LGBTQ Literature

From Christopher Isherwood's enduring 20th-century classic Goodbye to Berlin to contemporary titles like Janet Mock's Redefining Realness, the titles in this study guide collection explore a range of ideas, issues, genres, and forms that speak to the LGBTQ community.

Publication year 1945

Genre Play, Fiction

Tags Southern Gothic, LGBTQ+, American Literature, Education, Education, Dramatic Literature, Classic Fiction

Tennessee Williams, who wrote The Glass Menagerie in 1944, refers to the work as a “memory play” (750). Now recognized as one of the greatest American playwrights in history, The Glass Menagerie launched Williams’s career. The play is heavily influenced by Williams’s own life. The character of Laura is based on Williams’s older sister, Rose (alluded to by Laura’s nickname, Blue Roses), who was subjected to a botched lobotomy that rendered her mentally disabled and... Read The Glass Menagerie Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Sexual Identity, Family

Tags LGBTQ+, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction

The Great Believers (2018) is the fourth novel by Chicago-based writer Rebecca Makkai. The novel alternates between the stories of a group of friends—most of them gay men diagnosed with AIDS—in Chicago during the mid-80s to the early 90s—and the story of a woman searching for her estranged daughter in Paris, 30 years later. The Great Believers won several awards, including the ALA Carnegie Medal, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, ALA Stonewall Award, and the... Read The Great Believers Summary

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Grief, Loneliness, Love, Sexual Identity, Death

Tags LGBTQ+, Humor, Realistic Fiction, Grief & Death, Parenting, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Race, Family, Friendship

Tags Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Irish Literature

The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a novel written by John Boyne, author of 14 novels and a short story collection. Originally published in 2017, this historical fiction chronicles of the life of a gay man living in Ireland in the 20th and 21st centuries. It won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award in 2018.Other works by this author include The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, All the Broken Places, and A Ladder to the Sky.This... Read The Heart's Invisible Furies Summary

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Power & Greed, Fathers, Forgiveness

Tags Mythology, Fantasy, Children`s Literature, LGBTQ+, Action & Adventure

The Hidden Oracle (2016) is the first installment in Rick Riordan’s The Trials of Apollo, a five-book fantasy series for young readers. Inspired by Greek and Roman mythology and history, the books follow the fallen god Apollo on a quest to rescue the five Oracles from a group of foes. The Trials of Apollo series takes place in the same universe as Riordan’s popular Percy Jackson oeuvre. Praised for its humor, The Hidden Oracle earned... Read The Hidden Oracle Summary

Publication year 1976

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Sexual Identity, Mental Health, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology, Community

Tags Sociology, Philosophy, Love & Sexuality, Psychology, LGBTQ+, Postmodernism, Education, Education, French Literature, World History, Psychology, Philosophy

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and theorist whose most significant works were first published in the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout his career, he examined the mechanisms of power and challenged accepted historical narratives, working to show how institutional power shapes the field of possible knowledge to its own advantage. The History of Sexuality, published in three volumes between 1976 and 1984—with a fourth volume published posthumously, in draft form, in 2018—examines the development of... Read The History of Sexuality Summary

Publication year 1998

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Sexual Identity, Mental Health, Femininity, Fate, Literature, Memory

Tags Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Gender & Feminism, Love & Sexuality, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Classic Fiction

The Hours is a 1998 novel by the American author Michael Cunningham. It is an homage to Virginia Woolf’s 1923 novel Mrs. Dalloway (of which the working title was “The Hours”). Mimicking Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness narrative style, Cunningham re-situates her characters and themes within a modern context, making them his own. The story follows three different women, in three different decades, affected by Mrs. Dalloway over the course of one June day in each of their... Read The Hours Summary

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Nature Versus Nurture, Family, Equality, Community, Sexual Identity

Tags Fantasy, Magical Realism, Romance, LGBTQ+

The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) is a queer fantasy novel by TJ Klune, Lambda Award-winning author of The Extraordinaires and the Green Creek series. Klune is a queer author whose works often explore supernatural elements. Many mythological species feature in this novel, while other books focus on werewolves, ghosts, and the like. The book explores themes of Nature Versus Nurture, The Perpetuation of Prejudice, and Found Family.Klune’s work, particularly The House in the... Read The House in the Cerulean Sea Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Good & Evil, Fate, Friendship

Tags Mythology, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, LGBTQ+, Love & Sexuality, Relationships, Children`s Literature, Romance

The House of Hades is the fourth of five books in the Heroes of Olympus series, which follows seven Greek and Roman demigods on a quest to prevent the rise of the earth goddess Gaea, who is bent on destroying the world.The House of Hades was written by Rick Riordan, a New York Times bestselling author who explores Roman and Greek Mythology in these two series. Riordan is the publisher of an imprint with Disney... Read The House of Hades Summary

Publication year 2001

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Hate & Anger, Hope, Love, Revenge, Gender Identity, Indigenous Identity, Language, Mental Health, Race, Sexual Identity, Death, Mothers, Self Discovery, Social Class, Community, Nation, Politics & Government, Equality, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Religion & Spirituality

Tags Drama, LGBTQ+, Gender & Feminism, Science Fiction

Publication year 1902

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Death, Colonialism, Sexual Identity, Masculinity

Tags LGBTQ+, Classic Fiction, Travel Literature, Gender & Feminism, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, French Literature, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Good & Evil, Gender Identity, Death

Tags Fantasy, Gender & Feminism, Trauma & Abuse, Religion & Spirituality, LGBTQ+, Age of Enlightenment, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a historical fantasy novel by the American author V.E. Schwab published in 2020. It chronicles the story of Addie LaRue, an 18th-century Frenchwoman who gains eternal life through a bargain with a demonic entity. However, the deal comes at a great cost: Everybody who meets Addie immediately forgets her. A New York Times bestseller, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue received a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award nomination for... Read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Summary