Must-Read Books by Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Authors
Whether you’re looking for a fast-paced fantasy or an inspiring memoir, there’s a book for you on this list! Celebrate transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming authors by reading their powerful and beloved stories.
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Add to BookshelfA Lady for All Seasons
by TJ Alexander
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman who has lost her fortune must be in need (not want) of a husband. Beautiful, cunning Verbena Montrose must marry to save herself and her odious family from abject poverty. Faced with two suitors and a fiancé, Verbena, who has always had to be clever to survive in society, starts to realize she may need to think outside of society’s constraints to find true happiness. From the acclaimed author of Chef’s Kiss and A Gentleman’s Gentleman comes a riotous Regency romp, featuring a charming and unforgettable genderfluid lead.
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When the Harvest Comes
by Denne Michele Norris
In this “achingly beautiful debut” (The Boston Globe), a young Black gay man, estranged from his father, must confront his painful past — and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex. In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris’s When the Harvest Comes reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.
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The Maidenheads
by Benny B. Peterson
A bighearted debut novel about queer yearning, indie musicians, and bushwacking a thorny path back to your first love. Electric, spine-tingling, and filled to the brim with tenderness and honesty, The Maidenheads is a novel about the tenacity of first love, the life-changing power of music, and the difficult, necessary work of becoming yourself.
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$29.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Pretty
by KB Brookins
By a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race. Even as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective — the tropes, the presumptions — Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as “other.”
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Your Dazzling Death
by Cass Donish
Written in the devastating aftermath of a partner’s suicide, this unprecedented collection is a restorative memorial act, an exploration of queer time, and a powerful expression of nonbinary and trans love in the wake of traumatic loss.
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Take Your Own Advice
by Jeffrey Marsh
For those who are givers, carers, and empaths, a guide to focusing that energy on yourself — even if that feels frightening, from popular LGBTQ+ activist and advocate Jeffrey Marsh. It’s time that you learn to put yourself first, to take care of yourself, and to ask others to listen to you for a change. You do give the best advice, after all!
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Trauma Plot
by Jamie Hood
From a rising literary star and the author of how to be a good girl comes a brilliant, biting, and beautifully wrought memoir of trauma and the cost of survival. Trauma Plot is a scalding work of personal and literary criticism. It is a send-up of our culture’s pious disdain for “trauma porn,” a dirge for the broken promises of #MeToo, and a paean to finding life after death.
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Death of the First Idea
by Rickey Laurentiis
From Whiting Award-winner Rickey Laurentiis, a mythic, lyric, decade-in-the-making new collection of masterful poems that probe the meanings of trans/formation and re-creation, a new classic about gender and love.
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$27.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Simplicity
by Mattie Lubchansky
From the acclaimed author of horror sensation Boys Weekend, a vibrant new graphic novel about a timid academic sent out from the walled dystopian security territory of New York City to investigate a cult in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains.
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Stag Dance
by Torrey Peters
In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing. Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.
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Trans History
by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett
Read by Alex L. Combs, Andrew Eakett and Full Cast
An essential introduction to trans history, from ancient times to the present day, and winner of the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production for Young Adults. Conversations with modern activists, scholars, and creatives highlight the breadth of current trans experiences and give listeners a deeper sense of the diversity of trans people, a group numbering in the millions. Extensive source notes provide further resources. Moving, funny, heartbreaking, and empowering, this remarkable compendium from trans creators Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett is packed with research.
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A World Worth Saving
by Kyle Lukoff
A groundbreaking, action-packed, and ultimately uplifting adventure that intertwines elements of Jewish mythology with an unflinching examination of the impacts of transphobia, from Newbery Honor winner Kyle Lukoff.
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Gender Queer
by Maia Kobabe
Read by Maia Kobabe, Trini Alvarado, Stephen Graybill, Phoebe Kobabe, Jeremy Carlisle Parker and Full Cast
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic about reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
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Lucy, Uncensored
by Mel Hammond and Teghan Hammond
A road trip through gender identity, self-expression, and the thorny process of figuring out where you fit after high school as an out-and-proud transgender teen.
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A Sharp Endless Need
by Mac (Marisa) Crane
A propulsive and nostalgic coming-of-age novel about an all-consuming relationship between two teammates on a girls’ high school basketball team. Written with the lush longing of André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name, the obsessive attention of Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl, and all the romance and feeling of the beloved 2000 movie Love & Basketball, Marisa Crane’s sophomore novel is a voice-driven, literary treatment of the big feelings of first love, intimacy, heartbreak, grief, and, of course, sports.
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Old Wounds
by Logan-Ashley Kisner
Two transgender teens end up in a small, isolated town, where they must escape the locals who plan to sacrifice one of them to an ancient monster that only eats girls. A pulse-pounding thriller perfect for fans of Midsommar and Hell Followed with Us.
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Glitch Girl!
by Rainie Oet
A novel in verse about a trans girl diagnosed with ADHD, a computer game, and middle school. Glitch Girl! follows J— from fifth to seventh grade, from the beginning to the end of her obsession with a roller coaster video game Coaster Boss, and to the start of a new friendship. When J— meets Sam, a nonbinary classmate, she begins to realize that it’s okay to not fit into neat, pixelated boxes.
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The Prospects
by KT Hoffman
Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of — that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life. This triumphant debut romance reveals what’s possible when we allow ourselves to want something enough to swing for the fences.
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Bless the Blood
by Walela Nehanda
A searing debut YA poetry and essay collection about a Black cancer patient who faces medical racism after being diagnosed with leukemia in their early 20s, for fans of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals and Laurie Halse Anderson’s Shout. In Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir, the author details a galvanizing account of their survival despite the U.S. medical system, and of the struggle to face death unafraid.
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Man o’ War
by Cory McCarthy
An achingly honest and frequently hilarious coming-of-age novel about an Arab American trans teen fighting to keep their head above water in a landlocked Midwestern town.
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Salt the Water
by Candice Iloh
Cerulean Gene is free everywhere except school, where they’re known for repeatedly challenging authority. Salt the Water is a book about dreaming in a world that has other plans for your time, your youth, and your future. It asks, what does it look like when a bunch of queer Black kids are allowed to dream? And what does it look like for them to confront the present circumstances of the people they love while still pursuing a wildly different future of their own?
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Breathe
by Maia Kobabe and Sarah Peitzmeier, PhD
Breathe arose from the need for a resource for folks considering chest binding as gender-affirming care. Dr. Peitzmeier interviewed 25 people of different ages and backgrounds about their journeys with binding, and then she and Kobabe combined excerpts from those interviews with evidence-based resources on binding into this extremely accessible guide.
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Confessions of the Fox
by Jordy Rosenberg
Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers, and lovers of 18th-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript — a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’s adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’s tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined — and only a miracle will save them all.
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Hijab Butch Blues
by Lamya H
When 14-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher — her female teacher — she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as an overachiever and class clown. Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran — ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant.
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Grace Needs Space!
by Benjamin A. Wilgus and Rii Abrego
To the moon and back! A sci-fi middle-grade graphic novel about a young girl’s long-awaited summer trip across space with one of her moms. But when her relationship with her mom goes sideways, so does her trip. Will Grace be able to save her summer vacation before it ends?
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Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
by Andrea Lawlor
It’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crosses the country — a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
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Zenobia July
by Lisa Bunker
Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she’s in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she’s coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she’s able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was. When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school’s website, Zenobia knows she’s the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time.
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The Moth Keeper
by K. O'Neill
Being a Moth Keeper is a huge responsibility and a great honor, but what happens when the new Moth Keeper decides to take a break from the moon and see the sun for the first time? From the author of the beloved Tea Dragon Society comes a must-read for fans of the rich fantasies of Hayao Miyazaki and the magical adventures of Witch Hat Atelier.
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The Passing Playbook
by Isaac Fitzsimons
Spencer Harris seems to have it all: A decent shot at a starting position on the boy’s soccer team, great friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The only problem is, no one at school knows Spencer is trans — he’s passing. Spencer has to decide if he should be true to himself even though it means coming out to everyone — including the guy he’s falling for.
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The Ship We Built
by Lexie Bean
Rowan has too many secrets to write down in the pages of a diary. He’s not the “right kind” of girl, and he’s not the “right kind” of boy. Then, Rowan discovers another way to share his secrets: Letters. Letters he attaches to balloons and releases into the universe, hoping someone new will read them and understand. But when he befriends a classmate who knows what it’s like to be lonely and scared, even at home, Rowan realizes there might already be a person he can trust right by his side.
Content warning: This book contains sexual abuse.
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The Crane Wife
by CJ Hauser
A memoir in essays that expands on the viral sensation “The Crane Wife” with a frank and funny look at love, intimacy, and self in the twenty-first century. From friends and lovers to blood family and chosen family, this “elegant masterpiece” (Roxane Gay) asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all.
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Beyond the Gender Binary
by Alok Vaid-Menon
Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression.
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Horse Barbie
by Geena Rocero
The heartfelt memoir of a trans pageant queen from the Philippines who went back into the closet to model in New York City — until she realized that living her truth was the only way to step into her full power.
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Falling Back in Love with Being Human
by Kai Cheng Thom
What happens when we imagine loving the people — and the parts of ourselves — that we do not believe are worthy of love? A transformative collection of intimate and lyrical love letters that offer a path toward compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.
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My Rainbow
by DeShanna Neal and Trinity Neal
A dedicated mom puts love into action as she creates the perfect rainbow-colored wig for her transgender daughter, based on the real-life experience of mother-daughter advocate duo Trinity and DeShanna Neal.
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Being Jazz
by Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community.
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The Borrow a Boyfriend Club
by Page Powars
A feel-good, coming-of-age rom-com from debut author Page Powars that follows a trans teen who joins a boyfriend borrowing service masquerading as an Italian Club to prove that he’s one of the guys, especially to its frustratingly handsome leader.
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Gender Outlaw
by Kate Bornstein
Gender Outlaw details Kate Bornstein’s transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, pushing us gently but profoundly to the furthest borders of the gender frontier.
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