A Queer Reading List

Posted by Anonymous on



To celebrate the launching of the new Queer Reading Group in Lewisham Library, we have put together this LGBT+ Reading list. It features a selection of books and films by LGBT authors, directors and editors or other works that tackle LGBT issues. Most are available through Lewisham library or through the London Libraries Consortium.
The reading group is lead by Lewisham LBGT Forum meets the last Monday of every month in Lewisham Library from 7.30pm.

LGBT+ Non Fiction


 
50 queers that changed the world: a celebration of LGBTQ icons 
By Dan Jones,

Featuring beautifully illustrated portraits and profiles, 50 Queers Who Changed the World is a tribute to some of the most inspirational people of all time.

LGBTQ people are some of the coolest in history - legendary figures such as Freddie Mercury, Virginia Woolf, Laverne Cox, Harvey Milk and Audre Lorde have made an unforgettable impact. Queer subculture has had an enormous influence on style, music, art and literature - the queer community were the first to vogue, throw shade and say YAS to life before it hit the mainstream.

From Oscar Wilde, who defended his homosexual relationships in court, to RuPaul acting as an ambassador for drag on network television, queer people have fought to express their identities and make a difference. This book will celebrate the lives, work and unique perspectives of the icons who changed the world.

Elegantly illustrated and packaged, these stories make utterly inspirational reading.
 
 

A boxful of ideas: poetry and prose by LGBT writers  
by John Dixon,

An anthology of poetry and prose by members of the Gay Authors Workshop, comprising 80 items by 30 authors. The fiction includes short stories, excerpts from novels, flash fiction and a monologue; non-fiction includes essays and confidences, and a diary. Poems include haiku, song lyrics, hymns, a villanelle, a sonnet sequence, a limerick, concrete poems and much free verse. All but a few of the items have never previously been published.

 
 

Grief Map Campbell
by Sarah Hahn,


"Maybe my map will help a little. If only to comfort, to say: someone else visited this place; someone else survived to make this map."
When Sarah Hahn Campbell learned of the sudden and inexplicable death of her partner, Lia, she was thousands of miles away from the Alaska town where they made a life together. Lia's mental deterioration had forced her to flee to protect her daughter's safety and her own emotional well-being -- but she never stopped loving Lia, never believed their relationship over. The unexpected news of Lia's death plunged her into terrible grief, guilt, and self-doubt, raising painful questions she couldn't find the answers to.
Grief Map is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of the aftermath, a lyrical guide to her journey in the landscape of love through loss and beyond, to the rediscovery of hope and the possibility of happiness. With passion and fearless dedication, Campbell explores the history of her relationship, her discovery of lesbian identity, and the innumerable gifts and hardships of love to offer an account that is part memoir, part poetry, part elegy -- a map that is universal, and will speak to anyone who has loved.
 
 

Good as you
by Paul Flynn,

In 1984 the pulsing electronics and soft vocals of Smalltown Boy would become an anthem uniting gay men. A month later, an aggressive virus, HIV, would be identified and a climate of panic and fear would spread across the nation, marginalising an already ostracised community. Yet, out of this terror would come tenderness and 30 years later, the long road to gay equality would climax with the passing of same sex marriage.

Paul Flynn charts this astonishing pop cultural and societal U-turn via the cultural milestones that effected change-from Manchester's self-selection as Britain's gay capital to the real-time romance of Elton John and David Furnish's eventual marriage. Including candid interviews from major protagonists, such as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith, as well as the relative unknowns crucial to the gay community, we see how an unlikely group of bedfellows fought for equality both front of stage and in the wings.

This is the story of Britain's brothers, cousins and sons. Sometimes it is the story of their fathers and husbands. It is one of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and the desperate lows, and the final collective victory as gay men were final recognised, as Good As You.

