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As we kick off Black History month its time to celebrate and elevate Black voices — and in this case the voices of Black authors who are working across the genres and in both fiction and non fiction.
So, grab your library card or pull up your Goodreads wish list. Here are 40 black queer writers who either made major societal shifts during their life time, continue to spread the word about race and social justice, or can spin one heck of a yarn.
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Samantha Irby is a comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer most known for her humorous blog "bitches gotta eat." In TV land, she's either written or co-produced for shows like And Just Like That and Work in Progress, and her memoir, Meaty, was purchased by FX.
Rocquez Fluellen
While Ryan Douglass's bibliography may not be long, this queer horror author from Atlanta, Georgia is one to watch — and to, well, read. His debut novel The Taking of Jake Livingston follows a gay teen medium named Jake who helps ghosts cross to the other side. However things take a dark turn when one ghost begins targeting him.
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Roxane Gay has written movingly both about the body politic and the politics of the body — namely her own. She is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist as well as Ayiti, An Unnamed State, Difficult Women , and her memoir Hunger.
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Jericho Brown is a poet and writer haling from Shreveport, Louisiana. He's served as an educator in places like the University of Houston, University of San Diego, and Emory University. He writes about social topics such as mass shootings to innocent people being murdered by the police. He's won numerous awards, including the Whiting Writers' Award and the American Book Award for his first book, Please.
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Saeed Jones is a writer and poet whose 2014 debut Prelude to Bruise was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. His second book, How We Fight For Our Lives is a memoir and ultimately won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction in 2019.
Family ties, growing up in the 1950s and 60s, and lesbian feminism, shaped need-to-know writer Jewelle Gomez’s prolific body of work, which often focuses on the marginalization of African American communities. Her recent work has also begun reflecting her Native American (Wampanoag) heritage. Gomez is the author of seven books, including the double Lambda Literary Award winning novel, The Gilda Stories, and her fiction and poetry have been included in over one hundred anthologies. Her forthcoming novel, Televised, recounts the lives of survivors of the Black Nationalist movement.
Lesbian spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin has appeared on Def Poetry Jam, and can be found in numerous anthologies. Her memoir, The Other Side of Paradise, was published in 2009. Chin is of Chinese-Jamaican and Afro-Jamaican decent, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Acclaimed writer, James Baldwin, explored the social and psychological pressures gay and bisexual black men faced in both his essays and fiction. His second novel, Giovanni’s Room, focused on the life of an American man living in Paris and his relationships with other men, and offered a complex representation of gay and bi men long before the public discourse caught up.
American lesbian feminist, socialist, and leader of Black feminist thought Barbara Smith should be in every home library. Smith founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1980, which published work like This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Smith’s essays, literary criticism, and short stories have appeared in a range of publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Ms., The Guardian, and The Nation. Her twin sister, Beverly Smith, was one of the writers of the famous Combahee River Collective Statement.
American poet Essex Hempill’s poetry was widely published in journals, and his essays appeared in The Advocate, Essence, and more. The poetry and essay collected in Ceremonies focus on the objectification of black men in white culture, relationships among gay black men and straight black men, and HIV/AIDS in the black community. Hemphill was born in Chicago in 1957, and died in 1995 of AIDS-related complications.
In 1983, Anita Cornwell wrote what is widely considered the first published collection of essays by an African American lesbian, Black Lesbian in White America. Her work also appeared in Feminist Review, Labyrinth, Los Angeles Free Press, and The Negro Digest.
Bisexual American poet, Alice Dunbar Nelson, was involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Much of her writing was rejected because it wasn’t “marketable” since she wrote about the color line, oppression, and racism.
Radical womanist, lesbian, civil rights activist Audre Lorde’s writing is absolutely essential. In her own words, she was a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” If you’re looking for a place to start, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, or Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches are great books to pick up.
Though American playwright Lorraine Hansberry struggled with her sexual orientation, her journals and writing confirm her bisexuality. Her Broadway play, A Raisin in the Sun, is the best place to start.
Haitian-born American poet Assotto Saint was a key figure in black LGBT art in the 1980s and 1990s. His poetry appeared in numerous anthologies, and he won a Gay Poetry category at the 4th Lambda Literary Awards as the editor of The Road Before Us. He was one of the first African American activists to publically disclose his HIV status. A blended autobiography and anthology of his work, Spells of a Voodoo Doll: The Poems, Fiction, Essays and Plays of Assotto Saint, was published posthumously.
Aaron Anson’s memoir, Mind Your Own Life: The Journey Back to Love, focuses on his experiences of growing up as a black gay Christian in the deeply religious South, battling for years with depression, and reconciling his religion with his sexual orientation.
