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Romance, fantasy, contemporary fiction, speculative fiction, mystery, memoir: I dare you to name a genre that hasn’
And I don’t say that lightly, because it hasn’t always been the case
So making a relatively short list of the best queer books of the year just isn’t
Together, these books represent the spirit of this year’s queer lit
I only chose one book for each category, but I’ve included a few extra recommendations below
But — you guessed it — there are so many more amazing queer books from this year I don’
I have a new favorite genre of queer lit: books that feel like conversations between the queer
It’s about parenthood, family secrets, identity, marriage, and so much more
In this beautiful blend of fiction, oral history, and theory, Belcourt seems to reinvent the novel even
It’s about a queer Cree PhD student who abandons his dissertation, returns home to northern Alberta,
It’s not possible to summarize a book like this, and it’s hard to even convey
Belcourt’s sentences read like poems, and his unnamed narrator feels as real and whole and human
Emezi’s first foray into romance is a bighearted story about grief, art, healing, and queer friendship
Feyi is just starting to date again, five years after losing her husband in a car accident,
But it turns out she is ready — when she meets the right person, a man working through
See also: The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish, D’Vaughn & Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia
This quiet reimagining of the story of Percival the Knight is about Peretur, a fiery young woman
Longing for something beyond the life she knows, she sets out to find glory
She ends up finding a lot more than that, including the home she’s always longed for
See also: Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson, The Book
Misery, who possess rare abilities often associated with sainthood, has always dreamed of leaving their small backwater
They just never imagined that their chance would come thanks to the voice of an angel beckoning
These stories, mostly about queer Asian American women, are eerie and beautiful, dazzling and strange
Chang’s characters live in the in-between spaces: between genders, cultures, and continents, between human and creature,
See also: Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel, Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin, Manywhere by
It doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff, but it’s also warm and full of
See also: The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas, This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke, Self-Made Boys by
Andy is a closeted gay cop who’s fired from the San Francisco police force after he’
See also: Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen (campy horror), The Verifiers by Jane Pek
I don’t often read a memoir in a single sitting, but I read this in one
This memoir is full of vivid scenes of family and childhood, and plenty of knotty, challenging ideas
This is a crucial history that couldn’t be more relevant today
This breathtaking collection of interlocking essays explores gender and transition, illness and disability, art, water, memory, and
Horn writes beautifully about so many things: swimming, the art of tattooing, traveling, masculinity, childhood
They play with form, interspersing longer lyric essays with short lists that utilize quotes, imagery, poetry, and
See also: High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez, Faltas by Cecilia Gentili, It Came from the Closet edited
He messes with form, he interrupts himself, he makes his own rules, he puts all his exuberance
His poems are not frivolous, and the ones in this collection deal with plenty of real-world heaviness:
But Chen Chen takes silliness seriously, and he takes joy seriously, and that’s what makes his