Book Recs: Lesbian Authors

April 26th is the International Lesbian Visibility Day! And what’s a better way to celebrate that than having a lesbian talk about other lesbians? (Possibly getting said lesbian a girlfriend but shh…)

I was actually talking with Charlotte about what we should post for this occasion and at first we just wanted to go with books with lesbian protags. But then we realised… As many sapphic books as we’re getting lately, still not a lot of them uses the word “lesbian” on page. And I’m not gonna lie, I would really love for us to finally get over that and stop treating lesbian as a dirty word or whatever is happening here.

But yes, this is why y’all are getting a rec list of books written by lesbians. We gotta stick together, right? I’m also changing the format of our rec lists for this one, because I want to highlight authors more than anything else. I’ll be putting one book per a lesbian here, but that’s not to say I think it’s the only one you should read!

Poetry

💚 Audre Lorde (The Black Unicorn)
💚 Pat Parker (Movement in Black)
💚 Adrienne Rich* (Diving Into the Wreck)
💚 Chrystos (Not Vanishing)
💚 Mary Oliver (Dream Work)

💚 Jewelle L. Gómez (Oral Tradition)
💚 Irena Klepfisz (A Few Words In the Mother Tongue)
💚 Donika Kelly (Bestiary)
💚 Gloria E. Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera)
💚 Carol Ann Duffy (Rapture)

Fiction

💚 Sarah Waters (Tipping the Velvet)
💚 Sheryn Munir (Falling into Place)
💚 Meredith Russo** (If I Was Your Girl)
💚 Hannah Moskowitz (Teeth)
💚 Sara Farizan (Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel)

💚 K.A. Moore (The Perfect Assassin)
💚 Jacqueline Woodson (Another Brooklyn)
💚 Brynne Rebele-Henry (Orpheus Girl)
💚 Nicola Griffith (Hild)
💚 Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Winterglass)

💚 Shamim Sarif (The World Unseen)
💚 Nancy Garden (Annie On My Mind)
💚 Malinda Lo (Ash)
💚 V.E. Schwab (Vicious)
💚 Karelia Stetz-Waters (Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before)

💚 Jeanette Winterson (The Passion)
💚 Mariko Tamaki (Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me)
💚 Liz Jacobs (Abroad)
💚 Sophie Cameron (Out of the Blue)
💚 Emma Donoghue (The Wonder)

💚 Emily M. Danforth (The Miseducation of Cameron Post)
💚 T Kira Madden (Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls)
💚 Mia McKenzie (The Summer We Got Free)
💚 Tillie Walden (Spinning)
💚 Natasha Alterici (Heathen)

💚 Tanya Huff (The Fire’s Stone)
💚 Siera Maley (Colorblind)
💚 Qiu Miaojin (Notes of a Crocodile)
💚 Lee Winter (Shattered)
💚 Anna Burke (Compass Rose)

💚 Alice Walker (The Color Purple)
💚 Gabby Rivera (Juliet Takes a Breath)
💚 Becky Chambers (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet)
💚 Nicole Dennis-Benn (Patsy)
💚 Kirsty Logan (The Gloaming)

Historical Writers

(born up to early XX century)

💚 Narcyza Żmichowska (The Heathen)
💚 Nobuko Yoshiya (Yellow Rose)
💚 Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun)
💚 Mary Renault (Fire from Heaven)
💚 Renée Vivien (A Woman Appeared to Me)

💚 Radclyffe Hall (The Well of Loneliness)
💚 Lucie Delarue-Mardrus (The Angel and the Perverts)
💚 Natalie Clifford Barney (A Perilous Advantage)
💚 Vernon Lee (Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales)
💚 Mai-mai Sze (Silent Children)

*Please note that Adrienne Rich was a TERF.

**Please note that Meredith Russo’s partner detailed experiences of abuse by Russo.

This list is obviously in no way comprehensive. I didn’t want it to be. Rather, I wanted this to be a jumping point for you guys to start reading more by lesbians. Some pointers, so it would be easier for you to find other books by yourselves. I hope I succeeded.

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