Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

Probably the only genre not yet represented in a monthly book poll is literary fiction by LGBT People of Color. I'd like to post a poll of gay fiction in the near future but am not liking the results I get from the normal Amazon and Google searches. If any members know of noteworthy gay fiction they would like to see in a monthly poll please post the title and author on this thread. Thanks!

it's hard to find. i comb the webz for it all the time, and, i tell you, it's hard to find.

so i've totally been lurking by proxy seeing jo & rashida's comments in my feed and thinking 'oh i should really join that group someday and participate for real." but then i saw this post! and then i had to join!

recommendations (mostly queergirl):

Forgetting the Alamo by Emma Perez
What Night Brings by Carla Trujillo
Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties by Felicia Luna Lemus
Malinda Lo
Achy Obejas
Shay Youngblood
The Color Purple (of course) by Alice Walker
Zami (do we consider Zami fiction? unsure.) by Audre Lorde
The House You Pass on the Way and From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson
Babyji by Abha Dawesar
Nina Revoyr
Dahlia Season by Myriam Gurba

I just absolutely love anything by Audre Lorde Zami: A New Spelling of My Name but I do believe it is a memoir/autobiography.

Thanks Sarah! And glad you decided to come onboard!

ah, i don't know why, but i was thinking of african american and i was thinking of women (don't know why -- my mind went there).


Funny Boy
Blue Boy
A Visitation of Spirits: A Novel (african american!)
Trumpet again and always haha
nina revoyr is awesome but i don't know if her books other than The Necessary Hunger (fabulous) are queer-centric.
Call Me by Your Name
JEWELLE GOMEZ!
A Life Apart
Shamim Sarif
maybe michelle cliff's Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant

p.s. thank you sarah!!!! you totally jump started me!

Awesome idea, William!

Some suggestions:
1. Finlater - Shawn Stewart Ruff
2. Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr
3. Leche - R. Zamora Linmark
4. Go the way your blood beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay fiction by African American Writers.
5. 98 Wounds - Justin Chin
6. Infants of the Spring - Wallace Thurman
7. Trumpet - Jackie Kay 
8. Let the Dead Bury their Dead - Randall Kenan  
9. Zami -  Audre Lorde -- call it fiction, memoir, autobiography or even as Ms. Lorde called it, biomythography, it's still one of the most amazing and honest pieces of literature you will find anywhere.

....and certainly not considered what many - or most  - would label literature but included for the sheer impact he has had on young LGBT people of color:

E. Lynn Harris:
- Invisible Life
- Just As I Am
 

Thanks Jo and Columbus!

hey bill, check out the nominees (and past winners) of the lambda awards. i'm afraid you're going to have to do some googling to check who are the people of color, but at least with some you can go on names. nina revoyr, much mentioned here, is partly african american and partly asian (i think).

also: Chris Abani doesn't identify as queer, but there is a lot of queerness is his books. just sayin'.

That last comment made me laugh..just yesterday a rather prim friend of mine was complaining about a Chris Abani story I recommended for her...now I get it..

And not to forget Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

A lot of Jacqueline Woodson's books have at least one queer character.

The Unsimple Truth by J. Reneé LaCour
What We All Long For by Dionne Brand

Here in Goodreads.com we have glbt literature:

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/s...

Lisa C. Moore is the founder and editor of Redbone Press, a publishing house for African American lesbian and gay men. Some good, undiscovered literary works here. http://www.redbonepress.com/

hey, do we have stacyann chin in this list? she belongs here!

Columbus wrote: "Lisa C. Moore is the founder and editor of Redbone Press, a publishing house for African American lesbian and gay men. Some good, undiscovered literary works here. http://www.redbonepress.com/"

thanks, columbus, it looks like a great press!

Willian and All! thank you, thank you! I'm so grateful. I've posted a similar question on LGBT groups here and on Amazon and the responses had been sadly slim. But here, you rock!

I'll have a hard time picking five out of all these great titles for the poll...!

This forthcoming collection looks tres interesante. Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction

just to keep this thread going: Rahul Mehta's debut short-story collection Quarantine: Stories.

i took the liberty to rename this thread, for easier access and consumption!

Fledgling By: Octavia Butler

This is a great idea. Personally I haven't read much but I do love Baldwin so I am looking forward to future reads.

The Philippines have a lot of very good LGBT books. =P

Nikki Baker's Virginia Kelly mysteries are great.



Canaan Parker is one of those classic authors who got lost I guess Color of Trees.

Rebecca Walker's Black, White and Jewish is one that comes to mind.

