Since I was young, I’ve had a passion for reading, and eventually, for writing. To be enchanted by literature as a young kid was a privilege that many don’t have, and to have the talent to create the thing that I was so enamored with in my childhood. As I got older I started to notice how rarely the books I read had characters that I could relate to in terms of my identity. Now when I pick out my next read, I try to find culturally diverse stories, especially queer books featuring characters of color. The following are books on my to-be-read list or books I’ve already read and enjoyed.
Memoir: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, is a moving graphic memoir and tells the story of the author’s upbringing in rural Pennsylvania. While focusing on her relationship with her father, themes like gender roles, sexual orientation, and catholicism in relation to queerness are present. Fun Home was later adapted into a musical in 2013, seven years after publication, and later won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir by Terry Galloway is unmovingly unabashed about the author’s experience of losing her hearing at the age of nine. Her narrative is rich with experience and the unique perspective explores the life of a disabled, impoverished, young girl growing up in the 1960s. How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones is an investigative coming-of-age memoir about Black boyhood and Black queerness in the South. “Written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.” Fiction: Under The Udala Trees, a historical fiction by Nigerian-American author Chinelo Okparanata, centers on Ijeoma, a young girl who lives in the small town of Ojoto, Nigeria. It takes place in the middle of the Nigerian Civil War. Amid the violence of the war, Ijeoma battles with the idea of coming to terms with her Lesbian identity and the conflicts it presents to her in her society. Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi was inspired by the Gilmore Girls characters Rory and Paris’ relationship. An enemies-to-lovers romance, this narrative combines the points of view of a Muslim biracial (Persian and Indian) main character and her Jewish-Mexican love interest. |
Fantasy:
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas gained recent popularity over the past year on social media and has lived up to the hype. After summoning the ghost of Julian Diaz to prove his validity to his traditional Latinx identity, transgender teen Yadriel embarks on a journey of self-discovery with his new paranormal companion who refuses to leave. Nonfiction: The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood by Krys Malcolm Belc is a collection of essays about nonbinary parenthood and how parentage clarified the author’s gender identity. Deeply prolific, the story starts with the author, a nonbinary transmasculine parent, but when his partner adopts his son, Samson, he is listed as “the natural mother of the child” on legal documents. We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib is best described by a single quote: “How do you find yourself when the word tells you that you don’t exist?” This book symbolizes a rallying for visibility, specifically of queer Muslims. All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson is a series of personal essays by the journalist and activist author. It explores his childhood, adolescence, and college year through the lens of Black queerness Romance: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes illustrates the journey of Mexican-American Lesbian Yamilet Flores (main character) navigating her way through a rich, white Catholic school. With Yamilet, readers learn to celebrate their true selves. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar, set in Dublin with a Bangladeshi, Muslim, and Lesbian, main character is a conversation within a conversation. There are cultural and religious focuses and discussions of cultural appropriation vs appreciation. In conclusion, it’s incredibly important to consume literature and other types of media that feature identities and cultures that you may not be familiar with. When it comes to queer books, a lot of the most popular ones feature two white cisgender main characters, and without some of these books, I might have grown to see queerness only through the white perspective. With this manifesto, I hope that other book lovers grow their cultural awareness and diversify their reading experiences. |