Novels About Queer People

argyle-s:

fuckyeahlesbianliterature:

So Sarah Diemer’s response to Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian’s post about wanting queer people to be the audience for queer books is really making me think. Sarah makes a good point that without a straight/cis audience, most queer authors wouldn’t be able to support themselves in their writing. But she also mentions this:

A lot of lesbians are tired of lesbian literature, which is very, very frustrating for me.  They tried to read some books, didn’t like the writing or thought they were poorly written, and now have a stigma against all lesbian books.

…

I want, desperately and passionately, for lesbians to find my stories, give them a chance and read them.  That’s why I post SO MUCH for free.  But in all of my experience, I keep knocking on closed doors that won’t open for me:  lesbians don’t want to give my stories a try, but straight people are desperate for them.

I have found this myself in trying to publicize lesbian books. Many lesbians are convinced that all lesbian books are bad, and aren’t willing to try any anymore. This really connects to Piercing Fiction’s post: It’s time to be more discriminating in [lesbian] books. Basically it seems to be that we have this camp of lesfic readers who are cheerleaders for all lesbian books, even the most poorly written, terribly edited ones, and this results in a larger camp of readers thinking that all we have to offer are poor-quality books, and they then refuse to read any lesbian books.

The way I see it, we have to support the lesbian authors and publishers that are putting out quality work, and we have to be honest about the ones that aren’t. Part of this, I think, comes from the label “Lesbian Fiction” or “lesfic”, which is more commonly referring to lesbian romance. We expect romance novels to not be the most literary books written, and it’s perfectly fine to have some trashy romance in the genre, but we shouldn’t be representing it as lesbian fiction, as lesbian literature.

If you’re a reader that’s given up on lesbian books (you probably aren’t reading my blog, but still), let me know what you’re looking for, and I’ll try to find you a book you’ll like. If you aren’t looking for lesbian romance novels, than Bella Books and Bold Strokes Books are probably not the places to go. The Lesbrary covers a range of genres, but personally, I prefer more literary fiction, so I tend to focus on that. Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian also has a focus on literary fiction.

But also, if you’re a lesbian who’s written off lesbian books, that’s your choice, but you are missing out on a lot. And it’s not fair to judge the entire genre based on the handful of books you randomly picked up. If you read Fifty Shades of Grey, you probably don’t throw it across the room shouting “Straight books suuuuck!” If an author disappoints you, you likely don’t write off the entire genre. So why do it for lesbian books?

I think a lot of lesbians pick up any lesbian books they can get their hands on and then judge the whole genre(s) based on those, which is unfair. Just like any other genre, you have to explore which books will interest you, personally.

That was a long rant, but I would love to see more discussion about this, because it is a problem if lesbians are the hardest audience to reach for lesbian authors.

You know, I would dearly, dearly love to read more books with a queer protagonist (lesbian, bisexual, transgendered; I prefer female protagonists, so I don’t read a lot of stories with gay heroes, but I’ll take anything, really).  I spend a lot of time looking for books with a queer protagonist.  The problem is, when it comes to the genres I prefer to read, space opera and urban fantasy, with the occasional superhero book thrown in, there’s not a lot out there.

Right now, I’m reading the Sarah Beauhall series by J. A, Pitts (Black Blade Blues, Honeyed Words, Forged in Fire).  It’s about a blacksmith in modern day Settle who unknowingly reforges a sort created by Odin to slay dragons, and ends up in the middle of all kinds of supernatural shenanigans as a result.  Great series, with several queer themes.  Sarah’s a lesbian, with a super religious family, who’s still in the processes of coming out (which causes a lot of tension with her girlfriend Katie).  She’s also dealing with a lot if internalized homophobia, because of her upbringing, and even has trouble with her identity as a butch (seriously, she’s a blacksmith, did you really expect her to be a femme?).

The thing is, this is the first title I’ve found in months that satisfies that itch I have for queer genre content.  It is, also, oddly enough, written by a guy who’s married to a woman (so, I’m assuming, straight, though I do recognize the possibility that he’s bisexual).

Well, the first commercially available title.  I suck down fanfiction like it’s milk from Hera’s own breasts, because there, I can get a hell of a lot of queer genre content.

Before the Sarah Beauhall books, I think the last book a read with a queer protagonist (a woman who, for various reasons was in a male body) was the Safehold series, by David Weber.  (David for being slightly to the right of Darth Vader politically, includes an awful lot of non-traditional family structures and such in his books).

I experience more frustration on this point than you can imagine, and my basic response to Sarah Diemer, I haven’t given up on queer literature because I read one book and thought it was terrible.  I’m desperate for it.  But if you want me to read your books, please, write the kinds of books I want to read.

Casey, the Canadian Lesbrarian on the other had has a far, far more valid point.  Trying to figure queer content, even when it exists, is endlessly frustrating, and sometimes extremely disappointing.  I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve guessed wrong.  Seriously, if publishers don’t want to say ‘here there be gay’ in the back cover text, can they just put a little rainbow or a pink triangle on the book’s spine, so we know?

Reblogging because I’ve been wanting to add something to this discussion, and I think both Casey and argyle-s have really good points. I’ll try not to ramble.

I didn’t really go searching for queer fiction until last year, not long before I started this blog. I’d read about six YA novels, two short story collections, and a bunch of nonfiction. I think I may have gotten the idea that all (or almost all) queer novels were coming-out stories in realistic contemporary settings. The thing is, my favorite genre is fantasy. I don’t read a whole lot of books in realistic contemporary settings, and as for coming-out stories… well, that might be best suited for another post. Suffice it to say that I eventually lost interest, except for a couple of favorite books. I’m now learning that queer characters can show up in all sorts of genres, but I’m still brand new at exploring it all and at doing the kind of detective work Casey talks about.

I’ve seen plenty of queer books recommended online and rightly so. But that’s not where I’m most at home finding my books. I usually find my reading material at the library or the bookstore or by reading a description that sticks in my head long enough that I actually go hunting for the book. Unless I’m already looking for a specific book or author, or I get extraordinarily lucky, I can’t just go to the library and grab a novel that has a queer character. There are just too many books. And I haven’t been in a bookstore with an LGBT section that put novels there. Nonfiction, yes. Erotica and a few romance novels, maybe. But the other novels are mixed in with literally thousands of books.

Heck, I want more than a pink triangle on the spine, I want a whole color-coding system. Main character? Secondary character? Book acknowledges that queer people exist?

I’m all for supporting queer fiction, but having a better way to FIND it would be a godsend.

And one final point: “queer” is not a genre. It’s a necessary identifier, but the genres are (or should be!!) as varied as they are for straight books.

Because we all need more stuff like this.

malindalo:

Know of any YA being self-published or published as ebook-only in 2013 that has LGBTQ main characters? Please tell me on my website!