 
 

London and the culture of homosexuality, 1885-1914
By Matt Cook,

  London and the Culture of Homosexuality explores the relationship between London and male homosexuality from the criminalization of all 'acts of gross indecency' between men in 1885 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 - years marked by an intensification in concern about male-male relationships and also by the emergence of an embryonic homosexual rights movement. Taking his cue from literary and lesbian and gay scholars, urban historians and cultural geographers, Matt Cook combines discussion of London's homosexual subculture and various major and minor scandals with a detailed examination of representations in the press, in science and in literature.
 The conjunction of approaches used in this study provides insights into the development of ideas about the modern homosexual and into the many different ways of comprehending and taking part in London's culture of homosexuality.
 
 

Our Happy Hours, LGBT Voices from the Gay Bars
by Lee Lynch,

During the days and nights following the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the world listened as various spokespersons attempted to explain to the general public exactly what the gay bar/club meant to LGBTQI people. The words "safe place," "refuge," "free to be ourselves" flew through the air.

We queer writers grappled with the tragedy alongside our brothers and sisters. How could we express our feelings about the places where we could drop all pretense of conforming to the hetero-normative society's rules? What words could we gather to let the rest of the world know the pain we felt upon losing so many beautiful strangers on a night in June and in a place that had been one of our havens?

How and why does the gay bar intersect so many of our lives?
the stories and poems living between the covers of this book attempt to answer those questions. Spend a few happy hours with us in our gay bars.
All proceeds will be given to LGBTQI Youth charities.

 
 

Queer city: London club culture 1918-1967 
By Rowena Hillel,

For much of the twentieth century being openly gay would frequently lead to prosecution and imprisonment; this guidebook seeks to tell the important story of some of the clandestine LGBTQ+ spaces that were raided and closed by police in London during this time. Photographs, court reports, police papers and witness statements on five different clubs of the era were selected from The National Archives' extensive collection to tell the story of these places and the people that inhabited them. The documents reveal great detail and insights into club culture and the everyday prejudices facing the homosexual community at the time.
 This guidebook is part of the National Trust's and The National Archive's programmes to explore and celebrate themes of gender and sexuality in 2017 as part of the nation's commemoration to mark 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.
 
 
Queer city: Gay London from the Romans to the present day
By Peter Ackroyd,

In Queer City Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way - through the history and experiences of its gay population.

In Roman Londinium the city was dotted with lupanaria ('wolf dens' or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels) and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure.

Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music and the horror of AIDS.

Today, we live in an era of openness and tolerance and Queer London has become part of the new norm. Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand; but reminding us of its very real terrors, dangers and risks on the other.
 
 

Queer Families: An Lgbtq+ True Stories Anthology
by Sage Kalmus,

Every family has a rainbow sheep! These are some of their stories. The premiere publication in Qommunicate Media's LGBTQ+ True Stories Anthology Series features stories and poems by children of gay dads and lesbian moms, transgender fathers and children, queer aunts and uncles, and others about life in their families -- all "straight" from the rainbow sheeps' mouths .

 
 

At My Mother's Knee...And Other Low Joints
by Paul O'Grady

Paul O'Grady is one of Britain's very best loved entertainers. He is known and adored by millions, whether as the creator of the acid-tongued Blonde Bombsite, Lily Savage, the presenter of the fantastically successful, award-winning Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4 or the massive hit ITV show, For the Love of Dogs.
Now, in his own unique voice, Paul O'Grady tells story of his early life in Irish Catholic Birkenhead that started him on the long and winding road from mischievous altar boy to national treasure. It is a brilliantly evoked, hilarious and often moving tale of gossip in the back yard, bragging in the corner shop and slanging matches on the front doorstep, populated by larger-than-life characters with hearts of gold and tongues as sharp as razors.
At My Mother's Knee features an unforgettable cast of rogues, rascals, lovers, fighters, saints and sinners - and one iconic bus conductress. It's a book which really does have something for everyone and which reminds us that, when all's said and done, there's a bit of savage in all of us...
 
 

Walking a Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by Lgbtq Writers from Africa 
by Animashaun Abayomi, 2016.

 
 

LGBT+ Fiction


 
 

The Argonauts
by Maggie Nelson

An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and familyMaggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge.
This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family-making.Writing in the spirit of public intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, Nelson binds her personal experience to a rigorous exploration of what iconic theorists have said about sexuality, gender, and the vexed institutions of marriage and child-rearing. Nelson's insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying...
 
