Notable works on LGBTQIA+ topics (2024)

Visitors to the 2023 Pride Fest spin Princeton University Library's prize wheel. Photo credit: Brandon Johnson

In recognition of Pride Month, Princeton University Library shares media recommendations by students, staff, and faculty who visited Princeton University’s Pride Fair in April 2024.

Authors

Ursula K. Le Guin (Science fiction, fantasy, poetry, essay)

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (1929-2018) was a celebrated author whose body of work includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/Malamud and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America. (From ursulakleguin.com)

Everina Maxwell (Science fiction)

Everina Maxwell is the author of "Winter’s Orbit," a queer romantic space opera about a diplomat who enters into an arranged marriage to save his planet.

She grew up in Sussex, UK, which has come a long way from the days of Cold Comfort Farm and now has things like running water and Brighton Pier. She was lucky enough to live near a library that stocked Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey and Terry Pratchett, so spent all her spare time devouring science fiction and doorstopper fantasy, with her family’s Georgette Heyer collection always a reliable friend when the library books ran out. (from everinamaxwell.com) 

Douglas Stuart (Novelist)

​​Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author and fashion designer. His debut novel, "Shuggie Bain," won the 2020 Booker Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It won both the Debut of the Year, and the overall, Book of the Year, at the British Book Awards. Shuggie Bain is to be translated into 38 languages.

In April 2022, he published his second novel, "Young Mungo." He is currently at work on new writing.

His short stories, "Found Wanting," and "The Englishman," were published in The New Yorker magazine. His essay, "Poverty, Anxiety, and Gender in Scottish Working-Class Literature" was published by Lit Hub. (From douglasdstuart.com)

Carmen Maria Machado (Science fiction, fantasy, horror)

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir "In the Dream House," the graphic novel "The Low, Low Woods," and the award-winning short story collection "Her Body and Other Parties." She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed "Her Body and Other Parties" as a member of "The New Vanguard," one of "15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." (From carmenmariamachado.com)

Chen Chen (Poetry)

Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency" (2022) and "When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities" (2017), both published by BOA Editions. His latest chapbook is "Explodingly Yours" (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. He lives in Rochester, NY and teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College, Stonecoast, and Antioch. (From chenchenwrites.com)

Oscar Wilde (Epigram, drama, short story)

Oscar Wilde’s rich and dramatic portrayals of the human condition came during the height of the prosperity that swept through London in the Victorian Era of the late 19th century. At a time when all citizens of Britain were finally able to embrace literature the wealthy and educated could only once afford, Wilde wrote many short stories, plays, and poems that continue to inspire millions around the world. (From cmgww.com)

Books

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

Celebrated as a masterpiece from its first publication, "A Single Man" is the story of George, an English professor in suburban California left heartbroken after the death of his lover, Jim. With devastating clarity and humour, Christopher Isherwood shows George's determination to carry on, evoking the unexpected pleasures of life as well as the soul's ability to triumph over loneliness and alienation. (From worldcat.org)

Lo Que Hay by Sara Torres (Spanish language)

The narrative debut of award-winning poet Sara Torres combines lyricism and honesty to navigate grief, love and desire, her quests and her losses. The result of this journey is a map of the many cracks that make us human; an invitation to caress without fear the scars that make us who we are. (From amazon.com)

On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 

Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam--and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. (Provided by the publisher).

Girlhood by Melissa Febos

In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them.

Written with Febos’ characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, "Girlhood" is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

Films and TV Shows

Fellow Travelers (2023)

Follows the lives and volatile romance of two different men, through purges, wars, protests, and plagues, overcoming obstacles in the world. (From imdb.com)

Love, Victor (2020-2022)

Victor is a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation. (From imdb.com)

Pride (2014)

U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984. (From imdb.com)

Big Eden (2000)

Big Eden is a tiny, fictional town in northwestern Montana, as Preston Sturges or Frank Capra might have envisioned it. Timber and Cowboy country. This is the story of Henry Hart, a successful New York artist, who returns to the town of his childhood to care for the ailing grandfather who raised him. Back in Big Eden, Henry must come to terms with his relationship with Dean Stewart, his best friend from high school, as well as the object of his unrequited love. (From imdb.com)

Bottoms (2023) 

After they accidentally injure their high school's star quarterback Jeff by hitting him with a car, transforming them from awkward outcasts to overnight celebrities, best friends PJ and Josie concoct an elaborate lie about having spent time in a juvenile correction facility over the summer, and with their equally-awkward friend Hazel and teacher Mr G, they start a self-defense club for women in an attempt to lose their virginities to Brittany and Isabel, their cheerleader crushes. (From imdb.com)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

Pennsylvania, 1993. After getting caught with another girl, teenager Cameron Post is sent to a conversion therapy center run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh and her brother, Reverend Rick, whose treatment consists in repenting for feeling "same-sex attraction." Cameron befriends fellow sinners Jane and Adam, thus creating a new family to deal with the surrounding intolerance. (From imdb.com)

Published on June 1, 2024

Compiled by the Office of Library Communications