June is Pride Month, a celebration of LGBTQ+ identities, culture and communities. Dallas and Houston held pride parades a few weeks ago and there have been countless other ways to mark the occasion, from art markets to performances across the state.
Some people make a point to read books with LGBTQ characters and storylines this month � with lists from , and offering titles for people to check out.
For those who are looking for LGBTQ books with a Texas edge this June, we have some recommendations from Tina Van Winkle, a librarian at the Austin Public Library:
For kids
“� by Kit Rosewater and � recommended by one of Van Winkle’s colleagues in youth services � is about a pair of best friends who start a roller derby team in Austin. Ages 8-12.
“At that age, they’re navigating the ups and downs of working together to achieve their goals, but also that really messy and confusing time of first crushes and evolving friendships,� Van Winkle said. “There’s LGBTQ representation across the team, as well as with the adults in their lives.�
For teens
“â€�&²Ô²ú²õ±è;by Brynne Rebele-Henry is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in present-day rural Texas.
“There’s two friends who are outed in their community, and they are sent to a religious conversion therapy camp to ‘cure their gayness,'� Van Winkle said. “It has a poetic voice. The author is also a poet, and it really looks to identity and self-reliance and just this experience of kind of finding your community even when it’s difficult.�
For adults
�,� Bryan Washington’s debut collection of interconnected short stories, is set in the working-class communities of Houston.
“We have kind of an unnamed narrator who’s discovering his own sexuality, and he’s exploring his relationship to a place and to time and to community and really through this kaleidoscope of cultures in Houston,� Van Winkle said.
“� is a graphic novel from Tillie Walden, who grew up in Austin, featuring magical realism and a road trip across West Texas.
“These two queer women run into each other on the road, and then they’re tasked with taking a strange cat back to its home,� Van Winkle said. “It’s really dreamlike and weird, but it has, like, wonderful vistas of West Texas.�
“� by Gloria E. Anzaldúa, published in 1987, is a collection of essays, both in poetry and prose.
“She’s a Chicano lesbian, and she draws on her personal experience to explore like those invisible borders between identities and groups of people,� Van Winkle said.
“� by Saeed Jones, a newer entry into queer literary canon, is about growing up as a Black gay man in Lewisville, Texas, and finding one’s own place in community and in family.
New and upcoming releases
“� by Isa Arsén (expected publication October 2023) is about a queer woman working as a NASA engineer in the 60s during the Space Race.
“� by and illustrated by (released early this month) is a graphic novel set on a Texas cattle ranch, inspired by Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey.�
“There’s a pair of young men who kind of are exploring their feelings for one another, and then a mystery pops up,� Van Winkle said. “There’s kind of a cool mashup of genres going on here.�
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