If you’ve been following the Lesbrary for a while, you probably are familiar with the bi-weekly link round ups. They’re when I share all the queer sapphic stuff happening on the rest of the internet worth checking out. If you’re new here, though, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, because I fell a little bit behind… Like 6 months behind. And because I am stubborn, I refused to just let it go. I kept saving up links for an eventual round up. I’ve finally gone through them all, though, and I’m ready to share them with you–in 3 parts! This one is 2021 new releases and posts about specific authors and books. If you want even more bi and lesbian lit links, check out the Lesbrary Tumblr and Twitter!
First off, we have all the LGBTQ+ books you should have on your radar for 2021–even though we’re well into the year now. Still, many of these have yet to be released, and the ones that have certainly haven’t gone bad since then! Check out Cosmo’s 30 New LGBTQ+ Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2021, Advocate’s 22 LGBTQ+ Books You Absolutely Need to Read This Year, and Oprah’s 42 LGBTQ Books That Will Change the Literary Landscape This Spring. For some upcoming releases, try Logo’s 17 Exciting Queer Books to Savor This Summer.
KA Doore’s 2021 Queer Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy Books list just came out, which is always a highlight for me. They find and document so many books I’ve never heard of before, plus all the bullet points that make you excited about reading a book, like “gay heist book!!! Slowburn sapphic romance!!!”
And now, all the queer 2021 YA book lists: Buzzfeed’s 30 LGBTQ+ Young Adult Books We Think You Should Read This Spring, LGBTQ Reads’s 2021 LGBTQ YA Starring People of Color, and Publisher’s Weekly’s Children’s and YA LGBTQ Books: Spring 2021–including a Afro-Latinx non-binary middle grade Choose Your Own Adventure book!!
Remember 2020? Wish I couldn’t! Still, there were some great queer books published that year that didn’t get the attention they deserved, so check out Autostraddle’s 67 of the Best Queer Books of 2020.
Did you know Simone De Beauvoir wrote a same-sex love story that wasn’t published until now?
New biographies of a few authors came out, so read about Loise Fitzhugh–the lesbian author of Harriet the Spy--on Washington Post, NY Post, New Republic, and Jezebel. Did you know she wrote a lesbian YA as her follow-up book, but the publisher wouldn’t take it and it’s been lost to time?
Also read about Patricia Highsmith, who was a terrible person but a fascinating author. Emily M. Danforth says Highsmith’s The Price of Salt has the best sex she ever read.
Read about Audre Lorde in The New Republic’s Audre Lorde Broke the Silence.
There are no authors quite like Carmen María Machado, but if you liked her books, you’ll probably enjoy these authors, too.
Adrienne Rich is a part of lesbian literary history, so read about her in The Many Lives of Adrienne Rich and The Long Awakening of Adrienne Rich, but remember that Adrienne Rich was also involved with the transphobic book The Transsexual Empire.
Do you like Sappho? Do you want to decorate your home and clothing with images of Sappho? Of course you do: Suffering Sappho! Sappho of Lesbos Decor and Accessories to Collect. (I wrote this!)
Speaking of complicated sapphic literary history: Untangling the Legacy of “The Color Purple”.
Tamsyn Muir had so much written about her that she gets her own section. Read this one with her about cyberpunk lesbian gunslingers. And this one about the butch lesbian sci-fi aesthetic. And this one where the author of Gideon the Ninth explains herself.
Here’s Gideon the Ninth, broken down trope by trope. Harrow the Ninth is about profound grief and terrible puns. Gideon and Harrow show the value of problematic relationships in fiction.
Can’t wait for the next book in the Locked Tomb series? Read These 10 Books Like GIDEON THE NINTH and buy these GIDEON THE NINTH Goodies for Locked Tomb Fans (I wrote this one!)
This post has the covers linked to their Amazon pages. If you click through and buy something, I might get a small referral fee. For even more links, check out the Lesbrary’s Twitter! We’re also on Facebook, Goodreads, Youtube and Tumblr.