The 2015 Over the Rainbow Project book list, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), has been decided at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Chicago.
This year’s list includes 78 titles published between July 1, 2013 and December 31, 2014. The committee’s mission is to create a bibliography of books that exhibit commendable literary quality and significant authentic GLBT content and are recommended for adults over age 18. It is not meant to be all-inclusive but is intended as an annual core list for readers and librarians searching for recommendations for a cross-section of the year’s titles. Although the committee attempts to present titles for a variety of reading tastes and levels, no effort is made to balance this bibliography according to subject, area of interest, age, or genre.
The Over the Rainbow committee includes Kelly McElroy, Chair, Corvallis, OR; Rebecca Butler, Valparaiso, IN; David Combe, Ventura, CA; Annaliese Fidgeon, Northridge, CA.; Jessica Louise Jones, College Station, TX; Derek Marshall, West Point, MS; and Matthew Windsor, Conway AR.
Our top ten favorites
Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. By Julia Serano. Seal Press. 2013. 327p. $17.00. (978-1-58005-504-8). An in-depth look at problematic elements of feminist and queer movements, with suggestions on how to address those issues.
Gender Failure. By Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2014. 160p. $17.95. (978-1551525365). A collection of personal essays, song lyrics, and drawings recounting Coyote’s and Spoon’s lifelong experiences understanding and challenging gender.
Living Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims. By Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle. NYU Press. 2013.275p. $27.00. (978-1479894673). A look at 15 ‘activist’ gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims as they attempt to find ways to live out Islam with dignity and integrity, reconciling their sexuality and gender with their faith, and recreating and reclaiming Islam as their own.
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man. By Thomas Page McBee. City Lights Publishers. 2014. 172p. $15.95. (978-0872866249). In this thoughtful memoir, McBee recounts and confronts both childhood abuse and a more recent act of violence.
Mr. Loverman. By Bernadine Evaristo. Akashic. 2014. 307p. $24.95. (978-1617752896). 74-year-old Barrington Jedidiah Walker, a member of Britain’s Caribbean community, is still trying to decide how to leave his wife of 50 years and move in with the man he has loved since childhood.
The Paying Guests. By Sarah Waters. Riverhead Hardcover. 2014. 576p. $28.95. (978-1594633119). Waters’s characters (where even the house takes on a quality of character) are vividly portrayed in this novel of post-WWI England. The newly impoverished Francis Wray and her mother take in boarders whose presence leads to unforeseen moral dilemmas.
Prelude to Bruise. By Saeed Jones. Coffee House Press. 2014. 124p. $16.00. (978-1566893749). These poems of Boy, growing up gay and African American in the South, are complicated, horrific, and metaphoric.
The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. By Richard Blanco. Ecco. 2014. 272p. $25.99. (978-0062313768). A vivid recollection of growing up as the child of Cuban immigrants in mid-century Miami.
The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South. Douglas Ray, Editor. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 304 pages. $28.00 (978-1-937420-80-2). A poetry anthology exploring lesbian and gay experiences in the American South.
The Two Hotel Francforts. By David Leavitt. Bloomsbury USA. 2013. 272p. $25.00. (978-1596910423). After the fall of Paris to the Nazis, the expatriate couple Julia and Pete Winters join others in flight to Lisbon to flee Europe. There they meet the Frelings, writers of mystery novels who are also fleeing Europe for the States. Amid the chaos of the impeding war, this chance meeting changes their lives.
Art / Photography
100 Crushes. By Elisha Lim. Koyama Press. 2014. 100p. $18.00. (978-1927668061). Compilation of the works of queer comics artist Elisha Lim; part memoir and part biographies of friends.
dr.a.g. By Christopher Logan. Bookthefilm. 2014. 180p. $39.99. (978-0-9921529-0-1). A collection of color photographs of drag queens from all over the world. Photography.
The Invisibles: Vintage Portraits of Love and Pride. By Sebastien Lifshitz. Rizzoli. 2014. 144p. $27.50. (978-0847843060). This collection of photographs shows an unexpected glimpse of same-sex couples in the early 20th century.
