Interested in reading books from Black LGBTQIA authors? Here is a great reading list to start with! These best-selling, award-winning books from the past and present we’re sure you’ll love. We recommend you purchase from an independent bookstore or request/borrow from your local library. Use our Bookshop links below to support the indie bookstore of your choice.
Giovanni’s Room
James Baldwin James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel about love and the fear of love is set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Audre Lorde In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Invisible Life
E. Lynn Harris The re-issue of a remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming of age story out of the highly controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS. How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Saeed Jones Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. One of the most highly praised novels of the year, the debut from an astonishing young writer, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
Janet Mock In her profound and courageous New York Times bestseller, Janet Mock establishes herself as a resounding and inspirational voice for the transgender community–and anyone fighting to define themselves on their own terms. A beautifully layered portrait of motherhood, immigration, and the sacrifices we make in the name of love from award-winning novelist Nicole Dennis-Benn. I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé
Michael Arceneaux A timely collection of alternately hysterical and soul-searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity. An Unkindness of Ghosts
Rivers Solomon “This book is a clear descendent of Octavia Butler’s Black science fiction legacy, but grounded in more explicit queerness and neuroatypicality.”
–AutoStraddle
