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10 Queer Books by Black Queer Authors

It's Black History Month here in the UK, so we're focusing on stories written by black queer authors with black queer protagonists and narratives. From thrilling dystopian sci-fi to incredible YA fantasy, here are ten books about black girl magic and black boy joy from brilliant black authors:


1. Survive The Dome - Kosoko Jackson

YA Dystopian Science Fiction - Fiction

Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 14+


Jamal Lawson just wanted to be a part of something. As an aspiring journalist, he packs up his camera and heads to Baltimore to document a rally protesting police brutality after another Black man is murdered. But before it even really begins, the city implements a new safety protocol...the Dome. The Dome surrounds the city, forcing those within to subscribe to a total militarized shutdown. No one can get in, and no one can get out.



2. Greenland - David Santos Donaldson

Historical Fiction - Fiction

Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 18+


A dazzling, debut novel-within-a-novel about a young author writing about the secret love affair between E.M. Forster and Mohammed el Adl--in which Mohammed's story collides with his own, blending fact and fiction.


In 1919, Mohammed el Adl, the young Egyptian lover of British author E. M. Forster, spent six months in a jail cell. A century later, Kip Starling has locked himself in his Brooklyn basement study with a pistol and twenty-one gallons of Poland Spring to write Mohammed's story.



3. Real Life - Brandon Taylor

Contemporary Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 18+


Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defences.



4. This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron

YA Fantasy Romance - Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Women

Reading age: 14+


Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.


When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.



5. Wash Day Diaries - Jamila Rowser

Slice-Of-Life - Graphic Novel

Queer Rep: Queer Women

Reading age: 16+


From writer Jamila Rowser and artist Robyn Smith comes a captivating graphic novel love letter to the beauty and endurance of Black women, their friendships, and their hair. Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends - Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie - through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx.



6. Memorial - Bryan Washington

Contemporary Romance - Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 18+


Benson and Mike are two young guys who have been together for a few years - good years - but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye.



7. 100 Boyfriends - Brontez Purnell

Fictional Memoir - Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 18+ (Explicit)


Brontez Purnell's 100 Boyfriends is a filthy, unforgettable, and brutally profound ode to queer love in its most messy of variations. From one-night stands to recurring lovers, Purnell's characters sleep with their co-worker's husbands, expose themselves to racist neighbours, date Satanists, and drink their way out of trouble, all the while fighting - and often losing - the urge to self-sabotage


A riotous journey through dirty warehouses and gentrified bars, from dysfunctional houseshares to desolate farming towns in Alabama.



8. Bitter - Akwaeke Emezi

YA Magical Realism/Fantasy - Fiction Queer Rep: LGBTQ+ Cast

Reading age: 13+


Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the town of Lucille. Bitter's instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus . . . but her friends aren't willing to settle for a world that the adults say is "just the way things are".


Pulled between old friendships, her creative passion, and a new romance, Bitter isn't sure where she belongs. If she does find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?



9. Far Sector - N.K. Jemisin

Superheroes - Graphic Novels

Queer Rep: Bisexual Women

Reading age: 16+


For the past six months, newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner "Jo" Mullein has been protecting the City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people. The city has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel. As a result, violent crime is virtually unheard of, and murder is nonexistent. But that's all about to change in this new maxiseries that gives a DC Young Animal spin to the legacy of the Green Lanterns!



10: All Boys Aren't Blue - George M. Johnson

YA Memoir - Non-Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Men

Reading age: 13+


In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting their teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with their loving grandmother, to their first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.


NOTE: They/Them pronouns are used in this description as the author of this memoir has come out as non-binary post-publication.



Bonus: Sorrowland - Rivers Solomon

Fantasy Horror - Fiction Queer Rep: Queer Women, Intersex, Non-Binary & Genderqueer

Reading age: 17+


Vern - seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised - flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.


But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.





Think we've missed something? Send us your book recommendations and requests on twitter @ProudGeekStore or email us at contact@proud-geek.co.uk ✌


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