TransCuba. By Mariette Pathy Allen. Daylight Books. 2014. 142p. $45. (978-0988983137). A collection of photographs and conversations with trans women in contemporary Cuba.
Fiction
All I Love and Know. By Judith Frank. William Morrow. 2014. 432p. $26.99. (978-0062302878). When his identical twin brother and sister-in-law are killed in Israel in a horrific terrorist attack, Daniel is left to fulfill their wishes and raise their two children in the States. Besides grief, Daniel and his lover Matt must handle the Israel’s legal system, the media, the families, their relationship, as well as being thrust into the role of parents.
Bruceville. By Robyn Vinten. Tollington Press. 2013. 234p. $15. (978-1909347007). Three childhood friends reunite in rural New Zealand for a wedding and revisit haunting memories of growing up, after one of the friends has come out as trans.
The Days of Anna Madrigal: A Novel. By Armistead Maupin. Harper. 2014. 288p. $26.99. (978-0062196248). The final work in the Tales of the City series focuses on the life of Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlady, now in her 90s, and brings back all the beloved characters of the series.
The Farm. By Tom Rob Smith. Grand Central Publishing. 2014. 368p. $26.00. (978-0446550734). When Daniel receives a call from his father telling him his mother had been committed to a mental hospital, he must come to terms with the hidden lives of his parents, the toxic effect of familial lies, and his own hidden life in order to solve the mystery these lies have created.
For Today I Am A Boy. By Kim Fu. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2014. 242p. $23. (978-0544034723). Told from the perspective of Peter as he grows from a child into a young adult identifying as a girl, despite his Chinese immigrant family’s traditional gender expectations.
Frog Music. By Emma Donoghue. Little, Brown and Company. 2014. 416p. $27.00. (978-0316324687). When Jenny Bonnet, a secretive, pants-wearing woman, bikes down Blanche, a dancer of ill repute in 1870s San Francisco, she disrupts Blanche’s seemingly happy life, making her reevaluate it all.
Hild: A Novel. By Nicola Griffith. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 2013. 560p. $27.00. (978-0374280871). A fictional account of the woman who would eventually become St. Hilda of Whitby; this book is full of descriptions of the daily life of women and the spectrum of their relationships with one another in 7th-century England.
Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story. By Rebecca Coffey. She Writes Press. 2014. 360p. $16.95. (978-1938314421). A fictional memoir by the queer, youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud, who became a renowned psychoanalyst in her own right.
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel. By Francine Prose. Harper. 2014. 448p. $26.99. (978-0061713781). Told through a series of letters and novels by her friends, lovers, biographer, and acquaintances, the life of Lou Villars, athlete, cross-dressing lesbian, race car driver, spy and more, comes to life against the backdrop of Paris from 1932 through the end of WWII. The literary construction plays with what is remembered and what is real.
Medici Boy. By John L’Heureux. Astor + Blue Editions, LLC. 2014. 346p. $ 24.95. (978-1938231506). Set against the backdrop of Florence in the 15th Century, Luca, writing from prison, tells the life of his half brother Agnolo, who is Donatello’s muse and lover and model for the famous David sculpture.
Mr. Loverman. By Bernadine Evaristo. Akashic. 2014. 307p. $24.95. (978-1617752896). 74-year-old Barrington Jedidiah Walker, a member of Britain’s Caribbean community, is still trying to decide how to leave his wife of 50 years and move in with the man he has loved since childhood.
Palmerino. By Melissa Pritchard. Bellevue Literary Press. 2014. 192p. $14.95. (978-1934137680). Writer Sylvia Case returns to Villa il Palmerino after her divorce to write a biography of Violet Paget, late 19th century writer, only to channel Violet’s spirit in her former home.
