one great thing about 2020: saw a lot of great books by lgbtq+ authors. In the spirit of gratitude, here are 24 of the best, from riveting memoirs to poignant poetry, hilarious essays, and exuberant fiction.
homie by danez smith
danez smith is a poet of the people, a magician of words, a narrator of truth and a queen of rhythm. his ode to black queer friendship is another ruby in the crown of the smith canon, one that will hopefully only increase in years to come. Smith also co-hosts a podcast with fellow poet extraordinaire Franny Choi called VS., and if he needs the perfect mix of profound existential art and hilarious games for his ears this holiday season, look no further.
my autobiography of carson mccullers by jenn shapland
This poignant tapestry of nonfiction/memoir was shortlisted for the National Book Award, and for good reason. Jenn Shapland explores the broadly defined archives of mid-century American novelist Carson McCullers. What he finds in the letters, therapy transcripts (!), and bathtub from Carson’s childhood home propels a beautiful narrative about obsession, queer longing, art, and self-examination. Plus, it’s also a lot of fun.
You are reading: Best gay books 2020
real life by brandon taylor
you know who brandon taylor is. he is the coolest nerd on twitter and he also wrote one of the best debut novels in recent times. The real life follows Wallace, a black queer doctoral student in a midwestern college town where all of his friends and most of his colleagues are white. The book takes place over the course of a single weekend, during which an intimate encounter with one of his friends stirs up much internal and external drama and reckoning for Wallace, leaving the reader reeling. in a good way.
slender juliana lópera tropical fever
In this total whirlwind of a novel that accurately reflects the chaotic energy of adolescence, Colombian teenager Francisca moves with her mother to an ant-infested house in Miami, where when she’s not fighting with her newly evangelized mother, he is falling in love with the pastor’s daughter carmen. This bilingual, fast-paced story will have you laughing, crying, and gaining a new favorite fictional character.
postcolonial love poem by natalie diaz
natalie diaz used to be a professional basketball player, and she also edited a sporting goods anthology last year called bodies built for the game. In her sophomore poetry collection (after 2012 when my brother was an Aztec), Ella Diaz writes about politics, desire, ecstasy, and the landscape of bodies literally and metaphorically. this was also shortlisted for this year’s national book award, and her impressive and life-giving poems make it clear why.
daylight by rust marsh
Speaking of beautiful, life-giving poems, Roya Marsh’s debut collection fell a bit under the radar this year, but it deserves to be picked up. The introduction sets the framework for Marsh of Love and Connection on the importance of black queer butch women’s representation. she continues to deliver one stunner after another, full of reverence and sorrow for her community. this is not to be missed.
wow no thanks for samantha irby
if you’re looking to piss yourself laughing, samantha irby has always been a good bet. This latest collection of essays, the third after meaty and we’ll never meet in real life, might just be the funniest yet. writing about instagram wellness gurus, eating out (remember that?) with crohn’s disease, awkward social situations (remember social situations?), and living in the rural midwest as a queer black woman with her partner and your partner’s children. irby’s writing is hilarious, to be sure, but it’s also incisive and intelligent.
not all boys are blue by george m. johnson
jorge m. Johnson is an icon, in large part because of this intensely beautiful book. It’s classified as a memoir already, and it’s mostly about Johnson’s coming of age as a black queer non-binary person in New Jersey and Virginia. they write so clearly and poignantly about masculinity, toxic and everything else, family, gender and black joy. this is a perfect read for someone of any age, gender identity, sexuality, or other identity markers who is interested in complex stories of love and resilience.
disappearing monuments by john elizabeth stintzi
john elizabeth stintzi published two books this year within a month of each other (his poetry collection, junebat, is also worth checking out). both were debuts, which is even more impressive. In this novel, middle-aged non-binary photographer Alani returns to her childhood home in rural Winnipeg for the first time since she left with her girlfriend at age 17. her mother’s dementia is getting worse, to the point where she doesn’t speak. this is a powerful story about grieving, settling scores, relationships, and what makes us human.
alabama boys by genevieve hudson
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This is Genevieve Hudson’s debut novel, but her writing is everywhere, including in her 2018 collection of short stories Pretend We Live Here and Illuminated magazines from McSweeney’s to Tin House (Rip). Her fiction has a heavenly, exuberant quality that feels like magic, and Boys of Alabama does contain some magic. Following queer german teen max after he moves to alabama for his dad’s car manufacturing job, the story revolves around religion (christian and football), death, heat, poison, cornfields, sex and blood. if it sounds like a spell, in a way it is.
the undocumented americans of karla cornejo villavicencio
Another shortlisted for the National Book Award, this blast of a masterpiece is required reading for all people, especially all Americans. Villavicencio doesn’t beat around the bush with this brilliant work of non-fiction, in which he tells the most human of stories, that is, the messy one. In too many narratives about immigration, people lumped into the labels “immigrant” or “undocumented” are flattened to the point of erasure. Through interviews and personal stories, Villavicencio not only crafts a narrative in opposition to this flattening, but in the process deftly illustrates the lack of humanity in the American empire. There’s humor here too, and his audiobook reading is one of the best listening experiences you’ll find.
most beautiful by meredith talusan
meredith talusan grew up in the philippines, where she lived with her grandmother, to whom she was very close. she was also a child star on television. An academic scholarship to Harvard and her albinism facilitated a proximity to whiteness that spurred a reckoning with race, class, gender and sexual identity, and privilege that she explores deeply in these memoirs. the book also explores her gender transition and her relationships to people and ideas, including the idea of desirability.
