https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow/archives/775
The following titles have been read and recommended for inclusion on the final list by at least one juror:
Fiction:
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.
Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Milner
A dazzling love story in poems about one woman’s coming-out, coming-of-age, and coming undone.
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
A lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes.
Nonfiction:
And Don’t F&%k It Up by Maria Elena Fernandez
A definitive history and celebration of the groundbreaking show RuPaul’s Drag Race in its first decade, from a Burbank basement set all the way to the Emmy’s, and every weave in-between, as told by its stars, producers and fans.
Engine Running: Essays by Cade Mason
Lush and innovative, these essays contemplate childhood memories and family secrets, religion and queerness in the rural South, and the ways rituals and contours of manhood are passed through generations. Most of all, we feel with Mason what it is to grapple with and love a place even as you yearn to leave.
Fat Off, Fat On by Clarkisha Kent
In this disarming and candid memoir, cultural critic Clarkisha Kent unpacks the kind of compounded problems you face when you’re a fat, Black, queer woman in a society obsessed with heteronormativity.
Floppy: Tales of a Genetic Freak of Nature at the End of the World by Alyssa Graybeal
One of the first books to explore the emotional landscape of living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome from a patient’s perspective; a playful story of falling down, getting back up again, and realizing you should have gone to the hospital sooner.
Liberated by Kaz Rowe
Creative and courageous, Surrealist artist Claude Cahun championed freedom at every turn, from rejecting gender norms and finding queer love to risking death to sabotage the Nazis.
Shotgun Seamstress by Osa Atoe
A cut & paste celebration of Black punk and outsider identity, this is the only complete collection of the fanzine Shotgun Seamstress, a legendary DIY project that centered the scope of Blackness outside of mainstream corporate consumerist identity.
Who does that bitch think she is? By Craig Seligam
A vivid new history of drag told through the life of the pioneering queen Doris Fish.