The Paying Guests. By Sarah Waters. Riverhead Hardcover. 2014. 576p. $28.95. (978-1594633119). Waters’s characters (where even the house takes on a quality of character) are vividly portrayed in this novel of post-WWI England. The newly impoverished Francis Wray and her mother take in boarders whose presence leads to unforeseen moral dilemmas.
Prairie Ostrich. By Tamai Kobayashi. Goose Lane Editions. 2014. 200p. $19.95. (978-0864926807). When the death of her brother turns her family upside down, Egg tries to cope. Being Japanese-Canadian in a rural community, she is isolated, bullied, and misunderstood, but her older lesbian sister is her strength and support.
The Two Hotel Francforts. By David Leavitt. Bloomsbury USA. 2013. 272p. $25.00. (978-1596910423). After the fall of Paris to the Nazis, the expatriate couple Julia and Pete Winters join others in flight to Lisbon to flee Europe. There they meet the Frelings, writers of mystery novels who are also fleeing Europe for the States. Amid the chaos of the impeding war, this chance meeting changes their lives.
Very Recent History: An Entirely Factual Account of a Year (c. AD 2009) in a Large City. By Choire Sicha. Harper. 2013. 256p. $24.99. (978-0061914300). Set in New York during the fallout of the financial crisis, this novel follows a group of gay men in work and life.
Fiction / Mystery
The Water Rat of Wanchai: An Ava Lee Novel. By Ian Hamilton. Picador. 2014. 400p. $16.00. (978-1250032270). Lesbian Ava Lee, forensic accountant and martial arts expert, tracks stolen money through Hong Kong, Bangkok, Guyana, and the British Islands, while engaging formidable foes.
Fiction / Short Stories
Fairytales for Lost Children. By Diriye Osman. Angelica Entertainment Ltd. 2013. 174p. $14.99. (978-0956971944). Short stories about immigrant queer Somalis written in a lively style.
Graphic Narrative
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story. By Vivek J. Tiwary. Illustrated by Andrew C. Robinson. M Press. 2013. 144p. $19.99. (978-1616552565). Graphic telling of Brian Epstein’s life reveals his importance as the gay impresario who managed the Beatles from 1961-1967.
If This Be Sin. By Hazel Newlevant. Prism Comics. 2014. 42p. $10.00. (9781630687069). This brief collection of three short comics tells of queer women who express themselves through their music and dance.
On Loving Women. By Diane Obomsawin. Drawn and Quarterly. 2014. 88p. $16.95. (978-1770461406). Simple comics illustrate the moments when a series of young women realize that they also love women.
Qu33r. Ed. by Rob Kirby. Northwest Press. 2013. 264p. $9.99-39.99 (978-1938720376). A graphic anthology of 33 different contributors telling stories of first dates, rejection, dreams, passions and what “queer” means to them.
Non-Fiction
1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage. Ed. by Drewey Wayne Gunn and Jaime Harker. University of Massachusetts Press. 2013. 344p. $27.95. (978-1625340450). These thirteen well-documented essays outline the history of gay pulp fiction and the role it played in the lives of gay men through the 60’s, providing a look at authors and publishers and analyzing representative pulp fiction works.
Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis. By Alexis Coe. Pulp/Zest Books. 2014. 208p. $16.99. (978-1936976607). An engaging account of the shocking 1892 murder of a teenaged girl by her spurned lover, also a teenaged girl.
Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. By Julia Serano. Seal Press. 2013. 327p. $17.00. (978-1-58005-504-8). An in-depth look at problematic elements of feminist and queer movements, with suggestions on how to address those issues.
The Homoerotics of Orientalism. By Joseph Allen Boone. Columbia University Press. 2014. 520p. $50.00. (978-0231151108). In this academic, yet accessible book, Boone reviews 400 years of Middle Eastern and the Western literature, travel writings, historical works, art, photography, and cinema to illuminate the degree that male homosexuality has been associated with and/or manufactured about Middle Eastern culture.
