The Best LGBTQ Books of 2021, According to American Librarians
The Rainbow Roundtable, a subsection of the American Library Association, is the “oldest professional association for LGBTQIA+ people in the United States.” It runs Rainbow Book Month every June, as well as annually awarding the Stonewall Book Awards. Their Over the Rainbow committee also selects a list of the top 10 queer books every year in all genres and formats. This year, they considered 332 titles, and here are their picks.
- Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir by Hari Ziyad
- The Natural Mother of the Child by Krys Malcolm Belc
- Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness and Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison
- With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
- Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
- Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
- Stone Fruit by Lee Lai
- Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
- Patience & Esther by SW Searle
The committee stated,
In a year which saw more book challenges than any other, largely concerning books with queer content, it was heartening to also see publishers continue to feature, promote, and elevate queer narratives across all genres.
Queer stories can be heartbreaking, exciting, romantic, incredible, challenging, unbearable, exquisite, silly, and anything else you can think of. These selections prove it.
For more information, check out the ALA’s Over the Rainbow website.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
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