7 Queer Black Authors You Should Read This Black History Month

Black History Month is about not only reflecting on the past, but also about celebrating the achievements of black visionaries and role models. This Black History Month, why not check out some amazing works by queer black authors? These storytellers and artists explore the intersection of sexuality, race and gender through prose, poetry and fiction. Blackness is a unique experience, but so is the experience of being queer. Being black and queer intersects with both patriarchy and race to form a fundamentally unique perspective. From class barriers to queerphobia within their own communities, these 7 authors write about their struggles and triumphs through the lens of fiction.

Warning: many of these books touch on sensitive subjects and themes, some of which may be overbearing for the faint of heart. Please look at content warnings when deciding what to read if this is a concern. 

Rivers Soloman

Rivers Soloman is an American author who writes both academic and fiction writing. They are non-binary and use they/them as well as fae/faer pronouns. Fae frequently features non-binary and queer characters and narratives in their writing.

Novels:

An Unkindness of Ghosts explorers structural racism and slavery through a dystopian setting. Aster, the protagonist, is left to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death, all the while sowing the seeds for a civil war.

The Deep is based on the Hugo-nominated song of the same name by the experimental hip-hop group Clipping and depicts a utopian underwater society built by the water-breathing descendants of pregnant slaves thrown overboard from slave ships. 

Sorrowland is the story of a pregnant queer teenager who escapes from a cult and flees to the woods intending to raise her children far from society. In an effort to protect her newborn twins, her body undergoes a strange and frightening transformation.

Danez Smith

Danez Smith is an African-American, poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They identify as queer and non-binary, and their pronouns are they/them. 

Poetry:

[insert] Boy is a collection of poems in which Danez explores their experience being non-binary and the intersection of transgenderism and race

Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems is a collection of poems that touches on the topic of police violence and violence against black people by authority. It imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police. 

Hands On Your Knees explores Danez’s connection to his gender and race

Black Movie is a collection that tells stories of police brutality, black rage, and collective trauma through the poetic lens of film. The collection incorporates elements of film into poetry. 

Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi is a writer and poet born in Nigeria. Their pronouns are they/them. 

Born to a Nigerian father and Indian Tamil mother, Akwaeke used writing as a way to escape the dangerous reality of their childhood. 

Novels:

Freshwater tells the semi-autobiographical story of the protagonist, Ada, who is an ogbanje. Emezi explores their Igbo heritage’s spirituality and gender alongside those of Western construction and invites their audience to think critically about this spirit/body binary. 

Pet features a transgender teenager named Jam living in a world where adults refuse to acknowledge the existence of monsters 

The Death of Vivek Oji is the story of a young Nigerian boy’s family as they struggle to understand the circumstances of his death as well as their child.

Kacen Callender

Kacen Callender is a non-binary American author and charity worker who uses they/them and he/him pronouns. They were born and raised in the American Virgin Islands and have a bachelor’s degree in Japanese and creative writing.

Novels: 

Hurricane Child is about a twelve-year-old born during a hurricane who believes herself to be cursed as she struggles with becoming puberty and her sexuality. 

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story is the story of a trans teenager who falls in love and is forced to reconcile their sexuality and the experience of being transgender and black

Felix Ever After is about a transgender teen who catfishes a classmate for revenge and ends up falling for him. 

King and the Dragonflies is a novel that explores race and sexuality through the unlikely event of his dead brother turning into a dragonfly 

Queen of the Conquered is a heavy fantasy story set in a Caribbean-inspired world and tells the story of a black protagonist fighting back against colonizers and undergoing a quest for revenge.

Brandon Taylor

Brandon Taylor is an American author and activist. He holds a graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin where he runs writer’s workshops

Novels:

Real Life is a semi-autobiographical telling of Taylor’s own experiences as a queer university student and his struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his race and culture. 

Filthy Animals follows the story of a young gay man who encounters two dancers in an open relationship. This story is an exploration of desire and the intersection of longing and belonging

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-Canadian fiction writer and artist. Her works heavily feature sci-fi and afro-caribbean fantasy. She is also involved in the Sandman comic series by DC

Novels:

Brown Girl in the Ring follows the story of a young girl in a dystopian future in downtown Toronto following an economic collapse and her struggle to survive.

Midnight Robber A mixture of Caribbean folklore and science fiction, this story explores the relationship between a daughter and her father as they battle monsters on a planet not in our solar system.

The Salt Roads is a work of historical fiction and magical realism that follows a young goddess and her emergence through three different women at different points in history. It explores the relationship between divinity, race, gender and sexuality as it relates to patriarchy and revolution.

The New Moons Arms is primarily magical realism that follows the story of an old woman named Calamity who has recently discovered that she has magic powers after the death of her father. She adopts a young boy she finds by the river and grows attached to him, until she learns he has a terrible secret.

The Chaos is a work of horror following a young girl whose brother becomes abducted by the same entity that has been following her. Only by accepting her own character can she save him.

Sister Mine is the story of two conjoined twins, one magical, the other not so much. Told from the perspective of the non-magical twin, the sisters must work together and reconcile their differences to save their missing magical father.

Short stories:

Skin Folk is a collection of 15 stories from Hopkinson’s own childhood mixed with her Carribean heritage and featuring Caribbean folklore.

Report from Planet Midnight is a satirical aim against racism and sexism in media told through the lens of aliens evaluating human heritage.

Nicky Drayden

Nicky Drayden is an American author who primarily writes science fiction. She is also involved in a number of collaborative works such as a folklore series known as Delightfully Twisted Tales and a Minecraft spin-off book. 

Novels:

Escaping Exodus is the story of a young woman who is in command of a starship capable of colonizing and extracting resources from planets her clan encounters. That is, until something goes horribly wrong.

Temper is set in a world where almost everyone is born with an identical twin, one of whom is marked the superior and is guaranteed a good life. Told from the perspective of a teen boy who is marked as the inferior twin and must learn to control his temper.

The Prey of Gods is set in a utopian South Africa where new crises are beginning to emerge in the new age of genetic engineering and AI. Even more troubling, an ancient god has reemerged and is hellbent on regaining her former status. It is up to a small band of queer protagonists to make things right.

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