Law and the Gay Rights Story: The Long Search for Equal Justice in a Divided Democracy. By Walter Frank. Rutgers University Press. 2014. 248p. $29.95. (978-0813568713). In a highly readable and personable style, Frank chronicles the legal fights for gay rights over the last 50 years, highlighting the individuals involved and the social, cultural, and political issues surrounding them.
A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World. By R.B. Parkinson. Columbia University Press. 2013. 128 p. $19.95 (023116663X). Objects ranging from Ancient Egyptian papyri and the erotic scenes on the Roman Warren Cup to images by modern artists provide insight into the range, diversity and complexity of same-sex experiences.
Living Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims. By Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle. NYU Press. 2013.275p. $27.00. (978-1479894673). A look at 15 ‘activist’ gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims as they attempt to find ways to live out Islam with dignity and integrity, reconciling their sexuality and gender with their faith, and recreating and reclaiming Islam as their own.
A Queer History of Fashion. Ed. by Valerie Steel. Yale University Press. 2013. 248p. $50. (978-0300196702). A look at LGB (and some T) history from the perspective of fashion, looking at how fashion contributes to movements and perceptions of groups of people.
The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South. Douglas Ray, Editor. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 304 pages. $28.00 (978-1-937420-80-2). A poetry anthology exploring lesbian and gay experiences in the American South.
Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War II. By Daniel W. Rivers. University of North Carolina Press. 2013. 312p. $29.95. (978-1469607184). Based on extensive archival research and 130 interviews conducted nationwide, this book documents the stories of lesbian mothers and gay fathers from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing. By Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr. University Of Chicago Press. 2014. 224p. $25.00. (978-0226096537). Academic yet accessible, McCune takes to task the media’s contemporary discourse on the “down low” by examining the issue through interviews and surveys of 60 DL men, the media’s fascination and handling of the subject, and a look at the subject in the context of the “passing” literature.
Sexual Diversity in Africa: Politics, Theory, and Citizenship. By S. N. Nyeck and Marc Epprecht. McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2013. 312p. $29.95. (978-0773541887). Well-documented and scholarly, these eleven essays shed light on the complex nature of sexuality, sexual practices and gender performance in Africa and dispute oversimplified tropes including homosexuality versus heterosexuality, modern versus traditional, and Africa versus the West.
There Goes the Gayborhood? By Amin Ghaziani. Princeton University Press. 2014. 360p. $35.00. (978-0691158792). Focusing on Chicago’s gayborhoods of Andersonville and Boystown, Ghaziani looks at the origins of these enclaves and the impact on the future prospects, character, and composition of these neighborhoods in this “post gay” era due to changes in political and societal acceptance of GLBT individuals.
The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions are Sabotaging Gay Equality. By Suzanna Danuta Walters. NYU Press. 2014. 343p. $29.95. (978-0814770573). By examining the marriage equality successes, religious approaches to changes in gay acceptance, scientific research of homosexuality, and other areas of social change, Walters argues for equality, deep integration and civil inclusion rather than just acceptance and tolerance that is contingent upon the heterosexual majority deeming it so.
Non-Fiction / Biography / Memoir
Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival. By Sean Strub. Scribner. 2014. 432p. $30.00. (978-1451661958). The founder of POZ magazine and AIDS and LGBT activist, the author looks back on his life and career in the midst of the 1980s AIDS epidemic.
A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir. By Daisy Hernandez. Beacon Press. 2014. 200p. $24.95. (978-0807014486). The daughter of Cuban and Colombian immigrants, Hernandez recounts growing up bilingual and bisexual.
Double Pregnant: Two Lesbians Make a Family. By Natalie Meissner. Fernwood Publishing. 2014. 181p. $20.95. (978-1552666012). Both Meissner and her wife get pregnant in quick succession in this beautifully written memoir about starting a family.
Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger. By Kelly J. Cogswell. University of Minnesota Press. 2014. 256p. $19.95. (978-0816691166). This behind-the-scenes look at the Lesbian Avengers speak to the activists’ efforts in making a difference and Cogswell’s persistent struggle to raise awareness and effect change outside of this organization.
