Referential's Queer Book Club
10 queer writers and artists weigh in on the books they love
I’ve written about queer books for years—and there are so many good ones coming out in the next few months. To celebrate Pride, though, I wanted to turn the tables and ask queer writers and artists whose work I admire about their favorite books—the books that shaped them, that they can’t get out of their minds, and that helped lead them to the work they do today.
Here are 10 recommendations—full of panic, sex, spirituality, and history—as suited to a Saturday on the beach as they are to a day inside.
Queer Book Club
A Visitation of Spirits, Randal Kenan—A Visitation of Spirits is a foundational Black queer text. The novel manages to be both spiritual and horrifying, heartfelt and challenging, as it explores the limits of queer rural life. My novel, Loca, is possible because Randall Kenan lived and wrote.
—Alejandro Heredia, author of Loca
John, Ron Schreiber—Schreiber’s sixth and final collection of poems, John, is an elegy for his late partner John MacDonald. Comprised of poems titled with dates, essentially functioning as journal entries, the collection documents the final year or so of their life together. It’s one of the most important—and overlooked—works of documentary poetics about the AIDS epidemic.
—Kevin Bertolero, author of In Passing and editor of &Change
Close to the Knives, David Wojnarowicz—The subtitle of this book is “a memoir of disintegration,” and it delivers—this brilliant, genre-bending book of Wojnarowicz’s manages to bake, into the prose, the urgency of dying; it holds no punches, seething with a well-earned rage. Yet, still, in the shadow of terminal illness and institutional apathy, there are moments of humor, images of ecstasy. The thrill of a stranger’s touch, an open city, a drag queen giving a “coy seductive smile that reveals a mouth of rotted teeth.” And what could be more queer than that?
—Rob Franklin, author of Great Black Hope
Crush, Richard Siken—Siken's first book of poems, Crush, changed the literary landscape forever. It also changed my life. From the first lines of Louise Glück's introduction—"This is a book about panic. The word is never mentioned."—to the final line of the final poem, I was inconsolable. Reading Crush is like riding a train. You get on the car and you have no say in changing the tracks' direction or when the final stop is coming. I would not have known how to survive love, longing, or the self in my gay body without this text. I don't know how others survived before. There is also a 20 year edition just released!
—Lisa Hiton, host of Queer Poem-a-Day and author of Afterfeast
Angels in America, Tony Kushner—The best books crack your world open. Angels in America does that to me, every time. Part maudlin melodrama, part political polemic, and all around fabulous fantasy, Kushner's play has made it so that I always think of its wounding beauty whenever I witness a striking sunset or even think of the word "mauve."
—Manuel Betancourt, author of Hello Stranger
Togethering, Rose Zinnia—In Rose Zinnia’s title work within her poetry collection, Togethering, she says, “Queerness is a long thread of hurt.” Ursula K. Le Guin, who she has conjured in a dream, responds, “Now what will you mend with that thread?” This book, with its tender language, quirky phrasings, and imagery that wound up me like a vine, feels like Zinnia’s response.
—Emily Lowe, host of The Cusp Reading Series
Sovereign Erotica: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature, ed. Qwo-Li Driskill, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, and Lisa Tatonetti.
For Pride Month, I want to encourage the queer community to check out the landmark collection, Sovereign Erotica: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. The anthology gathers the work of established writers and brilliant new voices, and includes multi-genres and multi-themes that reflect the complexity of queer indigenous identities.
—T Love Smith, editor of Monster Beauties: A Trans Poetics Archive Anthology
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith—I’m a gay man with a penchant for speedos and a (creative) soft spot for fabulists, so this choice was easy. The book doubles as a primer on how to tell a story. If you’re a writer struggling with plot, read Highsmith!
—Lucas Schaefer, author of The Slip
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, Randall Kenan—There is no town more queer than Tim’s Creek. By queer I mean disruptive, uncanny, daring, scary, un-sane. These stories explore a range of non-normative racialized sexualities and everything is explored to harrowing ends. I didn’t know stories like these could be written!
—Jahquale Mazyck, playwright of Grieved
Women, Chloe Caldwell—A cautionary tale against dating femme fire signs. If you enjoy this book, there’s probably something deeply wrong with you. Then again, isn’t there something deeply wrong with all of us?
—Mia Arias Tsang , author of Fragments of Wasted Devotion
Reference Section
You can find all these book recommendations, along with the recommenders’ books, here.
I spoke with Manuel about Hello Stranger a few months back.
Mia and I also chatted about Fragments of Wasted Devotion.
And you can catch up with Emily and The Cusp here, too.
Currently in media: I just saw Friendship and absolutely loved it. For Tim Robinson fans, it feels very familiar to I Think You Should Leave but elevated, and the social dynamics are too real. I also can’t stop listening to Miley’s new album.
Note: I earn a small commission when you shop for books through my Bookshop links, and I appreciate your support, which helps keep Referential free.
cool so i thought we were ALL going to be clowns w this 😭 but these are such great recs!!