One of the scariest things about coming out is often not knowing what’ll happen after – especially if you’re only a teenager (like I was). Navigating those transitional years and approaching your early 20’s is daunting enough. Add in living as your full self for the first time, and it can be downright terrifying. Thankfully, more and more authors are answering the question of “what comes next?” for LGBTQ2IA+ stories. Whether you’ve already come out, are planning to in the future, or just began that conversation with yourself, I hope these five titles can be a starting point as you …
Kelly Quindlen has been a leading author for LGBTQIA+ representation in literature for the past six years. She self-published Her Name in the Sky in 2014, a coming out story that authentically speaks to the terror and beauty of falling in love for the first time as a queer woman. Her traditional publishing debut, Late to the Party, is the coming-of-age story that offers reassuring guidance as to what comes next. Three years ago, I came out to the world on this exact day. I owe a lot of that to the opportunity that National Coming Out Day provides for …
I’m a hopeless romantic. Always have been. As I got older, though, I couldn’t ignore the fact that there was something missing in the prose that had taught me about love.
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name is a lyrically written story that will break your heart countless times before putting it back together again. Audre Lorde weaves together history, myth, and biography to create the biomythography of her life. In this new genre, she captures the pain of (not) being seen in a world that refuses to acknowledge or accept every part of you—even when you’re trying your hardest to be proud of those parts yourself. At the same time, Zami is an ode to the women who gave meaning to the power and strength Lorde would embrace as …
I look at Molly and see myself—the whirlwind of questioning, anger, sadness, eventual acceptance… I’ve felt all of it. Her experience is by no means representative of all queer women, but I think there’s something really powerful and important about Rita Mae Brown’s tremendous effort to create a coming out and coming of age story that challenges stereotypes and cliches.
