You don’t have to look far to find queer authors with great stories to tell. Here’s just a smattering of books (recently or soon-to-be published) from LGBTQ+ writers who are from or connected to St. Louis. There’s plenty of art, fiction, poetry, memoirs, and more—and our region’s independent bookstores can help point you in the right direction.
All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran is a poetry book that Andrea Scarpino at The Novel Neighbor says she’s “obsessed with.” The poems’ taut language and urgent rhythm explore trauma and survival, as well as family and identity.
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Mark Pannebecker’s new bookstore, Spine, exclusively stocks indie books, including Levi A. Lancaster’s art therapy self-help guide for caretaker burnout, mental illness, and other trauma, Colorful Realities.
“Brace for Impact by Gabe Montesanti is a memoir we are very excited about,” says The Novel Neighbor’s Stephanie Skees. It turns out roller derby can be the bumpy road to redemption for a young Midwestern queer person.
Head to Subterranean Books for a copy of Future Feeling by Joss Lake. The novel follows the increasingly eventful, somewhat magical, and social-media-based adventures of young trans man Penfield R. Henderson. Watch out for that cursed aloe plant.
Jess T. Dugan’s latest book, Look at me like you love me, is a beautiful embossed printed linen hardcover collection of their new photographs, as well as deeply personal writings. Dugan’s spare and intimate portraits of queer and trans love, aging, and daily life pull viewers in.
Steenz took over the nationally syndicated daily comic strip Heart of the City last year—becoming only the second nationally syndicated Black nonbinary cartoonist just a month after the first. Their new book, Heart Takes the Stage, follows Heart Lamarr as she navigates the stormy seas of middle school with a little help from her friends.
Callie, a nonbinary 12-year-old in Esme Symes-Smith’s upcoming Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, just wants to be a knight—the training they can handle, but getting past the small-minded binary bigotry will take some doing.
Subterranean recommends S. Yarberry’s upcoming debut poetry collection, A Boy in the City. The book takes readers on a sexy journey through their city, with nods to trans culture, Greek myths, and other literary powerhouses.
