During Pride Month and beyond, Girls Write Now is proud to celebrate stories of queer love, friendship and pride from our community members and corporate partners. From pop culture icons to tender musings, this reading list goes beyond the binary to explore queerness in full color.
Caught in a Bad Fauxmance
by ELLE GONZALEZ ROSE
Joy Revolution, Penguin Random House
The perfect resort page-turner from YA author Elle Gonzalez Rose, Caught in a Bad Fauxmance follows an aspiring artist who agrees to a fake date with his family’s long time enemies in the hopes of settling an inter-generational score. This faux-mance gets all too real.
Love Letters for Joy
BY melissa see
Scholastic Press
A new LGBTQIA+ romance story by the author of You, Me, and Our Heartstrings. Love Letters for Joy follows seventeen-year-old Joy who has cerebral palsy and identifies as asexual as she pursues her goal of becoming the first disabled valedictorian at Manhattan’s Caldwell Preparatory Academy, and develops an infatuation with an anonymous student known as the Caldwell Cupid.
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
by morgan parker
Tin House
Morgan Parker’s There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé stands at the intersections of vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence. Queering the stereotypes of black femininity, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce is unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless, and sequined, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and deja vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power.
OPINIONS
by ROXANE GAY
HarperCollins
Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.
EXHIBIT
by R.O. KWON
Penguin Random House
At a lavish party in the hills outside of San Francisco, Jin Han meets Lidija Jung and nothing will ever be the same for either woman. A brilliant young photographer, Jin is at a crossroads in her work, in her marriage to her college love Philip, and in who she is and who she wants to be. Lidija is an alluring, injured world-class ballerina on hiatus from her ballet company under mysterious circumstances.
R.O. Kwon blurbed our 2024 anthology, Here & Now, available now!
R.O. Kwon
Pride March with Girls Write Now
Sunday, June 30, 12-6 PM EST: Join Girls Write Now as we march in New York City’s Pride March! Whether you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community or an ally of the community, you are welcome to walk with us in celebration and spread the word about Girls Write Now.
Helen house
by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Burrow Press
Right before meeting her girlfriend Amber’s parents for the first time, the unnamed narrator of Helen House learns that she and her partner share a similar trauma: both of their sisters are dead. As the narrator wonders what else Amber has been hiding, she struggles with her own secret–using sex as a coping mechanism–as well as confusion and guilt over whether she really cares about Amber, or if she’s only using her for sex. When they arrive at the parents’ rural upstate home, a quaint but awkward first meeting unravels into a nightmare in which the narrator finds herself stranded in a family’s decades-long mourning ritual. At turns terrifying and erotic, Helen House is a queer ghost story about trauma and grief.
The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors
BY lama rod owens
Sounds True
With The New Saints, Lama Rod Owens shares a guidebook for becoming an effective agent of justice, peace, and change. Combining personal stories, spiritual teachings, and instructions for contemplative and somatic practices, he shares inspiring resources for self-exploration and wise action. Each chapter reinforces the truth of our interdependency—allowing us to be of service to the collective well-being, and to call on the support and strength of the countless souls who share our struggles and hopes.
Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion
by b michael
HarperCollins
In this glorious four-color visual memoir packed with stunning photographs, many never before seen, B Michael recalls the bond shared with Cicely Tyson and what it was like to dress the Queen of Hollywood for all the extraordinary events of her life. Whether you’re a fan of pop culture, couture, Hollywood, B, or Cicely Tyson, Muse is a reminder that we all have the power to be showstoppers in our own lives. – HarperCollins
Thirsty
by Jas HAMMONDS
Roaring Brook Press, Macmillan Publishers
It’s the summer before college and eighteen-year-old Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella’s acceptance is a sure thing–she’s the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove.
Jas Hammonds
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
by alexis pauline gumbs
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Macmillan Publishers
A bold, innovative biography that offers a new understanding of the life, work, and enduring impact of Audre Lorde. In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde’s manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.