Our Favorite Queer Books!

‘Tengo miedo torero’ by Pedro Lemebel is set in Santiago, Chile, in 1986, during a time of political turmoil under the dictatorship. The story is told from two points of view: an aging nameless queer person, who is trans and/or gay. The second point of view: Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s dictator.

Jazz Jennings published her memoir ‘Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen’ when she was fifteen and it chronicles her transition. Jazz takes her readers from her earliest years through her teenage years, sharing all her struggles: personal, academic, and mental. She also opens up about her struggles with her gender identity. And while this memoir focuses on her experience as a trans child and teenager, it also addresses the universal challenges faced by children and te

‘Gender Queer’ by Maia Kobabe is a memoir in the form of a beautifully drawn graphic novel. Maia grew up in a family where e and eir sister were free to express their gender in any way they chose. But when e entered school, everything changed and suddenly, binary gender rules were in place—and rigid.

Vivek is dead. And no one seems to know what happened. ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’ by Akwaeke Emezi is set in Nigeria and tells the story of Vivek’s life and death through a chorus of voices—family, friends, lovers. It is a story about gender identity, queerness, friendship, community, and the constraints of silence and shame.

‘Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir’ by Hari Ziyad is labeled a memoir, but it is so much more—a powerful blend of personal narrative, social critique, and healing. Through alternating chapters, Ziyad shares their lived experience as a queer Black person, while weaving in the histories and struggles of other Black individuals.

‘Blutbuch’ by Kim de l’Horizon is powerful, poetic, and deeply deserving of the German Book Prize. This autofictional novel chronicles Kim’s attempt to retrace the past—particularly that of their female ancestors—while navigating a queer, nonbinary present. In Kim’s family, the women speak often but avoid the unspeakable. The men remain silent. Kim, instead, writes.

‘OBIE is Man Enough’ by Schuyler Bailar follows Obie: a seventh-grader, competitive swimmer, nerd, and Korean American boy. And Obie is trans. When he realizes and shares that he is a boy, his family supports him wholeheartedly. But things don't always run smoothly—he loses his spot on the swim team, faces rejection from friends, and becomes a target of bullying and transphobia at school.

An ọgbanje is an Igbo spirit that’s born to a human mother, a kind of trickster that dies unexpectedly only to return in the next child...

I was very skeptical at first when I read the summary of 'Detransition, Baby' by Torrey Peters. A trans woman who detransitions? Wouldn’t...

Representation is a critical way for people to recognize that their experiences—even if invisible in the mainstream—are valid. ‘We Have...

‘Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story’ by Jacob Tobia is the perfect book for (young) non-binary people. In their memoir, Jacob tells their story up to their graduation from Duke. And while their story isn’t always happy, they are so unapologetic in telling it.

‘Felix Ever After’ by Kacen Callender is a wonderful coming of age book that I wish I could have read as a teenager. It's incredibly...