In the Intersection: West Asian LGBT Lit

I hope everyone’s excited for this post, because me and Anna are! Of the posts we’ve collated so far, this is the one that’s required the most digging (I think Anna is most proud of finding a book by a Yemeni author), especially since we’ve done our best to cover as wide an area as we can with these recs. But we managed it! So here are 30 recs for you by West Asian authors.

As before, we’re using flags to mark a country of origin (where possible) and a separate emoji (🏹) to mark if the author is a diaspora author.

Before we start, briefly, some links to the series: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Latine lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit, and neurodiversity & disability in lit.

And if you want more links… well we found a couple of untranslated books too! Here’s one from Georgia, one from Azerbaijan and one from Syria (available in Swedish or German).

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (gay mc) 🇮🇷 🏹
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (gay mc) 🇮🇷 🏹
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar (trans mc) 🇸🇾 🏹
How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi (gay mc) 🇮🇷 🏹
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust (bi mc, sapphic li) 🇮🇷 🏹

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat (sapphic mc) 🇵🇸 🏹
The Clothesline Swing by Danny Ramadan (gay mcs) 🇸🇾 🏹
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan (lesbian mc) 🇮🇷 🏹
A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar (bi mc) 🇵🇸 🇰🇼 🏹
Rughum & Najda by Samar Habib (sapphic mcs) 🇮🇶

God in Pink by Hasan Namir (gay mc) 🇮🇶
Guapa by Saleem Haddad (gay mc) 🇵🇸 🇱🇧 🇮🇷
The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine (gay mc) 🇱🇧
Wanting in Arabic by Trish Salah (poetry) 🇱🇧 🏹
The Lost Arabs by Omar Sakr (poetry) 🇱🇧 🇹🇷 🏹

The Specimen’s Apology by George Abraham (poetry) 🇵🇸 🏹
The Stone of Laughter by Hoda Barakat, trans. by Sophie Bennett (gay mc) 🇱🇧
Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique by Sa’ed Atshan (nonfiction) 🇵🇸 🏹
Bareed Mista3jil ed. by Meem (essays) 🇱🇧
The Bride of Amman by Fadi Zaghmout, trans. by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (gay mc) 🇯🇴

Princess Freak by Nancy Agabain (poetry) 🇦🇲 🏹
The Way It Breaks by Polis Loizou (bi mc) 🇨🇾 🏹
The Garden of the Departed Cats by Bilge Karasu, trans. by Aron Aji (gay mc) 🇹🇷
The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer, trans. by Kenneth Dakan (trans mc) 🇹🇷
Intolerable by Kamal al-Solaylee (memoir) 🇾🇪 🏹

The Others by Siba al-Harez, trans. by unknown (sapphic mc, lesbian character) 🇸🇦
The Diesel by Thani al-Suwaidi, trans. by William M. Hutchins (trans mc) 🇦🇪
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, trans. by Tina A. Kover (sapphic mc) 🇮🇷
Poems of Wine and Revelry by Abu Nuwas, trans. by Jim Colville (poetry) 🇮🇷
Unicorn by Amrou al-Kadhi (memoir) 🇮🇶 🏹