The End of Eve: A Memoir. By Ariel Gore. Hawthorne Books. 2014. 237p. $16.95. (978-0986000799). Ariel finds it hard to live according to her values as she becomes a caretaker for a very challenging mother who is dying of cancer, moves to New Mexico, ends a relationship, and raises her son and daughter.
Falling into Place. By Catherine Reid. Beacon Press. 2014. 184p. $24.95. (978-0807009925). Essays on nature and place, blended with reflections on relationships and politics.
Fire Shut Up in My Bones. By Charles Blow. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2014. 240p. $27.00. (978-0544228047). Blow’s coming of age memoir is his personal account of family, homophobia, racism, and poverty growing up in the Deep South.
Gender Failure. By Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2014. 160p. $17.95. (978-1551525365). A collection of personal essays, song lyrics, and drawings recounting Coyote’s and Spoon’s lifelong experiences understanding and challenging gender.
Ham: Slices of a Life, Essays and Stories. By Sam Harris. Gallery Books. 2014. 304p. $26.00. (978-1476733418). Harris’s essays recount growing up gay in the Bible belt of Oklahoma, his search for fame on the music and Broadway stage, his battle with alcoholism, and his finding love and family are both laugh-out-loud hilarious and poignantly heartfelt.
Hold Tight Gently. By Martin Duberman. The New Press. 2014. 356p. $27.95. (978-1595589453). Using the lives of Michael Callen, gay activist and singer, and Essex Hemphill, Black gay activist and poet, Duberman traces the history of the AIDS crisis illuminating the struggle during this era and the injustices which occurred.
In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court. By Brittney Griner. It Books. 2014. 224p. $25.99. (978-0062309334). WNBA player recounts a childhood and college basketball career in a homophobic environment.
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man. By Thomas Page McBee. City Lights Publishers. 2014. 172p. $15.95. (978-0872866249). In this thoughtful memoir, McBee recounts and confronts both childhood abuse and a more recent act of violence.
Pee-Shy. By Frank Spinelli. Kensington. 2013. 352p. $15.00. (978-0758291325). Abused as a child by his Scoutmaster, Frank, now a successful doctor, partner, and author, is determined to see some resolution to the horrors of his abuse by confronting his abuser.
Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement. By Stephen Snyder-Hill. Potomac Books Inc. 2014. 192p. $22.95. (978-1612346977). Snyder-Hill’s conversational account of his days in the army under DADT, his continued fight for equality in the armed services, and the elimination of DOMA brings home the reality of the “closet” in the military.
Mommy Man. By Jerry Mahoney. Taylor Trade Publishing. 2014. 296p. $24.95 (978-1589799226). Mahoney recounts the process of surrogacy and the obstacles facing gay parents with wit and humor.
The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. By Richard Blanco. Ecco. 2014. 272p. $25.99. (978-0062313768). A vivid recollection of growing up as the child of Cuban immigrants in mid-century Miami.
Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders. By Diane Anderson-Minshall and Jacob Anderson-Minshall. Bold Strokes Books. 2014. 264p. $16.95. (978-1626390621). Told in dual narratives, the journey of committed queers Diane and Suzy as Suzy transitions to Jacob illustrates their difficulties, as well as the rewards of their loving and supportive relationship.
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. By Janet Mock. Atria Books. 2014. 288p. $24.99. (978-1476709123). Mock’s memoir describes her transition as a young, low-income, trans person of color.
Teaching the Cat to Sit: A Memoir. By Michelle Theall. Gallery Books. 2014. 288p. $24.99. (978-1451697292). Chapters in this memoir alternate between Theall’s memories of growing up queer and Catholic and her decisions about religion as she and her partner raise an adopted child together.
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. By John Lahr. W. W. Norton & Company. 2014. 784p. $18.95. (978-0393351651). A detailed look at the life, family, work, and loves of renowned playwright Tennessee Williams.
