A Pride Reading List
Happy Pride Month! The annual marking of Pride in June coincides with the 1969 Stonewall uprising, which is largely noted as the start of the Gay Liberation movement. While this exploration and celebration of LGBTQIA+ identity, history, and contemporary experience is usually heralded by festivity and the coming together of community, this year and last have seen reduced in-person parades and celebrations across the country in light of the pandemic. Thankfully, there is a bounty of books by authors across this spectrum who can share their voices even without huge gatherings. As always, the reading list below can only offer a little taste! The publishing industry increasingly confronts its responsibility to offer a diverse spectrum of voices, and some of this success is highlighted below the the recent publications of LGBTQIA+ authors. Click the links below to read about and request novels, histories, memoirs, poetry, and more.
Fiction
Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman
The Death of Vivek Oji, Emezi Akwaeke
With Teeth, Kristin Arnett
Another Country, James Baldwin
The House of Impossible Beauties, Joseph Cassara
Patsy, Nicole Dennis-Benn
Cleanness, Garth Greenwell
Less, Andrew Sean Greer
Speak No Evil, Uzodinma Iweala
The Prophets, Robert Jones Jr.
I Know You Know Who I Am: stories, Peter Kispert
The End of Eddy, Édouard Louis
Sugar Run, Mesha Maren
All My Mother's Lovers, Ilana Masad
Outlawed, Anna North
Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta
When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perri
Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters
On Swift Horses, Shannon Pufahl
An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon
Real Life, Brandon Taylor
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
Memorial, Bryan Washington
The Liar's Dictionary, Eley Williams
Annabel, Kathleen Winter
Frankissstein: a love story, Jeanette Winterson
Orlando: a biography, Virginia Woolf
Nonfiction: Memoirs, Histories, Poetry, and More
Motherland: a memoir of love, loathing, and longing, Elissa Altman
Fun Home: a family tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
Shortest Way Home: one mayor's challenge and a model for America's future, Pete Buttigieg
When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities, Chen Chen
Boy Erased: a memoir, Garrard Conley
A Body Undone: living on after great pain, Christina Crosby
Untamed, Glennon Doyle
Stonewall: the definitive story of the LGBTQ uprising that changed America, Martin Duberman
Lord of the Butterflies, Andrea Gibson
Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: essays, Lauren Hough
How We Fight For Our lives: a memoir, Saeed Jones
Sister Outsider: essays and speeches, Audre Lorde
In the Dream House: a memoir, Carmen Maria Machado
Tomorrow Will Be Different: love, loss, and the fight for trans equality, Sarah McBride
Don't Call Us Dead: poems, Danez Smith
Fairest: a memoir, Meredith Talusan
Sissy: a coming-of-age gender story, Jacob Tobia
A Wild and Precious Life: a memoir, Edie Windsor