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LGBTQ Books
There is nothing like a good book to while away a winter’s day in front of a crackling fire, or to give as a perfect holiday gift. This season, the realm of the LGBTQ printed word offers a full spectrum of titles to engage even the picky reader.
Leading the list are the works of local author, playwright and impresario (and winner of the 2025 Shepherd Express LGBTQ Progress Award for the Arts) D.H. Gutzman. Recently released are several new titles to add to his dozen or so LGBTQ-themed mysteries and historic fiction. The most recent is Le Legionnaire, a murder mystery of gay romance, riffs and revenge set in 1939 Capri with a backstory that takes the reader from Chicago to Algiers and includes the likes of Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Mussolini’s son-in-law (and others) among its cast of characters. Gutzman’s knack for writing spellbinding page-turners makes any of his novels unreservedly recommended. They are available solely through Amazon in Kindle or hardcopy formats.
I turned to Milwaukee’s Gay Men’s Book Club member Konrad Kuchenbach for reading recommendations based on the group’s monthly selections. He noted the Club’s picks feature both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ authors and cited several titles, many of which were selected by maven of all things literary Carl Szatmary, the former owner of Outwords Books and founder of the Milwaukee LGBT Film Festival.
“The first book we read by a non-gay author was Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby in which the fathers of two gay sons seek revenge for their brutal murders,” Kuchenbach said. Among the list are several works by Percival Everett: James, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about an escaped slave set in the antebellum South; and Erasure, about the foibles of Black publishing that was made into the movie American Fiction. He also cited Wounded, overhung with the specter of Matthew Shepherd, and Trees, a novel that came out of Emmett Till’s murder. “All are very good reads with gay characters and broader connection to the social challenges of life in America,” Kuchenbach said.
Song to Myself
Another Club recommended title is Song to Myself by Arnie Kantrowitz. Kuchenbach described the work as “a wonderful picaresque novel that covers American gay history from the 1930s to the turn of the century. Kantrowitz was a lover of Walt Whitman as is the main character of this novel that includes Whitman's poetry is sprinkled throughout the book.” One of his “guilty pleasures” is Edmund White, whose last book The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir—he describes as “a delight” and also mentioned his preference for author Andrew Holleran.
LGBTQ history comes to life through a number of this season’s selections. They include the newly published biographies of two of the greats of LGBTQ arts and letters, Black writer James Baldwin and portraitist Don Bachardy.
Released in August of this year, Nicholas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story recounts the life of the 20th century’s leading gay Black author in a four-section format defined by Baldwin’s relationships and career. The 500-page tome is an exploration of queer identity and has been embraced by critics as a work of “immense scope and profound insight.” Weighty but thoroughly engaging, it should lead readers to read some of Baldwin’s classics (if they haven’t already).
A second freshly released biography is Michael Schreiber’s Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life. The author tells the story of the famed American portraitist who shared his life and art for over three decades with literary gay giant Christopher Isherwood. Schreiber’s bio shares insights and recollections gleaned through one-on-one conversations with the artist. Liza Minnelli called the work “A marvelous dance with words, enchanting, heady and daring!”
Speaking of Bachardy, his own Stars in My Eyes is a must-read follow-up, offering the reader a personal glimpse into the artist’s many sittings with celebrities of the last century including composer Aaron Copland, Bette Davis, Paulette Goddard and Ingrid Bergman. Bachardy’s candid impressions of his subjects from the self-absorbed to the self-effacing are themselves as revealing as the portraits he made of them.
Edited by Peter Parker, the two volume set, Some Men in London: Queer Life 1945-1959 and Some Men in London: Queer Life 1960-1967 offers a collection of short pieces in the form of diary entries, letters, police reports and other writings that serve as a Dantesque trip through the various circles of London gay life from the immediate post-war days of repression to the tentative dawning of liberation through the 1960s. Compelling and provocative, it serves as a reminder of the LGBTQ community’s relationship with hate and discrimination and a timely clarion for its continued engagement in its struggle for essential human rights.
Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee, a new destination for the literarily inclined is the woman-owned, queer-owned The Well Red Damsel: A Romance Bookstore (6429 W. North Ave.). Owner Natasha Meyer opened the romance-centric shop earlier this year and touts a “carefully curated selection that highlights diverse love stories, unforgettable characters and happily-ever-afters in every form.” The Well Red Damsel also hosts literary events, readings and book clubs that range from “Fantasy” and “Queer-themed,” to “Unhinged,” “Yee-Hockey” and “Well Nourished.” Meyer will certainly be happy to suggest stocking stuffers and more for those cold winter nights.
