In an effort to build a space for queer people like myself, every Tuesday I’ll be posting interviews, opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latinx/WOC community since I am Latinx.) Welcome to Queerly Not Straight! Enjoy and leave a comment below if you have a suggestion for what I should cover next.
Transgender and nonbinary stories are human stories grounded in acceptance and an understanding that their stories are worth telling. So in honor of trans & nonbinary readers/writers out there and Pride Month 2020, we’ve put together a list of 16 transgender and nonbinary authors you should check out today! And when you’re done, make sure to buy, support, and let these authors know how you feel about their work!
1. Nita Tyndall
Bio: Nita is a short Southern queer with very strong opinions about the best kind of barbecue (hint: it’s vinegar-based.) They are a 2017 Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat Fellow in YA literature. In addition to being a YA writer, they moderate for YA Pride and do literary translation from German to English. You can find them on Tumblr at nitatyndall where they post about YA and queer things, or on Twitter @NitaTyndall. They live in North Carolina with their partner and pets.
Latest Book: Who I Was with Her
Available: September 15, 2020 on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Nita Tyndall on Twitter HERE.
Add Who I Was with Her to your Goodreads HERE.
2. Akwaeke Emezi
Bio: Akwaeke Emezi is a writer and visual artist based in liminal spaces. A 2018 National Book Foundation ‘5 Under 35’ honoree, Emezi’s sophomore adult novel, THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books on August 4, 2020 and is available for pre-order now. It has beennamed one of the most anticipated books of the year by The New York Times, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, BuzzFeed, and more. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Emezi is currently working on their sixth novel.
Latest Book: The Death of Vivek Oji
Available: August 4, 2020 on Amazon and IndieBound
Follow Akwaeke Emezi on Twitter HERE.
Add The Death of Vivek Oji to your Goodreads HERE.
3. Aiden Thomas
Bio: Aiden Thomas is a YA author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. As a queer, trans Latinx, Aiden advocates strongly for diverse representation in all media. Aiden’s special talents include: quoting The Office, Harry Potter trivia, Jenga, finishing sentences with “is my FAVORITE”, and killing spiders. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color.
Debut Novel: Cemetery Boys
Available: September 1, 2020 on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Aiden Thomas on Twitter HERE.
Add Cemetery Boys to your Goodreads HERE.
4. Charlie Jane Anders
Bio: Charlie Jane Anders’ latest novel is The City in the Middle of the Night. She’s also the author of All the Birds in the Sky, which won the Nebula, Crawford and Locus awards, and Choir Boy, which won a Lambda Literary Award. Plus a novella called Rock Manning Goes For Broke and a short story collection called Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.
Latest Book: The City in the Middle of the Night
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Charlie Jane Anders on Twitter HERE.
Add The City in the Middle of the Night to your Goodreads HERE.
5. Charlotte Nicole Davis
Bio: Charlotte Nicole Davis is the author of The Good Luck Girls, a young adult fantasy novel releasing in Fall 2019 with Tor Teen. A graduate of The New School’s Writing for Children MFA program, Charlotte loves comic book movies and books with maps in the front. She currently lives in Brooklyn with a cat with a crooked tail.
Latest Book: The Good Luck Girls
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Charlotte Nicole Davis on Twitter HERE.
Add The Good Luck Girls to your Goodreads HERE.
6. Rivers Solomon
Bio: Rivers Solomon is a dyke, an anarchist, a she-beast, an exile, a wound, a shiv, a wreck, and a refugee of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. They write about life in the margins, where they are much at home.
Latest Book: The Deep
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Rivers Solomon on Twitter HERE.
Add The Deep to your Goodreads HERE.
7. Mark Oshiro
Bio: Mark Oshiro is the author of Anger is a Gift (Tor Teen), winner of the 2019 Schneider Family Book Award and nominated for a 2019 Lammy Award (in the LGBTQ Children’s/Young Adult category). Upcoming novels include Each of Us a Desert (Tor Teen), a YA Fantasy novel out September 15, 2020, and The Insiders (Harper Collins), a MG Contemporary with magical elements out Fall 2021. When they are not writing, crying on camera about fictional characters for their online Mark Does Stuff universe, or traveling, Mark is busy trying to fulfill their lifelong goal: to pet every dog in the world.
Latest Book: Each of Us a Desert
Available: September 15, 2020 on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Mark Oshiro on Twitter HERE.
Add Each of Us a Desert to your Goodreads HERE.
