As anti-trans legislation and an inordinate number of book bans continue to hit the news, it’s a good time to remember that investing in trans art should be an all-the-time thing, not just a Pride Month or Trans Day of Visibility thing. That includes supporting trans authors and their books by adding them to your collections, requesting them from your local library, and spreading the word about your favorite titles.
Whether you prefer horror, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, nonfiction, or something else, there are a variety of books by transgender authors and/or about transgender people and characters just waiting to join your personal library. Not sure where to start? We’ve compiled a list of 10 transgender books from independent publishers representing a variety of genres and intersectional identities for your perusal.
And the Category Is… by Ricky Tucker (Beacon Press)
The best-selling Lambda Literary Award finalist And the Category Is… by Ricky Tucker explores the rich history of Ballroom, the underground subculture created more than a century ago by Black and brown LGBTQIA+ people living in Harlem. Featuring interviews with contemporary Ballroom icons and close cultural commentary, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to immerse themselves in the roots of queer and trans culture in the US.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (Akashic Books)
Rivers Solomon’s award-winning debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, sees sharecropper Aster go to war with her brutal overseer on the HSS Matilda, the space vessel equivalent of the antebellum South. To get off the ship and into a safer existence elsewhere, Aster must leverage a connection discovered between the death of the Matilda’s sovereign and her mother’s suicide, which happened more than two decades ago. This sci-fi novel is intense, fast-paced, and brutal, with sharp commentary on racism in America and the sci-fi genre as a whole.
Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada, translated by Kit Maude (Other Press)
Bad Girls is a fantastical coming-of-age story that follows a found family of trans sex workers in Sarmiento Park, Córdoba, as they find refuge and rejuvenation in the pink house of the 178-year-old Auntie Encarna. Taking place primarily in the ’90s, the book examines the lives of these individuals and how they’ve banded together against everyday threats to form a loving community built upon mutual aid and trust. Having a body is strange, and author Camila Sosa Villada leans into the surreal experience of growing up in this fictionalized account of her own story.
Future Feeling by Joss Lake (Soft Skull)
Penfield R. Henderson is a bored and exhausted dogwalker obsessed with trans influencer Aiden Chase—until they have a less-than-pleasant encounter in real life that leads Pen to enlist his roommates for a hex. Unfortunately, the spell misses Aiden and instead lands on another young trans man, Blithe, catapulting him into the Shadowlands (an emotional landscape through which every trans person has to travel to self-actualize). This draws the attention of the Rhiz, a “big brother” type figure who oversees everything transgender in this universe, and the Rhiz forces Pen and Aiden to team up, retrieve Blithe, and help him through what happened.
Effectively a found-family story with a lot of weird twists, Future Feeling comments on the bizarre and sometimes harmful reality of parasocial relationships and provides an emotional rollercoaster all at once.
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Oni Press)
Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir, Gender Queer, began as a way for em to explain eir gender and sexuality to eir family. One part story of personal becoming, one part guide for everyone seeking to deepen their understanding of gender and identity, this gorgeous graphic novel is a must-read. Since its publication in 2019, it’s become the most-banned book in the US, as conservatives seek to eradicate LGBTQIA+ people and our stories from shelves. That arguably makes it an even more integral read.
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen)
After 16-year-old Benji escapes the fundamentalist cult that raised him and unleashed Armageddon, he’s rescued from a terrifying group of monsters by teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center (ALC). Their leader, Nick, knows that the cult’s bioweapon is mutating Benji into a monster powerful enough to wipe out what remains of the human race. In exchange for his promise to learn to control the monster, Nick offers Benji a home—but there’s more going on behind the scenes at ALC than Benji realizes.
Hell Followed With Us is dystopian horror at its best, with compelling characters at its heart and a fast-paced, frightening plot pushing them to grow in often unexpected ways.
Little Fish by Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Casey Plett’s debut novel, Little Fish, is a Lambda Literary, Firecracker, and Amazon Canada First Novel Award winner. The story follows 30-year-old trans woman Wendy Reimer as she discovers her late, devout Mennonite grandfather may have also been trans. In the face of growing problems for her and her friends, Wendy dives into her grandfather’s life story in the hopes of finding something that will help her move forward. At turns warmly evocative and borderline macabre, this novel is as lovely as it is distressing, and Plett somehow manages to balance everything beautifully.
Making Love With the Land by Joshua Whitehead (University of Minnesota Press)
In his first nonfiction book Making Love With the Land, best-selling and award-winning Jonny Appleseed author Joshua Whitehead explores the connections between body, language, and land in a new storytelling style he calls “biostory.” Whitehead digs into his own mental health, grief, the pandemic, and his experience as an Oji-nêhiyaw, Two-Spirit member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). These essays are sharp, evocative, and raw, as well as deeply queer.
More Than Organs by Kay Ulanday Barrett (Sibling Rivalry Press, LLC)
More Than Organs collects poetry by Kay Ulanday Barrett in what Sibling Rivalry Press, LLC describes as “a love letter to Brown, Queer, and Trans futures.” The collection presents people of color as earthbenders and explores the aftermath of the 2015 Pulse Nightclub shooting, among other topics. Presented together, these poems unearth grief and proclaim love in equal measure for a truly gorgeous reading experience.
We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma (Nightboat Books)
Queer and trans icon Lou Sullivan journaled regularly from age 11 until his AIDS-related death at 39 years old. We Both Laughed In Pleasure collects 24 of these journal entries, illustrating a complex and layered look at Sullivan’s gender and sexuality, his relationships, and how he moved through the shifting mores of the late 20th century. This book is profound and heartbreaking, worthy of more than one read in order to fully understand and appreciate its depth and scope.
(featured image: Other Press; Sibling Rivalry Press, LLC; Beacon Press; University of Minnesota Press; Peachtree Teen; Arsenal Pulp Press; Oni Press; Soft Skull; Akashic Books; Nightboat Books / The Mary Sue)
