Gay short story collections
Single Author
Rainbow Rainbow by Lydia Conklin
See our feature on this book here.
In this exuberant, prize-winning collection, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters search love and connection in hilarious and heartrending stories that reflect the complexity of our current moment.
A nonbinary scribe on the eve of top surgery enters into a risky affair during the height of COVID. A womxn loving womxn couple enlists a close friend as a sperm donor, plying him with a potent rainbow-colored cocktail. A lonely office worker struggling with their gender identity chaperones their nephew to a trans YouTube convention. And in the depths of a Midwestern winter, a sex-addicted librarian relies on her pet ferrets to support resist a relapse at a unrestrained college fair.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang
Startling stories that center the bodies, memories, myths, and relationships of Asian American women, from the National Book Award “5 Under 35” honoree and author of Bestiary
In “Auntland,” a steady stream of aunts adjust to American life by sneaking surreptitious kisses from women at temple, buying tubs of vanilla ice cream to equip for citizenship tests, and
Books & Bakes
Hello all! This came at a perfect time for me. One of my reading plans for next year was to read more queer lit, so this is exactly what I needed.
My first couple planned reads are for the first prompt: (read a book in translation outside Europe) and no. 15 (read an essay collection). For the first one, I'm planning on reading The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation from a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators (whew, that's a title). I've been eyeing this one for awhile, so I'm happy to receive to it.
For the essay collection, I'm planning on reading It Came From the Closet: Homosexual Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese. I am not a horror movie fan (too much a scaredy cat) but I enjoy horror novels, so I'm interested to see the way that other queer folks have responded to classic horror movies. Also Carmen Maria Machado is a contributor, so....that sealed it. :)
By the way, Laura, I really enjoyed your piece on Book Riot about horror as a genre--so much of it resonated with me, and I also took away some new additions to my tbr, so thanks!
I don't possess much for suggestions, b
One of my missions as the new managing editor here at Autostraddle is to expand and increase our literature vertical. We’re living in a very cool era for Gay lit of all genres! I want to take you more book lists and reviews, interviews with queer and trans authors, and so much more! I am also personally a big fan of short fiction, which never gets enough love.
Full disclosure: This post is slightly an experiment! I need to gauge our readers’ interest in short fiction roundups. I’m toying with the idea of creating recurring “short story playlists” where I pick a specific vibe/theme/etc. and decide about five stories that fit it to propose. Does that sound fascinating to you? Then consent me know!
For now, here are some great homosexual tales available online for you to sink into this weekend!
“The Lost Recital of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror” by Carmen Maria Machado, published in Granta
Back at the theater, Sabine lifted Maxa’s feet up onto the cot and then dragged her torso upright against the wall. She slapped her lightly on the cheek, and Maxa moaned. Sabine handed me the bottle. I poured out the liquid with a tremblin
I didn’t used to be a gigantic fan of concise stories. I tried to read a lot of story collections, but I’d always find myself mildly disappointed. So, over the years, they mostly dropped out of my reading life. I didn’t miss them. At least, I didn’t think I missed them. Now that I’ve started reading short story collections again, I can see clearly what the difficulty was: the stories I was reading before just weren’t queer enough! These days I cannot get short stories into my bloodstream fast enough. There are so many! More come out every month! There’s absolutely nothing false with non-queer brief story collections, but as someone who grew up hungering for queer lit, this current abundance is especially satisfying.
So I’ve put together a list of 12 of my absolute favorite lgbtq+ story collections from the past three years. Believe me when I reveal you that these 12 are just the beginning. I limited myself to books published in 2020 and after, which means I didn’t include Stare Who’s Morphing by Tom Cho, Sea, Swallow Me by Craig Gidney Laurance, or Love After the End edited by Joshua Whitehead. I’m currently reading Pretend It’s My Body by Luke Dani Blue (out in September), and after that,