From rewriting romantic relationships to platonic in history books to invalidating various lived experiences, LGBTQIA+ peoples’ perspectives have been sanitized both verbally and in writing for centuries.
For this reason, LGBTQIA+ representation in literature is essential. These titles give queer patrons opportunities to see themselves and some of their encounters in these works and relate, knowing they are not alone.
Gonzaga University’s Foley Library writes in their guide about queer literature that:
While humans have always looked to the power of other people’s stories for guidance, inspiration, lessons, and more, in a society which continues to wage war on any person who exists outside of the prescribed norm, the stories of queer lives and experiences often act as a lighthouse in the stormy night, the promise of a safe place to land.
However, queer literature is for everyone! It can help others to understand and empathize with LGBTQIA+ experiences.
This June, consider reading one of these recently released (within the last year) personal works written by queer authors:
- How to Live Free in a Dangerous World by Shayla Lawson (February 2024)
- Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe (March 2024)
- Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir by Zo Bossiere (May 2024)
- Queer Power Couples: On Love and Possibility by Billie Winter and Hannah Murphy-Winter (May 2024)
- Mean boys: A Personal History by Geoffrey Mak (April 2024)
- Portrait of a Body by Julie Deleporte (January 2024)
- Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton (June 2023)
- Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch (March 2024)
- Mother, Nature: A 5,000-mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences by Jedidiah Jenkins (March 2024)
- Everything I learned, I learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir by Curtis Chin (October 2023)
- Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution by Amin Ghaziani (March 2024)
- A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women’s Culture by June Thomas (May 2024)
Ask about these titles at your Willoughby-Eastlake library branch today!
Resources
The Importance of Queer Books (2024) Gonzaga University. Available at https://researchguides.gonzaga.edu/c.php?g=1374682&p=10201888 (Accessed: 8 May 2024)