 


A Brief History of Seven Killings
by Marlon James, 1976.

Seven gunmen storm Bob Marley's house, machine guns blazing. The reggae superstar survives, but the gunmen are never caught.

From the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Women comes a dazzling display of masterful storytelling exploring this near-mythic event. Spanning three decades and crossing continents, A Brief History of Seven Killings chronicles the lives of a host of unforgettable characters - slum kids, one-night stands, drug lords, girlfriends, gunmen, journalists, and even the CIA. Gripping and inventive, ambitious and mesmerising, A Brief History of Seven Killings is one of the most remarkable and extraordinary novels of the twenty-first century.
 
 

Go Tell it on the Mountain
by James Baldwin,

The electrifying first novel from James Baldwin, whose life and words are immortalized in the Oscar-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro
'I had to deal with what hurt me most. I had to deal with my father.'

Drawing on James Baldwin's own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if 'the Holy Ghost were riding on the air'. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind.

 
 

Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D. H. Lawrence,

D. H. Lawrence's classic romance novel. Lady Constance Chatterley's husband Clifford Chatterley is paralysed and rendered impotent, leading Constance into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors.     
 
 

Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin,

A new edition published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Baldwin's death, including a new introduction by an important contemporary writer Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic.
His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written

   

Mislaid & the Wallcreeper
by Nell Zink

Virginia, 1966. The motionless deeps of the lake outside Stillwater College are being ruffled. Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, is determinedly fondling Peggy, an ingénue freshman with literary pretensions, in his canoe. So begins a long affair but the two are mismatched from the start.
The story that follows rocks the boat in every sense. Nell Zink's hugely entertaining, totally unique Mislaid explodes the nuclear family and topples every foundation of identity - black and white, gay and straight, "normal" and very very strange.

THE WALLCREEPER
Interlaken, Berne, 21st century. Several things happen after the car hits the rock. Tiff ceases to be pregnant. Stephen captures, like, the most wonderful bird - fleet, stealthy, and beautiful - a real "lifer". And the wallcreeper, the wallcreeper says "twee".

The Wallcreeper is nothing more than a portrait of marriage, complete with all its requisite highs and lows: drugs, dubstep, small chores, anal sex, eco-terrorism, birding, breeding and feeding.

 
 
 

Orlando
by Virginia Woolf, 2014.

A young man in the court of the ageing Queen Elizabeth I, the beautiful Orlando seems to belong everywhere and nowhere. One morning, Orlando awakens transformed - transported into the eighteenth century, and the body of a woman.

One of the twentieth century's defining imaginings of queer identity, Orlando is a book of radical possibilities -boy and girl, past and future, nature and magic, life and history, love and literature. One of the most thrilling love letters in all literature, it trespasses thrillingly over the borders of place, time and self.

 
 
Sons and Lovers
by D. H. Lawrence,

Widely regarded as D.H. Lawrence's masterpiece, Sons and Lovers is a sprawling, multi-generational look at family relationships, class dynamics, and the intimate ties with others that pull young adults toward independence. This largely autobiographical novel made Lawrence's reputation as a writer-it's a must read for fans of classic literary fiction.
 
 

Time on Two Crosses:The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
by Devon Carbado

In 1956 Bayard Rustin taught Martin Luther King Jr. strategies of nonviolence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, thereby launching the civil rights movement. Widely acclaimed as a founding father of modern black protest, Rustin reached international notoriety in 1963 as the openly gay organizer of the March on Washington.Long before the March on Washington, Rustin's leadership placed him at the vanguard of social protest. His gay identity, however, became a point of contention with the movement, with the controversy embroiling even King himself.
Time on Two Crosses offers an insider's view of many of the defining political moments of our time. From Gandhi's impact on African Americans, white supremacists in Congress, and the assassination of Malcolm X to Rustin's never-before-published essays on Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, and the call for gay rights, Time on Two Crosses chronicles five decades of Rustin's commitment to justice and equality

 
 

The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall

As a man loved a woman, that was how I loved.It was good, good, good.'

Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents - a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.
 
 

LGBT+ Interest Film

 
 
 

A

 
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 – Dir. Jack Sholder – US - 1985 
 

B 

  • Beautiful Thing – Dir. Hettie Macdonald – UK -1996 
  • Behind the Candelabra – Dir. Stephen Soderbergh – US - 2013 
  • Blue is the Warmest Colour – Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche – France 2013 
  • Bound – The Wachowskis – US – 1996 
  •  Boy's Don't Cry – Dir. Kimberley Pierce – US 1999
 

C

 

  • Carol – Dir. Todd Haynes – US 2015 
  • Chasing Amy – Dir. Kevin Smith – US - 1997 
  • Closet Monster – Dir. Stephen Dunn – US 2015
  • Cruising – Dir. William Friedkin – US - 1980
 

D

 
  • Dallas Buyers Club – Dir. Jean-Marc Valee – US - 2013 
  • Dog Day Afternoon – Dir. Sidney Lumet – US 1975
 

E

 
Eyes Wide Open – Dir. Haim Tabakman – Israel - 2009
 

H

 
  • Happy Together – Dir. Kar-Wai Kong – China 1997
 

I

 
  • Interior. Leather Bar – Dir. James Franco – US – 2013
 

L

 
  • Love is Strange – Dir. Ira Sachs – US 2014
 

M

 
  • Milk – Dir. Gus Van Sant – US - 2008
  •  Mulholland Dr – Dir. David Lynch – US 2001
  • Moonlight- Barry Jenkins US 2016 
  •  My Beautiful Laundrette – Dir. Stephen Frears – UK 1985 
  • My Own Private Idaho – Dir. Gus Van Sant – US 1991 
  •  Mysterious Skin – Dir. Gregg Araki – US 2004
 

P


  • Pariah – Dir. Dee Rees – US 2011 
  • Paris is Burning – Dir. Jennie Livingston – US - 1990 
  • Pride – Dir. Matthew Warchus – UK - 2014
 

R

 
  • Rebel Without A Cause – Dir. Nicholas Ray – US - 1955
 

S

 
  • Strangers on a Train – Dir. Alfred Hitchcock – US - 1961
 

T

 
  • Tangerine – Dir. Sean Baker – US 2015 (Note, shot entirely on an iPhone)
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – Dir. Stephan Elliott – Australia 1994 
  • The Children's Hour – Dir. William Wyler – US - 1961
  • The Crying Game – Dir. Neil Jordan – UK - 1991
  • To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar – Dir. Beeban Kidron – US 1995 
  • Transamerica – Dir. Duncan Tucker – US - 2005
 

U

 
  • Undertow – Dir. Javier Fuentes-Leon – Peru - 2009
 

W

 
  • Weekend – Dir. Andrew Haigh – UK - 2011
 
 

LGBT+ Audio Books


 

Spectacles
by Sue Perkins.

When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?'

Sadly, a recycling 'incident' destroyed the bulk of this archive. This has meant two things: firstly, Dear Reader, you will never get to see countless drawings of wizards, read a poem about corn on the cob, or marvel at the kilos of brown flowers I so lovingly pressed as a child. Secondly, it's left me with no choice but to actually write this thing myself.
This, my first ever book, will answer questions such as 'Is Mary Berry real?', 'Is it true you wear a surgical truss?' and 'Is a non-spherically symmetric gravitational pull from outside the observable universe responsible for some of the observed motion of large objects such as galactic clusters in the universe?'
Most of this book is true. I have, of course, amplified my more positive characteristics in an effort to make you like me.
Thank you for reading.
 
