Reading Pride Month at the American Library

Every June, Gay Pride is celebrated in many parts of the world to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, to recognize and raise awareness about the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have had on history, and to acknowledge the challenges they still face today.

With that in mind, here at the American Library, we’ve curated a display of essential reading for this Pride Month, including fiction, memoir, graphic novels, and nonfiction covering a range of topics relating to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Visit our Members’ Lounge this June to find a selection of titles to suit every taste.

If you like reading novels about queer people, you could try Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park or Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor.

To learn more about queer history, read When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan or the graphic novel Queer: A Graphic History by Meg John Barker.

We’ve also got a selection of classic queer literature available for loan, including Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.

We also have a broad range of e-books and e-sources available to our members, including novels, short story collections, non-fiction books and more: 

• Memorial by Bryan Washington, a rom-com novel about two young people at a crossroads in their relationship. Available to borrow on Libby.
• The Selected Works of Audre Lorde, the self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Available to borrow on Libby.
• Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington, about a young man finding his place among family and community in Houston. Available to borrow on Libby.
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor, a novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town. Available to borrow on Libby.
• Ordinary Girls: A Memoir by Jaquira Díaz, about the author’s challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. Available to borrow on Libby.

Click here for help navigating Libby/OverDrive.

All of the books mentioned in this blog, and many more books relating to LGBTQIA+ topics, are available to check out or to reserve. Speak to our Member Services team for help finding any of these.

We’re committed to presenting a diverse range of materials in our collection and continually add new titles to keep it updated. If you are a member of the Library and would like to suggest titles to add to our collection, please fill in this form here.