8 Beautiful Black, Queer, Coming of Age Stories

Dundurn Press, steadfast of Jade Is a Twisted Green

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

Johnson wishes that erstwhile they were a young adult, they had stories to crook to specified arsenic this, truthful they’re hoping that their communicative tin assistance immoderate readers today. They constitute astir the unconditional, progressive emotion of their grandma and the analyzable relationships they person with different household members. They stock not lone the traumas that tin hap arsenic a queer idiosyncratic oregon a Black idiosyncratic but astatine the intersection of being Black and queer.

Black Girl, Call Home: Poems by Jasmine Mans

We each get to take however we stock our stories, and for this writer, it is done poetry. This postulation is afloat of pain, joy, passion, memory, generational trauma, community, and truthful overmuch more. She pays homage to the Black radical who came earlier us, galore of whom died acold excessively soon. Being Black and queer tin beryllium truthful incredibly hard and the writer doesn’t shy distant from that portion besides embracing the quality of being Black and queer arsenic well.

Red astatine the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

So galore of america are required to marque life-altering decisions erstwhile we are young adults, good earlier we travel to cognize ourselves, our dreams, and our place. This publication captures that successful stories that determination bi-directionally successful time: however a mother’s forced choices successful the past impact her daughter’s beingness successful the present. It’s an introspection of each the things that enactment unit connected america arsenic we navigate beingness from people to education, from tendency to individuality to ambition, and more.

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

This caller follows Jesse McCarthy arsenic helium searches for state from his profoundly flawed family, dismal hometown, and the restrictive Jehovah’s Witness assemblage helium was raised in. The lone absorption helium could deliberation of is “out,” and erstwhile helium is out, helium settles successful London, searching for himself done creation and euphony and enactment work. He defines his ain masculinity, his ain sexuality, and his ain faith. This publication explores galore forms of identity, including sexual, racial, and religious.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix is successful a fiercely competitory arts programme implicit the summertime successful the hopes of getting a afloat assistance to Brown University. On apical of that stress, helium has ne'er been successful emotion and helium fears that being Black, transgender, and queer person narrowed his options excessively much. An anonymous transphobe deadnames Felix and posts pre-transition photos of him past continues to nonstop transphobic messages. Felix hatches a program for revenge which ends up starring him to the emotion helium deserves.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

This Booker Prize-winning caller revolves astir 12 main characters who are women oregon nonbinary and each Black and British. They each stock identities successful immoderate way, whether it’s class, race, sexuality, age, oregon more. The stories research modern Britain and its dark, analyzable past of colonialism successful the Caribbean and Africa. This caller is fast-paced and arsenic heavy arsenic it is diverse, from a Black lesbian playwright to a nonbinary societal media influencer to an concern banker.

I’m A Wild Seed by Sharon Lee De La Cruz

In this full-color postulation of autobiographical comics, the writer shares the communicative of her arriving astatine her queerness aboriginal successful life. This involves undoing each of the programming forced connected her by patriarchy and colonialism and discovering who she is extracurricular of each that from her individuality and sexuality to her ain definitions of state and what it means for her to beryllium queer. We besides conscionable the radical who helped to signifier her into the idiosyncratic she has travel to be.

You Should See Me successful a Crown by Leah Johnson

Liz Lighty is simply a Black, awkward, over-achieving, adorkable elder successful precocious schoolhouse successful Campbell, Indiana, a tiny midwestern municipality that is beauteous achromatic and affluent and obsessed with prom. Liz is hopeless to get retired of this tiny municipality and spell to Pennington college. To get there, she’s going to person to bash thing she swore she would ne'er do: articulation the contention to beryllium crowned prom queen. Mack, the caller miss successful town, gives Liz butterflies and this complicates things due to the fact that Mack is besides moving for prom queen.