Happy Pride!

Literature is a great way to learn more about the queer community. Here are some staff picks from our collection to get you started.

• Nevada by Imogen Binnie

  Nevada is a novel hailed for revolutionizing the trans literary scene, being one of the first published about a trans women. It follows Maria, a trans woman in her thirties, stuck and stagnating in New York. After her girlfriend cheats on her, Maria steals her car and heads for the Pacific, embarking on her version of the Great American Road Trip.
• Don't call us dead: poems by Danez Smith

  Don't call us dead: poems is a collection by one of the best poetical voices of our generation, Danez Smith. These poems grapple with the intersection of queerness and blackness, responding especially to Smith's diagnosis with HIV. Moving and urgent, this collection is a necessary read.
• Woodworking by Emily St James

  An unforgettable and wholesome debut, Woodworking follows a trans high school teacher from a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other trans woman she knows: one of her students. As their unlikely friendship evolves under the increasing scrutiny of their community, they will come to realize that there is nothing more radical than letting the world see who you really are.

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• Henry Henry by Allen Bratton

  Henry Henry is a modern reimagining of Shakespeare's Henriad, transported to 2014. It follows a trio of Henrys, 'Hal' at the centre as he tries to navigate postgrad life: drinking, dating, and trying not to be late to the internships his father (another Henry) has set up for him. Hal is a Duke, and must grapple with his sexuality amongst his family's repression and deep-rooted Catholicism.
• Some strange music draws me in by Griffin Hansbury

  'Some strange music draws me in' is an epic chronicle of trans strength and struggle, at it's heart celebrating the power of music. It's also a novel of two halves, flitting between Mel in 1984 and Max in 2019. Max (formerly Mel) reflects on his childhood in his small conservative hometown, intertwining stories of the past with his present.
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

  The Safekeep is an exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961. The story novel fizzes with the nervous energy of first queer love, with rich sensuous prose and brilliant plotting. The legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past also hang overhead.

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• Layla

  The question of how love alters our identity lies at the heart of this debut from one of London’s best-loved drag queens Amrou Al-Kadhi. Semi-autobiographical, the feature follows the relationship between Palestinian-British drag performer Layla and their white, straightlaced new love interest, Max.
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire

  In 18th-century France, artist Marianne is commissioned to paint the portrait of Lady Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) so it can be sent to a suitor. However, her subject neither wants to be married nor painted, so Marianne is tasked with stealthily capturing Héloïse’s likeness while pretending to be her walking companion. Céline Sciamma’s masterly film is a beautifully observed romance that burns with passion and defiance.
• Swan Song

  Retired hair stylist Pat Pitsenbarger escapes his nursing home to embark upon an odyssey across his small town to style the hair of his dead ‘frenemy’ for her funeral, confronting the ghosts of the past, including former rival Dee Dee Dale and rediscovering his sparkle along the way.

The library has access to LGBTQ+ archives to aid your research and curiosity

• LGBT Thought and Culture

  LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource collection which illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community. You can access books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
• LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940

  This archive has material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations and illuminates the experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community.
• LGBT Magazine Archive

  This magazine archive allows access to many of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests and chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community.