a hellish masterpiece, and you won’t be able to look away.”

“A hungry novel that smears your teeth with blood and ambition, then asks if you’d be willing to rip them out. Jamison Shea has cemented themself as a force to be reckoned with — and reminds us that when your enemies go low, you can always bury them there.”