We search for ourselves to be represented in the stories we read. Art and creativity reflect life, and life is full of diverse experiences and people, after all. Yet it wasn’t always true that the full diversity of life was celebrated in literature or elsewhere! Progress continues to be made and the variety of stories featured in libraries and bookstores expands a little more all of the time.
Many brave authors that we celebrate have paved the way for today’s talented writers in the LGBTQ+ community to shine on a greater platform and provide literary safe havens for young readers. Though history and course lectures might have hidden portions of their identity over the years, Virginia Woolf, Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Michael Dillon, and Jan Morris completed works over their lives that they hoped expressed their truest selves and welcomed in their readers. Just as their predecessors did, LGBTQ+ authors today have worked tirelessly to get to where they are and should be praised and supported year-round. Let your efforts to expand your bookshelf in June continue past the 30th!
If you’re looking for well-written worlds with representation and reflections of real life, try out a few of the ones below. Like all good books do, they may serve to educate, comfort, inspire, and encourage you.
Do you like to read….
Sci-Fi? The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer might be the novel for you.
Fantasy? See if Crier’s War by Nina Verla is in your local library.
Contemporary? Check out Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee.
Mystery? I think you might like Aaron’s Wait by Dorien Grey.
Thriller? Madeleine Urban’s Cut and Run could be right up your alley.
Biographies? Over the Top: My Story by Jonathan Van Ness should be next on your TBR.
Regardless of whether you’re searching for yourself in these stories, I hope you’ll read them and let the power of the page show you the world from someone else’s eyes!