I've been rather indecisive about posting the following book, as it doesn't really fall under the LGBT genre.

I bring it up because one of the main character's is gay. However, the fact that he's gay is in no way a plot point. I know, I know, that's why it's not a LGBT genre.

Killing Moon is a fantasy novel and is therefore set in a different world. The people of the world have a different view of sexuality. The fact that the main character is gay isn't a plot point, because in this world liking the same sex isn't "strange."

I really appreciated the normalness of his sexual orientation. It honestly makes me hopeful of a future where your sexual orientation has nothing to do with equality.

I know it doesn't fit in the usual sense, but I feel like it deserves a mention.

hey ashley, to me, everything you say makes this ENTIRELY and TOTALLY an lgbt book! thanks for posting it!

i agree. killing moon is totally lgbt. precisely because sexuality in the book is NOT a big deal. that's queering.

and speaking of n.k. jemisin. has anyone mentioned Kingdom of the Gods and the whole 100K Kingdoms series? (did i?) because sieh? totally queer. also nahadoth and itempas, although those two are on a more meta-level while most of the romantic lead plotlines are hetero within a lens of sexual fluidity.

ack! it took out my spoiler html i think! spoilers above!

Yay! Thanks for the feed back Jo.

A few authors and titles:

Nalo Hopkinson,
The Salt Roads, The New Moon's Arms and Midnight Robber
Dionne Brand, In Another Place, Not Here, At the Full and Change of the Moon, What We All Long For
Larissa Lai,
When Fox Is a Thousand

Michelle Cliff,
No Telephone To Heaven

Keyword search under "Lesbian" @ Voices from The Gaps [reference site on women writers of color]
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages...
[trans doesn't exist, and bisexual came up empty (!!!)]

Lisa C. Moore mentioned above is one of the spearheaders of Fire and Ink, black LGBT writer/reader convention: http://fireandink.org/.



Rosamund Elwin, "ASHA's Mums: By Rosamund Elwin & Michele Paulse; Illustrated by Dawn Lee",
Tongues on Fire Caribbean/Lesbian Lives [seems out of print, doubly regretting that my copy went AWOL a decade ago!]

Anacaona wrote: "Michelle Cliff,
No Telephone To Heaven

Keyword search under "Lesbian" @ Voices from The Gaps [reference site on women writers of color]
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages......"

I understand the Fire & Ink workshops are really nice and Lisa and Fullwood do a phenomenal job. Thanks for the posting!

Alexander Chee's Edinburgh is great

The Black Like Us anthology is a good resource for Black LGBT folks.

thank you matthew and evelyn!

Jo, is the kind lady who sent me a copy of CHILDREN OF THE STREET. I misplaced the email. So sorry. Would like to say thank you here. Hope you see this message. Thanks again.

Any titles that are being published/released in 2013. Pride Month is in June. I can add The City of Devi by Manil Suri! Others?

Ming wrote: "Any titles that are being published/released in 2013. Pride Month is in May. I can add The City of Devi by Manil Suri available on Tues! Others?"

Ming, I couldn't find any list of upcoming LGBT titles, unfortunately. I checked the Lambda Literary site along with some others that typically list them and found absolutely nothing. Many LGBT writers are not writing exclusively gay storylines anymore and writing for the wider public instead. The ghettoization of this literature or writing is no longer necessary, maybe? I don't know. I'm not sure if this is a positive or not but it doesn't necessarily make me happy. What do others think?

This book has been receiving very good pre-release reviews.

Mondo Cruel by Luis Negron - to be published Feb 26th.

It is a short story collection that gives insight into gay life in Puerto Rico.

Beverly wrote: "This book has been receiving very good pre-release reviews.

Mondo Cruel by Luis Negron - to be published Feb 26th.

It is a short story collection that gives insight into gay life in Puerto Rico."

Thanks, Beverly...Justin Torres praised it as well. Good looking out!

Beverly, thanks. I just finished City of Devi. Here's a really interesting interview with the author: http://bookdragon.si.edu/2013/02/04/t...

Michael Nava mystery series featuring Henry Rios. 7 books in all.

usually anything by Jaquline Woodson ... i have several anthologies w/her short stories. i read also skyy's choices. fiona zedde as well.

25th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Several authors of color mentioned (including Benjamin Alire Saenz who is also shortlisted for the Pen/Faulkner Award) - lots of categories

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/foundat...

Beverly wrote: "25th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced

Several authors of color mentioned (including Benjamin Alire Saenz who is also shortlisted for the Pen/Faulkner Award) - lots of categories
..."

thanks, Beverly! I'll take a look