 

More Fool Me
by Stephen Fry

Following on from his hugely successful first book, The Fry Chronicles, comes the second chapter in Stephen Fry's life. This unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of More Fool Me is read by Stephen Fry himself. Praise for The Fry Chronicles: 'Heartbreaking, a delight, a lovely, comfy book' The Times'Perfect prose and excruciating honesty.
A grand reminiscence of college and theatre and comedyland in the 1980s, with tone-perfect anecdotes and genuine readerly excitement. What Fry does, essentially, is tell us who he really is. Above all else, a thoughtful book. And namedroppy too, and funny, and marbled with melancholy' Observer
 
 

The Fry Chronicles
by Stephen Fry,

Spanning 1979-1987, The Fry Chronicles charts Stephen's arrival at Cambridge up to his thirtieth birthday.

 
 

That Inevitable Victorian Thing
by E.K. Johnston Katherine Kellgren

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendent of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history. The imperial tradition of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage.
But before she does her duty, she'll have one summer of freedom and privacy in a far corner of empire. Posing as a commoner in Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire's greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an extraordinary bond and maybe a one-in-a-million chance to have what they want and to change the world.

 
 

The Argonauts
by Maggie Nelson,

An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and familyMaggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language.
At its center is a romance: the story of the author's relationship with the artist Harry Dodge. This story, which includes Nelson's account of falling in love with Dodge, who is fluidly gendered, as well as her journey to and through a pregnancy, is an intimate portrayal of the complexities and joys of (queer) family-making.
Writing in the spirit of public intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, Nelson binds her personal experience to a rigorous exploration of what iconic theorists have said about sexuality, gender, and the vexed institutions of marriage and child-rearing. Nelson's insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying...
 
 

A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment
by John Preston Daniel Weyman

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
The shocking true story of the first British politician to stand trial for murder
Behind oak-panelled doors in the House of Commons, men with cut-glass accents and gold signet rings are conspiring to murder. It's the late 1960s and homosexuality has only just been legalised, and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide. As long as Norman Scott, his beautiful, unstable lover is around, Thorpe's brilliant career is at risk. With the help of his fellow politicians, Thorpe schemes, deceives, embezzles - until he can see only one way to silence Scott for good.
 
 

LGBT+ magazines


 
DIVA
Launched in March 1994 and now celebrating 15 years in 2009, DIVA is the leading lesbian magazine in Europe if not the world. To celebrate our 15th Birthday we have just introduced a new design and look with fresh new content from a lesbian perspective and now offer the magazine online to down load as a single issue or subscription. This means anyone in the world can now buy Diva for digital delivery to your desktop for the same cost to buy it in the shops in the UK.

Copies
OverDrive Magazine: Diva

 

Attitude Magazine
The World’s Best Gay Magazine. We pride ourselves on exclusive content and we are the premier destination for film, music, sports and pop stars plus LGBT heroes and allies that want to speak directly to gay men. Each issue has a balance of features on a diverse range of subjects, with block busting A-list celebrity exclusives and in-depth analysis of news and issues affecting the LGBT community. No other gay magazine can come anywhere near Attitude’s star pulling power, with celebrities such as James Franco, Tom Hardy, Elton John, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ian McKellen, Liam Payne, Take That, Matthew Lewis and countless more giving exclusive gay press interviews to us. Plus we have the likes of Paris Lees, Matt Lucas, David Furnish, not only appearing in the magazine but also writing for it.
Copies
OverDrive Magazine  Attitude  

 

OUT

Out is America's premiere general interest and style magazine for gay men. Sexy, smart, and sophisticated, it inspires readers with captivating feature stories, striking fashion layouts, and lively entertainment reviews. Out. Discover what's in. Filled with interviews, fashion, travel, celebrities and more for gay life today.

Copies
OverDrive Magazine: Out

 

LGBT Resources



Lewisham LGBT Forum
https://lewishamlgbtforum.wordpress.com/

Goldsmiths LGBT Student Community
https://www.goldsmithssu.org/activities/societies/oursocieties/LGBTQ/

BFI Flare- London LGBT Film Festival
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online/
LGBT History Month
http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/

LGBT Health
https://www.lgbthealth.org.uk/

LGBT Foundation
http://lgbt.foundation/

Pink News
https://www.pinknews.co.uk
 
 
Location: London Borough of Lewisham, UK

Comments

Post a Comment