pizza girl by jean kyoung frazier
in kyoung frazier’s forceful and atmospheric novella, the anonymous narrator is a pregnant 18-year-old living with her boyfriend at her mother’s house, grieving the death of her father, and, yes, she works as a pizza delivery girl in la. when a woman calls one night desperate for pickle pizza to feed her young son, the narrator soon becomes obsessed with her, a fixation that peaks in a dramatic, bizarre, and utterly fascinating way. this book is in a league of its own, funny and deeply moving, and has one of the best covers of any book in recent memory.
a story of my brief body by billy-ray belcourt
billy-ray belcourt is a poet and one of the world’s greatest minds, and his first collection of essays is just further proof of that. this book is short but dense; each sentence is so powerful it will stop you in your tracks. Addressing the queer and decolonial imagination, Belcourt brings his unique poetic style to the prose here, but these genre labels are pretty useless in describing his writing. just read it, you’ll see.
the death of vivek oji by akwaeke emezi
Another one of our best living writers, Akwaeke Emezi, returns with another adult novel that follows 2018’s Freshwater and 2019’s Novel Pet. This one begins with the body of gender-nonconforming teen Vivek Oji dumped outside the her parents’ home in nigeria, continuing the story of her life, that of her family, and that of her community leading up to this devastating death. This is a story of chosen family, discovery, love, pain, sorrow, and how colonialism infects individuals and nations.
the selected work of audre lorde edited by roxanne gay
audre lorde remains a critical writer, thinker, and activist whose words and spirit continue to influence writers and activists today. Here, another crucial figure in the literary and social justice spaces, Roxane Gay, collects some of Lorde’s many essays and poems in a new anthology and presents them as only she can: with reverence, incisiveness, and luminous prose.
ace: what asexuality reveals about desire, society and the meaning of sex by angela chen
Finally, a book on asexuality that is neither clinical nor purely academic! In this extremely welcome hybrid of nonfiction and memoir, Angela Chen brings together her personal experience, extensive interviews, and in-depth research on the asexual experience in a book that everyone, regardless of sexuality, should read. introduces concepts such as the compulsory masculinity of Western society, the idea of queer platonic relationships, and an introduction to the great possibility of asexuality, which is too often framed as a lack or a disorder.
love after the end edited by joshua whitehead
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jonny appleseed, joshua whitehead’s 2018 novel about a two-spirited young indigiqueer protagonist navigating family, sex work, and love, was one of the best books to come out that year. Whitehead has now edited an anthology of queer, trans and two-spirited indigenous speculative fiction, both utopian and dystopian. brings together so many fantastic authors and great pieces of writing.
k-ming chang’s bestiary
This first novel about a young Taiwanese American woman and the violence and resilience inherited from three generations of women in her family, as well as queer love, is perhaps best described as “visceral.” chang isn’t afraid to go there when it comes to all the beautiful, animalistic, and very gross aspects of the human body, so you might not be eating while you’re reading this, but the story will stay in your bones forever.
just bad heroines by emily m. danforth
Nearly a decade after her modern queer now classic novel, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, was published, Emily M. danforth is back with a novel for adults (but will also appeal to teens). this is a gothic romp from a gay book. There are multiple side stories in different time periods, a haunted abandoned girls school, a mysterious lesbian book, Hollywood, lots of bees, and secrets abound. Also, almost all the characters are weird. this one is long but it moves fast and it’s a lot of fun.
pork bun with butter and honey by francesca ekwuyasi
This radiant debut novel from multidisciplinary artist Francesca Ekwuyasi follows a mother and her twin daughters from Lagos, Nigeria, to Europe, Canada, and back again, as their stories diverge and converge over time. this book is filled with art, food, hunger and longing, love and resentment, and some of the most compelling characters this reviewer has come across in a long time.
the thirty names of the night by zeyn joukhadar
zeyn joukhadar’s 2018 debut novel, A Map of Salt and Stars, was an epic journey through time and geography. in his second novel, a young (until the end) anonymous narrator, a closeted trans boy, is grieving for his mother, who died in a mysterious fire. He lives in New York City with his grandmother, paints murals on dilapidated buildings at night, and becomes obsessed with finding the mysterious (perhaps fictional) species of bird his mother was looking for before she died. joukhadar’s ability to render images and atmosphere is unrivaled, and this moving story of family, self-determination, community, art, and love is well worth a read.
mattilda bernstein sycamore’s freezer door
mattlida bernstein sycamore is a prolific teacher of challenging categories and genres; in other words, she goes crazy in everything she does. In this memoir of sorts, her first since her 2018 novel SketchStasy, Ella Sycamore navigates gentrifying cities (in this case, primarily Seattle), exploring ideas of connection, longing, queer dreams, and capitalism. no one writes like sycamore, and you can’t miss this one.
we want it all: an anthology of radical trans poetics edited by andrea abi-karam and kay gabriel
Finally, we have an anthology volume of trans poetry. This collection is impressive in scope, style, and time, and includes intergenerational poets on everything from work to sex to pop culture. this is the kind of book you can pick up and read a few selections, and be reminded that trans identity, like all identity, is vast and beautiful.
sarah neilson is a freelance writer and book critic. they can be found on twitter @sarahmariewrote.
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