Queer Literature!

[testtubesterone]

Hello all! I recently found myself in my college library's sociology section, and stumbled across some really incredible queer lit, both old and new! Here are some of the books that caught my interest, although I only ended up taking Intermediate Sex and Gender Outlaws home with me ^^``
- Intermediate Sex by Edward Carpenter (1912)
- Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman (2010)
- Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen by Peter Hennen (2008)
- My Lesbian Husband by Barrie Jeane Borich (1999)
- Fat Gay Men by Jason Whitesel (2014)
Maybe I'll update this thread with my thoughts on what I end up reading (especially Intermediate Sex!!! its age shocked the hell out of me!!), but I wanted to hear from everyone else!! Is there any queer literature that you really enjoy, and want other people to know about? It doesn't have to be books... poems, research, essays, anything goes!

[Rrim0]

What a great topic! <3

- Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman (2010)

Oh, I read this book just last year and it was quite interesting! I hope you'll enjoy reading it!


I have a little library dedicated to queer literature. These below are some of my favourites books. :)

Essays about gender identity (particularly about non-binary and/or butch identities):

- Gender Trouble by Judith Butler (the best of the best imho)

- Butch is a Noun by Bergman S. Bear

- Trans Liberation Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg

- Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon. Very short essay. Super cute and easy to read. Possibly one of the best introduction to non-binary identities an ignorant cis person could have.


About LGBTQ+ history and rights:

- Gay life and Culture by Robert Aldrich: Beautiful book full of pictures. It tells about homosexuality (especially cis male sexuality) and gender identities throughout different cultures and times. A little bit surface level and euro-centric, but still a great introduction to global LGBTQ+ history and issues.

- Tutta un'altra Storia by Giovanni dall'Orto: ITALIAN TEXT. I have no idea if this was translated in English or other languages, but I highly doubt it. It's a very interesting and important text because it's a series of essays that explain certain aspects of LGBTQ+ history and issues in Italy from ancient time (ancient Rome I think) to post WWII.   

Fictional Books:

- Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. A lot of autobiographic elements in it, but still a work of fiction. Incredibly crude and impactful. Full of trigger warning, but a very important text to read. If I had to recommend a single book of this list, this would be it. READ IT. (but mind the triggers, please. It's not an easy book)

- Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. The first book by Sarah Waters I've read! I love her and I've read all her books, ahah. It's basically lesbian romance in Victorian London. Incredible prose. Affinity or Fingersmith are possibly even better than this.
 
- Patience & Sarah by Isabel Miller. One of the first lesbian novels ever written. It's quite cute.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Queer by William S. Burroughs is probably worth a look (so is everything I read from him); if I'm not mistaken he coined the term or was at least among the first who used it in a non-discriminatory way in public.

Also, anarchist german writer Erich Mühsam wrote about gay questions; he later stepped back. Another important german figure is Magnus Hirschfeld.

Also, I heavily recommend Earthly Powers; its a novel that has a gay protagonist and might be considered as a classic in this area; also, it is damn good.

[DiffydaDude]

- Tutta un'altra Storia by Giovanni dall'Orto: ITALIAN TEXT. I have no idea if this was translated in English or other languages, but I highly doubt it. It's a very interesting and important text because it's a series of essays that explain certain aspects of LGBTQ+ history and issues in Italy from ancient time (ancient Rome I think) to post WWII.   
 

Could I try translating it?

Also I know the Blue Ridge Mtns area has a foundation for LGBT stuff, they have a pretty good archive of stuff

[starbreaker]

Howl by Allen Ginsberg
Imajica by Clive Barker
Wraeththu by Storm Constantine
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Gossamer Axe by Gael Baudino
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

[BlazingCobaltX]

Despite being well-versed in online queer discourse, I actually have read zero of the 'landmark' publications on queer issues. I blame this on not being interested in reading for a long time. 

I actually bought a physical (!) copy of Stone Butch Blues recently, but I let my friend borrow it first. I actually have The Price of Salt in my collection, which is one of the first lesbian novels with a happy ending. It was a fine book but pretty heavy on the mommy issues. 

[testtubesterone]

- Gender Trouble by Judith Butler (the best of the best imho)

- Butch is a Noun by Bergman S. Bear

- Trans Liberation Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg

- Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon. Very short essay. Super cute and easy to read. Possibly one of the best introduction to non-binary id

Many of these I haven't heard of before, but the names attached are familiar! (Gosh I really do need to read Leslie Feinberg's works.... ;-;) I'm also quite interested nonbinary and butch identities (bigenderism, androgynes, and genderfuckers especially!!) I'm enjoying Gender Outlaws quite a bit, but once I finish, these will be next!! Thank you for adding your suggestions to the thread :D

[Rrim0]

Could I try translating it?