Poetry
All the Heat We Could Carry. By Charlie Bondhus. Main Street Rag. 2013. 72p. $14.00. (978-1599484365). Written from the point of view of gay soldiers and their partners, these poems reveal the horror of the recent wars and the lasting effects on the men who participate in combat.
Amorcito Maricón. By Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano. Kórima Press. 2014. 104p. $15.00. (978-0988967359). With subject matter that is brimming with desire, love, romance unfulfilled, sex and pleasure, these poems are not romantic or sentimental. Herrera y Lozano’s poems speak of brown-on-brown joto love in a unique queer Xicano voice.
Artificial Cherry. By Billeh Nickerson. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2014. 96p. $14.95. (978-1551525402). Poems and brief observations on life and places are funny and fresh.
Erotic Postulate. By Matthew Hittinger. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 120 pages $13.00. (978-1937420765). Poetry that explores historical and mathematical themes within a gay context.
Joy Exhaustible. Assaracus Presents the Publishers. Ed. by Bryan Borland and Seth Pennington. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 196p. $19.95. (978-1937420703). Eighteen gay small press publishers and editors show how talented they are in these memoirs, poetry and fiction.
God of Longing. By Brent Calderwood. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 82p. $14.95. (978-1937420819). Calderwood’s poems speak to the longing for the love of one’s life only to discover that it is a minefield filled with faults and fractures.
A History of the Unmarried. By Stephen S. Mills. Sibling rivalry Press. 2014. 86p. $14.95. (978-1937420796). Refreshing, brutally real poetry that is honest in its depiction of contemporary relationships and love.
Las Hociconas: Three Locas with Big Mouths and Even Bigger Brains. By Adelina Anthony. Kórima Press. 2013. 140p. $15.00. (978-0988967342). With great strength of the written and dramatic words, these three theatrical comedies of Xicana artist Adelina Anthony’s live work are outrageous and irreverent, honest and fearless portraits.
Like a Beggar. By Ellen Bass. Copper Canyon Press. 2014. 70p. $16.00. (978-1556594649). Bass makes the ordinary extraordinary with images of love and nature which illuminate what one sees differently.
Nefarious. By Emanuel Xavier. QueerMojo. 2013. 84p. $10.95. (978-1608640942). Using his life as the subject, Xavier reflects on his past as well as his present state, looking at love, sex, family, writing, and life.
Prelude to Bruise. By Saeed Jones. Coffee House Press. 2014. 124p. $16.00. (978-1566893749). These poems of Boy, growing up gay and African American in the South, are complicated, horrific, and metaphoric.
Prime: Poetry & Conversation. By L. Lamar Wilson, et al. Sibling Rivalry Press. 2014. 104p. $16.95 . (978-1937420734). Poems and conversations among gay, African-American poets reveal much about their work, mentoring, and their theories of poetry. Prime features poems by and dialogue between poets Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Saeed Jones, Rickey Laurentiis, Phillip B. Williams, and L. Lamar Wilson.
Straight Razor: Poems. By Randall Mann. Persea. 2013. 80p. $15.95. (978-0892554300). Often using a formalized structure, Mann’s poetry delivers creative images of growing up gay in Florida, the San Francisco gay scene, sex, and longing.
This Life Now. By Michael Broder. A Midsummer Night’s Press. 2014. 53p. $13.95. (978-1938334092). Poetry on the relationships between men focus on loss, love, and lust. The author draws the reader in with pop culture references and the demonstration of the universal desire for companionship in this gritty collection.
This Way to the Sugar. By Hieu Minh Nguyen. Write Bloody Publishing. 2014. 100p. $15.00. (978-1938912443). Nguyen’s poems illuminate growing up gay and Vietnamese in Minnesota, touching on family, sexual abuse, abandonment and death.
When I Was Straight. By Julie Marie Wade. A Midsummer Night’s Press. 2014. 42p. $10.95. (978-1938334085). Hilarious and heart-breaking, the author shares her story of her life before she came out and the reactions of those around her on learning she is a lesbian.