This Pride Month and beyond, honor and celebrate the experiences of queer folks around the world with these 12 must-reads.
Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories by Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell | RIBA Publishing
Queer people have always found ways to exist and be together, and there will always be a need for queer spaces. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell have gathered together a community of contributors to share stories of spaces that range from the educational to the institutional to the re-appropriated, and many more besides.
Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson | W. W. Norton & Company
Drawing on his expertise in microbiology, Joseph Osmundson brings readers under the microscope to understand the structure and mechanics of viruses and to examine how viruses like HIV and COVID-19 have redefined daily life. This dazzling multidisciplinary collection offers novel insights on illness, sex, and collective responsibility. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Literary Hub, Virology comes out June 7, 2022.
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin | Hachette Book Group
The gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression — whatever your scene, whoever you’re seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it? Named one of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, NPR, Vogue, Gay Times, and Artforum.
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller | Verso Books
Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives.
And The Category Is… Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker | Beacon Press
Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. And the Category Is is a love letter to the legendary Black and Latinx LGBTQ underground subculture, uncovering its abundant legacy and influence in popular culture.
I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein | Penguin Random House
A poignant and hilarious memoir from the cultural icon, gay rights activist, and four-time Tony Award-winning actor and playwright, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career.
Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez | Coffee House Press
Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection Brown Neon gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, highlighting the feminist wounding and transphobic apparitions haunting the multi-generational lesbian social fabric, or recalling a failed romance, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance.
Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick | Penguin Random House
For the queer kiddo in your life, Twas the Night Before Pride is a glittering celebration of queer families that puts Pride gently in perspective—honoring those in the LGBTQ+ community who fought against injustice and inequality.
Queer Country by Shana Goldin-Perschbacher | UI Press
Though frequently ignored by the music mainstream, queer and transgender country and Americana artists have made essential contributions as musicians, performers, songwriters, and producers. Queer Country blends ethnographic research with analysis and history to provide the first in-depth study of these artists and their work.
OutWrite: The Speeches That Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture edited by Julie R. Enszer, Elena Gross | Rutgers University Press
Running from 1990 to 1999, the annual OutWrite conference played a pivotal role in shaping LGBTQ literary culture in the United States and its emerging canon. OutWrite provided a space where literary lions who had made their reputations before the gay liberation movement—like Edward Albee, John Rechy, and Samuel R. Delany—could mingle, network, and flirt with a new generation of emerging queer writers like Tony Kushner, Alison Bechdel, and Sarah Schulman. This collection gives readers a taste of this fabulous moment in LGBTQ literary history with twenty-seven of the most memorable speeches from the OutWrite conference, including both keynote addresses and panel presentations.
Making Space: Women and the Man Made Environment by Matrix | Verso Books
Making Space is a pioneering work first published in 1984 which challenges us to look at how the built environment impacts on women’s lives. The timely re-issue exposes the sexist assumptions on gender and sexuality that have a fundamental impact on the way buildings are designed and our cities are planned.
Color Me Queer by Potter Gift; illustrated by Anshika Khullar | Penguin Random House
A coloring and activity book for adults, Color Me Queer is both a look at LGBTQIA+ history and a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the queer community.
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