Juston Smith
Transgender rights activist, television host, and writer Janet Mock’s 2014 memoir Redefining Realness was hailed as groundbreaking, and debuted at the 19th position on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Bisexual Caribbean-American poet and activist June Jordan tackled race, identity, and family in her essays and poems. In 2005, Directed by Desire: Collected Poems, a posthumous collection of her work, won a Lambda Literary Award.
“Black/Trans/Queer/Rowdy-as-Hell Poet with a capital [P]” J Mase III is an incredible contemporary poet you should follow. He’s the author of “If I Should Die Under the Knife, Tell My Kidney I was the Fiercest Poet Around” and "And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer's Reflections on Grief, Unemployment and Inappropriate Jokes About Death,” and blogs at Huffington Post.
Harlem Renaissance writer and painter, Bruce Nugent, was one of the few writers of the movement who was publically out as gay. Nugent’s short story, “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade” is widely regarded as the first African American publication that openly discussed homosexuality.
Nearly everyone read Langston Hughes in high school, but his attraction to men is rarely discussed. When Hughes was in is 60s, he wrote unpublished love poems to a man he called “Beauty,” believed to be singer and actor, Gilbert Price.
American author E. Lynn Harris was best known for his depictions of men who were on the down-low. He authored 10 consecutive books that reached The New York Times Best Seller list, which made him one of the most successful black gay authors of his era.
Mixed race Harlem Renaissance writer, Nella Larsen, published two powerful novels, Quicksand, and Passing, that focus on themes of racial and sexual identity.
I Rise—The Transformation of Toni Newman is often regarded as the first memoir written by an African American transgender author, and is definitely worth a read.
Writer, activist, and founder of the website Black Girl Dangerous, Mia McKenzie is a writer to keep watching and reading. She won a Lambda Literary Award in 2013 for The Summer We Got Free.
Bisexual writer Sapphire is best known for her first novel, Push, which was later adapted to film as Precious. If you’re interested in her poetry, check out her critically acclaimed collection, American Dreams.
Canadian novelist, poet, essayist, documentarian, and former Poet Laureate of Toronto Dionne Brand explores themes of feminism, race, sexuality, white male domination, and the moral hypocrisies of Canada in her work. She has published a prolific body of work.
Harlem Renaissance writer Angelina Weld Grimké was linked to Mamie Burrill, to whom she wrote, "Oh Mamie if you only knew how my heart overflows with love for you and how it yearns and pants for one more glimpse of your lovely face." Her essays were published in numerous anthologies and newspapers, and her play, Rachel, has been recognized as a significant precursor to the Harlem Renaissance.
Alice Walker, who is not a big fan labels, describes herself as not a lesbian, not bisexual, and not straight. Start, of course, with her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning novel, The Color Purple, and then move on to Meridian.
American journalist and visual op-ed columnist for The New York Times Charles Blow came out as bisexual in 2014, and discusses his bisexuality in Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A Memoir.
American science fiction writer Octavia Butler won numerous Hugo and Nebula awards, and was one of the best known women in the field. She was also the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Butler was a lesbian, and theme is explored in her work, though her sexual orientation is rarely discussed.
African-American gay rights activist and author Joseph F. Beam’s work often focused on the gay experience within the struggle for civil rights. His writing appeared in numerous publications, including Philadelphia Gay News, The Advocate, and Windy City Times. He died of HIV-related illness in 1988.
Lesbian poet, essayist, and Black feminist Cheryl Clark has authored four collections of poetry, and has served as an editor on numerous publications. Check out Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women, and Living as a Lesbian to start.
Bisexual Harlem Renaissance novelist, Wallace Thurman, is best known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life. He died at age 32 from tuberculosis, which may have been exacerbated by alcoholism.
American author and poet Melvin Dixon wrote about black gay men in his novels, Trouble the Water and Vanishing Rooms, and poetry volumes, Change of Territory and Love’s Instruments.
Young adult fiction writer Jacqueline Woodson is best known for her Newberry Honor-winning titles, including the 2014 novel, Brown Girl Dreaming. She is lesbian partnerships and has two children.
If you’re looking for a place to start with American writer James Earl Hardy, check out his 1994 novel, B-Boy Blues, which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for the Small Press category.
Brian Keith Jackson’s thoughtfully written novels are well worth a read. Check out The View from Here, Walking Through Mirrors, and The Queen of Harlem.
American lesbian feminist poet and Black Panther Pat Parker is best known for her brutal autobiographical poem, Womanslaughter, that is based on the murder of her eldest sister by her sister’s husband. She published several collections of poetry.
Contemporary poet Ricky Laurentiis is the author of Boy with Torn. He has received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. He is definitely a voice to watch.
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