Literature Has Always Been Tied to American Freedom
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Introducing: Reading and Resistance—And How Literature Has Always Been Tied to American Freedom
As I write this, it’s already been a few days since the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was gutted, and a couple of days since the ALA filed a suit against Trump’s administration for it. It’s clear with this administration that the most recent war on books—which started with an increase of book banning a few years ago—is a larger war on freedom, especially when it comes to certain groups. It’s no surprise that the most commonly banned books are by and about non-white and queer people. They don’t want us reading about us, just like they didn’t want us to back then. That’s why, like back then, we should do it anyway. We should do it more.
Not only that, turning to literature—and looking back at the history of librarianship and literacy in this country—can show us how our ancestors resisted, which could teach us how to fight back now.
That’s what this new series is: by looking at the history of resistance through reading, we can become fortified in our current fight.
Read These Queer Finalists for the 2025 Locus Awards
The Locus Awards is one of the biggest literary awards in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, and they’ve just announced their 2025 finalists. They have a ton of different categories, from Science Fiction Novel to Short Story to Artist, but since this is Book Riot, I’m focusing on the books. Happily, there are quite a few queer books in the finalists—which isn’t a big surprise, since we know queer speculative fiction is some of the best in the genre.
Here are some of the queer sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books longlisted for the 2025 Locus Awards. Let me know in the comments which ones you’ve read!
The Romance Books Starter Pack: Where to Begin Based on Your Favorite Genre
One of the most extraordinary things about romance is its sheer breadth. Within the genre, every other genre blooms: mysteries with tangled clues, epic fantasies of magic and power, thrillers brimming with danger, and contemporary dramas rich with personal stakes. Whatever you love about stories, romance can give it to you. And just as vast as the stories themselves is the community around them: generous, passionate, and endlessly welcoming to new readers. Romance readers delight in helping others find books that speak to their hearts, offering an open-armed invitation to discover that in a genre built on hope, there’s room for everyone.
The 2025 Updated Ultimate Guide to YA Short Stories
I’ve used my knowledge of YA to whittle down the index here to YA authors who are well-known, widely-published, or new and emerging voices. Some haven’t yet published a YA title, while others haven’t done so in quite a while; YA authors who have only published in YA anthologies thus far are included if they’ve published several short stories. I’ve pulled from this list YA short stories by adult authors who haven’t written for YA otherwise unless they edited the collection. This is to keep the index limited to YA short stories by YA authors.
The short stories below are organized by the author’s last name. Each of the stories and their respective anthologies are listed below the author, and in cases where stories are co-authored, the story appears under both author names. I haven’t included descriptions of the story because that’s impossible without having read them all. But by including the book in which you can find the story, it should give a good idea of the themes the story might have. Perhaps it’ll encourage the ultimate goal of this project, which is to get more people excited to read short stories.
Straight on ’til Morning: Enchanting Merch for Peter Pan Day
I have always been a Peter Pan faithful. The Disney film had its many joys.* The musical had the moment that enchanted me (an entire audience clapping because they believe in fairies, because they choose to believe). But the first time I read the book, I understood the true draw. Barrie’s writing is full of wonder and ethereal joy. Of nostalgia, yes, and yet it also encourages us. Wendy does grow up, but she passes on her ability to fly to the next generation. Growing up is inevitable, but childhood is still magic, and we can rest assured, it’s still out there.
May 9 is J.M. Barrie’s birthday, and is known by some as Peter Pan Day in celebration of the author’s legacy. This Peter Pan Day, pick up some of these bookish goods and remember what it was like the first time you followed Peter straight towards the second star to the right—straight on, ’til morning.
