Every year the month of June raises its rainbow flag and welcomes everyone into pride month. While there are many ways to celebrate Pride Month as both a member and ally, one celebration that can resonate with everyone is practicing empathy through listening to others’ stories. One of the best and most accessible avenues to do this is by reading books by and about queer people. 

Books have the capability to put you into another’s shoes, to transport you to another world – or even just down the street – all while in the comfort of your home. They offer escapes but also a glance into perspectives other than your own. Pride Month is the perfect opportunity to listen and learn more queer stories, to remember the impact queer people have made on the world throughout history, and to connect with your communities in celebration and support of one another. 

Maybe you’ve only read a couple of books about queer people and don’t know where to find more; maybe June is the time you like to dedicate to reading exclusively queer authors, or maybe you’ve never read any books by queer authors and now have the joy of discovering some incredible stories. Regardless, here is a list of ten books by and about queer people that range from horror memoirs (In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado) to reimagined histories (We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara), and just like any memorable story, they pull at your heartstrings and punch you in the gut but inexplicably leave you wanting more.

1. Ugly: a letter to my daughter, Stephanie Fairyington

   Fairyington’s memoir, Ugly: a letter to my daughter, follows her relationship with her traditionally feminine daughter as she grapples with queer motherhood and life on the outskirts of American culture as a self-described “ugly” woman.

2. Taiwan Travelogue, Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin by Lin King

   Taiwan Travelogue follows novelist Aoyama Chizuko as she visits Taiwan from her home in Nagasaki, Japan. While there she meets Chizuru, a Taiwanese woman who becomes her translator and the final piece of her love story. Taiwan Travelogue uncovers forgotten colonial histories and their invasive impact on our intimate relationships.

3. We Are Green and Trembling, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers

   An incredible reimagining of the life of Antonio de Erauso, one of South America’s most famous trans men and a Basque-nun-turned-war-lieutenant during the Spanish Conquista in 17th-century Argentina, We Are Green and Trembling follows Antonio as he hides deep in the jungle with two Guaraní girls evading imprisonment and a death sentence.

4. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

   An impressive debut following three women–transgender and cisgender–who, after a surprise pregnancy, are forced to confront their deeply hidden desires about gender, motherhood, and sex.

5. Blessings, Chukwuebuka Ibeh

   Set in post-military Nigeria and around the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition act of 2014, Blessings poses the question of how to live freely when your country refuses your truest self and how love can triumph in spite of it all. 

6. Boulder, Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Nicole d'Amonville Alegría

   A cook working on a sailing vessel falls in love with Samsa, the woman who gives her the name Boulder. When motherhood begins to change Samsa into someone Boulder doesn’t recognize, she grapples with what's more important to her; loving this new woman or chasing the freedom she once treasured. 

7. My Lover, the Rabbi, Wayne Koestenbaum

   When a relationship between a rabbi and the man devoted to him begins to turn into something more than just sexual, the plot thickens as the man’s obsession deepens. 

8. In the Dream House: A Memoir, Carmen Maria Machado

   In constructing the narrative tropes of a bildungsroman (a coming of age novel that follows life and psychological lessons learned) and a haunted house, Machado unravels her devastatingly horrifying relationship with an eerily charismatic woman. 

9. We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation, Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown

   Through an enriching narrative supported by incredible photographs, Reimer and Brown document the modern queer liberation movement through the lens of protest, power, and pride.

10. Marsha, Tourmaline

    Tourmaline, a Black transgender activist and artist, writes the first biography for one of the most important figures in LGBTQIA+ history, Marsha P. Johnson, chronicling her story, impact, and legacy.