It depends on your Italian proficiency. It's a series of essays and uh, I think the author uses formal academic language, but I don't remember it being overly complicated.
Maybe with how advanced machine translation is becoming lately you could even try translating it with Deepl or something like that.
The ebook is available. If you need help with that just send me a DM. :)


 

The Price of Salt in my collection, which is one of the first lesbian novels with a happy ending. It was a fine book but pretty heavy on the mommy issues. 

OH, I love that book! Mommy issues included.
If you haven't see it yet, go watch the movie with Cate Blanchett! :D

I'm also quite interested nonbinary and butch identities (bigenderism, androgynes, and genderfuckers especially!!)

Nice to know. I have some other book I've read on the topic. I will add them to the list when I remember the names.

[BlazingCobaltX]

OH, I love that book! Mommy issues included.
If you haven't see it yet, go watch the movie with Cate Blanchett! :D

The movie is the reason I read the book. It's actually an annual rewatch for me.

[Yaya]

I also really like reading queer / trans literature!

I really loved Light from Uncommon Stars -- it's an amazing book on its own but even more so since the protagonist is a trans woman

Also On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous which is a beautiful book about a gay man growing up (warning: you will cry)

Similarly, the graphic novel On A Sunbeam is another one of my favorites as it features a non-binary character and focuses on found/chosen family through an epic sci-fi adventure.

I know lots of people like Becky Chambers' Song for the Wild Built but I found it kind of boring.

For theory and memoirs Whipping Girl is amazing and so is Something That May Shock and Discredit You. I'm planning on reading Gender Trouble next !

[Finnialla]

All of these books sound amazing! I'm going to have to check them out.

If you want a horror/thriller novel with a lesbian main character who is also canonically autistic, check out Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle.

Here's the TW's for the book. I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable and read it without warning them.

TW's

So, there is a lot of gore in this. A couple deaths that do somewhat go into detail, and there is some homophobia from the background characters. The work centers around conversion camps, but that's not a main plot point until the end. Also, demons and possessions.

[close]

Chuck also has a novella called Straight, which is really good. It's like the purge except it only affects straight people. Funny, kinda gory, but all in all, a nice short read.

Also, Chuck is hilarious if you read his other stuff. It's erotica, just to warn you. He's the one who wrote the trans Harry Potter story to piss off J.K. Rowling.

Also, GenderQueer by Maia Kobabe is one of my favorite queer reads. It was the first book that actually gave me words to express my non binary self.

And last, if you want some older queer books, you should look for pulps, mostly queer pulps from the 50's and 60's. Here's a link to all the covers of them if you're ever just scouring bookshops and chance upon them.

Lesbian Pulp Covers

Most of them are also online, you just have to kinda dig for them. Many archivists scan pulp books in PDF's since pulp paper isn't durable and tends to fall apart. 

[siph]

Great recommendations in this thread, some of which I've read (mostly Feinberg) and some of which I have to.

The writings of James Baldwin are also pretty good. I was recommended Giovanni's Room by a friend and I enjoyed it immensely, though there may be some outdated portrayals and language in it.

As much as I dislike upper class corporate assimilation, Queeristan by Parmesh Shahani is a pretty comprehensive text about the recent history of queer acceptance in Indian workplaces. Though I have many gripes with it, it's a pretty decent look into the topic.

[almostcorporeal]

i recently read:
Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

Bi was pretty good however it felt a bit surface level, i wasn't surprised to find that the writer doesn't normally write about gender and sexuality.

Ace however truly stunned me, i loved reading it and was desperate to get it back when my time with it from the library was up (slow reader here). it even covered aromanticism and amatonormativity which i was pleasantly surprised by!

i'm currently working through Undoing Gender and then want to move on to further Butler works

[Memory]

- Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass
- She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
- Lilly and Dunkin by Donna Gephart (although this is a middle grade novel)
- Before I Had the Words by Skylar Kergil
- The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

[rhenn]

For non-fiction - I haven't read either of these, but I've heard good things

Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, by John Boswell
Whipping Girl, by Julia Serano

This website is an oldie but a goodie, and a lot of these were pretty formative in my personal tastes. Mostly SFF with queer characters.

Some others not included in the site above:
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault