While the COVID-19 pandemic rages, reading remains a great escape from the doldrums of excessive media marathons for those still self-confining (or anyone for that matter). Even a stalwart fan recently confessed he could no longer watch SpongeBob SquarePants. Maybe it’s time for a good book.
But what to read? Nowadays it would seem fitting to turn to James Baldwin, Black gay author who wrote about civil rights, race, class and masculinity through the prism of his own Black gay experience. Then there are the works of civil rights icon and proponent of LGBTQ rights, John Lewis. His graphic novel trilogy, March, should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the civil rights struggle, including our own. Finally, the poetry and other writings of Maya Angelou would afford another perspective and insight into the issues we confront today. The first of her seven autobiographical novels, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is still banned from some libraries and schools due to its lesbian and other sexual episodes.
A new contemporary writer Terry Dyer has recently released Letters to a Gay Black Boy. As the title implies it’s an epistolary work with each chapter written as a letter. A therapeutic work, this personal memoir is full of poignant examples of the young Black gay experience in negotiating sexual identity.
Terrific Stuff
For other specifically LGBTQ relevant books I asked Carl Szatmary, purveyor of LGBTQ literature for nearly three decades as owner of Outwords, one of the world’s few remaining LGBTQ dedicated bookstores, for a list of his recommendations. “For genre readers there’s tons of stuff that’s terrific at the moment,” Szatmary says. His list begins with local author David Pederson who has just published the latest of his gay-themed murder mysteries, Death Overdue. Set in Milwaukee, it’s the author’s fifth in his Detective Heath Barrington mystery series and, according to Szatmary, “a fun, family friendly murder mystery.”
As for gay romance, Andrew Grey continues to be a leading author for Dreamspinner Press. The former Milwaukeean now lives in Pennsylvania with his husband and had penned over 100 novels. His latest, Fire and Diamond, is #6 of his Carlisle Deputy series and promises a complex plot of alternative family ties and, of course, steamy romance.
New and notable is a quasi-trans coming-of-age novel The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta about a mixed gay teen who finds himself realized in the drag artist persona of the Black Flamingo. Critics have raved about Atta’s work with a litany of superlatives and such appellations as “lyrical, intimate, hilarious and gorgeous.” It definitely sounds like a must-read.
A superhero coming out story appears as a young adult graphic novel, You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez and illustrated by Julie Rameau (Blue is the Warmest Color). Szatmary made special note of the interesting combination of the artist and author in this collaborative effort. Polish author Tomasz Jadrowski’s Swimming in the Dark is, according to Szatmary, “sort of a Polish Call Me by Your Name.”
Highly recommended is the critically praised Tomboyland: Essays, Melissa Faliveno’s exploration of the Midwest (Wisconsin in particular) and its relationship to her sexual identity and parenthood. Timely from notable lesbian author Emma Donoghue is The Pull of the Stars. Set in a Dublin hospital during the Spanish flu of 1918, it portrays three women, their vulnerability and resilience. Szatmary also mentions Casey McQuiston’s best seller and quintessential beach read, Red White and Royal Blue, a young adult queer romance involving the Prince Henry of Wales and Alex, the gay son of the first female US president.
Meanwhile, Outwords Books is open and running as normal but sadly without the social ambiance of the coffee bar for the time being. It now provides curbside service for shoppers if desired. The Outwords Women’s Book Club is on hiatus but coming back in autumn. The men’s reading group has adopted ZOOM as its meeting format.
Check in at Outwords for additional reading recommendations.
To read more My LGBTQ POV columns by Paul Masterson, click here.