8. Meredith Russo
Bio: Meredith Russo lives in Brooklyn with her cat Shadow and probably more books than is responsible for a New York apartment. When she isn’t upsetting Yankees by smiling and making eye contact on the 3 train she spends her time lifting weights, playing fighting games, blowing up the mic at karaoke, glancing anxiously at her TBR pile, and, of course, working on her next book.
Latest Book: Birthday
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Meredith Russo on Twitter HERE.
Add Birthday to your Goodreads HERE.
9. Taylor Brooke Barton
Bio: Taylor Brooke Barton (they/them) writes Queer books filled with magic and attitude. After an exciting career in Special Effects Makeup, they moved to Oregon and settled in the mountains with their plants and one-toothed cat. They moonlight as a tarot and palm reader in the Pacific Northwest.
Latest Book: The Ninth Life
Available: September 15, 2020 on Amazon and Indiebound
Add The Ninth Life to your Goodreads HERE.
10. Amy Rose Capetta
Bio: Amy Rose Capetta [she/they] is a bestselling and acclaimed author of YA fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery. Amy Rose’s first novels, Entangled and Unmade, comprise a spacepunk duet. Echo After Echo, a queer love story wrapped in a murder mystery and set on Broadway, was an ALA Rainbow List Selection and JLG Selection. Once & Future, a bestselling Arthurian space fantasy co-written with Cori McCarthy, received four starred reviews and was a finalist for the New England Book Award. The Lost Coast, aka queer teen witches in the redwoods, landed on Booklist’s Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror for Youth. Sequels to The Brilliant Death and Once & Future are forthcoming in 2020!
Latest Book: Sword in the Stars
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Amy Rose Capetta on Twitter HERE.
Add Sword in the Stars to your Goodreads HERE.
11. Mason Deaver
Bio: Mason Deaver is a non-binary author and bookseller who lives in Charlotte, NC, where the word ‘y’all’ is used in abundance. Typically, they’re writing incredibly queer stories, but when they decide to take a break, they love gardening, baking, and playing video games.
Latest Book: I Wish You All the Best
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Mason Deaver on Twitter HERE.
Add I Wish You All the Best to your Goodreads HERE.
12. Anna-Marie McLemore
Bio: ¡Bienvenidos! I’m Anna-Marie, author of fairy tales that are as queer, Latinx, and nonbinary as I am. My books include THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS, a 2016 William C. Morris YA Debut Award Finalist; 2017 Stonewall Honor Book WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature; WILD BEAUTY, a Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Booklist best book of 2017; BLANCA & ROJA, a New York Times Books Review Editors’ Choice; DARK AND DEEPEST RED, a Winter 2020 Indie Next List selection; and the forthcoming THE MIRROR SEASON.
Latest Book: Dark and Deepest Red
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Anna-Marie McLemore on Twitter HERE.
Add Dark and Deepest Red to your Goodreads HERE.
13. Kacen Callender
Bio: Born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, Kacen Callender is the award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies, the young-adult novels This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After, and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered.
Latest Book: Felix Ever After
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Kacen Callender on Twitter HERE.
Add Felix Ever After to your Goodreads HERE.
14. Alex Gino
Bio: Alex Gino loves glitter, ice cream, gardening, awe-ful puns, and stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of being alive. They would take a quiet coffee date with a friend over a loud and crowded party any day. A former LSAT tutor who never touched law school, Alex can still talk your ear off about sufficient and necessary conditions.
Latest Book: Rick
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Alex Gino on Twitter HERE.
Add Rick to your Goodreads HERE.
15. Claribel A. Ortega
Bio: Claribel A. Ortega is a former reporter who writes YA & MG fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she’s not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic and video games into books, she’s filming videos for her YouTube channel or making GIFS for her small graphic design business, GIFGRRL.
Latest Book: Ghost Squad
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Claribel A. Ortega on Twitter HERE.
Add Ghost Squad to your Goodreads HERE.
16. Victoria Lee
Bio: Victoria Lee grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent twelve ascetic years as a vegetarian before discovering spicy chicken wings are, in fact, a delicacy. She’s been a state finalist competitive pianist, a hitchhiker, a pizza connoisseur, an EMT, an expat in China and Sweden, and a science doctoral student. She’s also a bit of a snob about fancy whisky.
Latest Book: The Electric Heir
Available: NOW on Amazon and Indiebound
Follow Victoria Lee on Twitter HERE.
Add The Electric Heir to your Goodreads HERE.
Queerly Not Straight posts every Tuesday with opinion pieces, listicals, reviews, and more focused on the LGBT community (and occasionally about the Latinx community since I am Latinx.)
Don’t miss out on posts like this! SUBSCRIBE to our monthly newsletter HERE!
