10 New Books With Queer Storylines to Read in 2022

 

Pride month is here and so is an opportunity to add more intersectional books to our reading list.

Last year we shared with you a list of books featuring queer narratives. As we approach the end of the pride month, we share more books released in 2022 including romances, allegories, family dramas, coming-of-age sagas, and a whole lot more. 

Here are some of the new books with queer storylines that made it to our 2022 reading list. 

1. And the Category Is…: Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker

About the book: The book explores the Ballroom subculture through a series of interviews with fierce Ballroom members Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garon, and more–whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category. This book will help you take a deep dive into this world of Ballroom realness.

2. Boys Come First by Aaron Foley

About the book: An inspiring and hilarious debut novel written by Aaron Foley that features the narratives of three Black, gay millennial men searching for love, friendship, and professional success in Detroit. It is also an honest look at the anger and frustration of a community continuously othered.

3. Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

About the book: A thrilling twist on both vampires and trans communities. Dead Collections is a wonderful mixture that features a queer romance, a meditation on the things left behind, a beautifully thought-out world in which supernatural elements feel incredibly well integrated, and trans individuals who aren’t defined by their transness.

4. Getting Clean with Stevie Green by Swan Huntley

About the book: A protagonist of the book, Stevie Green is thirty-seven years old and wants to work on her alcoholic dysfunctional life. Having bounced around from job to job all over the world she ends up back in her hometown of La Jolla. She soon gets into the decluttering business and also confronts her past. The story hovers around mental health, recovery, sexual identity, and family- themes close to queer individuals around the world.

5. God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu

About the book: This is a collection of short stories about queer men in Nigeria, telling stories of love and loss. Most of the characters are young men navigating their place in present-day Nigeria often dealing with difficult situations day in and day out. 

This is among the few books featuring queer narratives from Africa.

6. Just By Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell

About the book: This book is an honest, hilarious, and raw depiction of a disabled gay man in his 30s. While the book is full of humorous anecdotes about the gay communities, it sensitively touches upon the complexities of queer lives and relationships. This book is ripe with explorations of sex and desire, with a narrator questioning what it is to live, love, and laugh with a disability. 

7. Ma and Me: A Memoir by Putsata Reang

About the book: Ma and Me is a memoir that chronicles the experiences of a refugee who has to forge a path for herself. The book asks universal questions about how we are shaped by our parents’ past, and how difficult it can be to stay true to yourself even when it means disappointing the people you love. 

8. Nuclear Family by Joseph Han

About the book: A complex and intricate portrait of a Korean American family living in Hawai’i. With themes of colonialization, immigration, identity-making, and belonging, this book by Joseph Han takes you through a tremendously difficult but interesting journey of a family.

9. The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan

About the book: The Women’s House of Detention traces the history of the prison of the same name that was in use in Greenwich Village from 1929 through 1974. The book documents the horrors of the then-functioning facility, mostly through the eyes of the queer POC women and transmasculine inmates. An incredible history book that is deeply attentive to the narratives of incarcerated queer gender minorities in Greenwich Village.

10. Violets by Shin Kyung-sook, translated by Anton Hur

About the book: Originally published in Korean in 2001, this translated work of the award-winning author Shin Kyung-sook, this beautifully written narrative captures the subtle nuances of marginalized lives in Korea.

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