This content material incorporates affiliate hyperlinks. While you purchase via these hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate fee.
March 31 is Worldwide Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). Once I consider this vacation, the phrase “celebration” involves thoughts. Usually, life as a transgender particular person is decreased by media depictions to overcoming challenges and struggling. And whereas trans and non-binary folks do face vital challenges and discrimination, TDOV is to me a reminder to acknowledge and admire the fulfilling lives and contributions transgender folks and communities have discovered regardless of insistence by others that such issues are unimaginable to search out.
Learn on to search out 22 must-read works of literature by transgender and non-binary authors. I’ve organized the listing by age group in addition to fiction and nonfiction to assist readers finest discover what they’re on the lookout for.
Take into account this listing a place to begin moderately than a complete listing of notable work by trans and non-binary authors. For extra suggestions, try Ebook Riot’s LGBTQ archives. There you’ll discover curated lists on quite a lot of queer themes, together with The Greatest LGBTQ Books of 2022.
When you’ve discovered new books to search out at your native library or bookstore, learn this essay on the expansion of transgender illustration in literature. In it, the writer displays on their expertise studying Little Fish by Casey Plett and the way it resonated with them as a author.
YA Fiction by Transgender and Non-Binary Authors
When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Ever since Miel magically appeared out of a water tower as a toddler, she and Sam have been inseparable finest mates. Now youngsters, they understand that they’ve fallen in love.
However each are in peril. Miel can develop roses from her wrists, and the Bonner sisters — who many of their city imagine to be witches — wish to take her flowers for themselves. And Sam, who’s transgender, dangers being outed if he tries to guard her.

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker
When teen witch Nova Huang reconnects along with her childhood finest pal Tam Lang, she discovers that they’re a werewolf — they usually’re in hassle. A darkish magic is focusing on the close by forest, and Nova would be the solely one who can shield Tam and their New England city.

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor
Autistic non-binary teen Sam and their dad Junius transfer to small-town Oregon after they’re the goal of a hate crime. Amidst making new mates, Sam quickly learns a few decades-old unsolved homicide that occurred of their dwelling and is compelled to unravel it.

Being Emily by Rachel Gold
Emily, a trans teen in Minnesota, has grown up with no helps and the insistence from her therapist, household, and girlfriend that she ought to ignore her gender dysphoria. However when she meets a lady named Natalie and will get a brand new therapist, Emily finds confidence in who she is and was meant to be.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Felix Love is what one would possibly name a hopeless romantic. Though he’s by no means been in love, he hopes to search out somebody who may love him for who he’s: a Black transgender particular person.
When an nameless particular person at his faculty begins sending him transphobic messages and leaking footage of him earlier than he transitioned, Felix seeks revenge. Alongside the best way, he finds a larger sense of self-acceptance.
YA Nonfiction by Transgender and Non-Binary Authors

Continuum by Chella Man
In his debut memoir, artist Chella Man examines the intersection of his identities as a Deaf, genderqueer, biracial Jewish particular person. He displays on the significance of with the ability to stay authentically with out strain to cover any a part of who he’s.

Rising Up Trans: In Our Personal Phrases, Edited by Lindsay Herriot and Kate Fry
On this anthology of visible artwork, poetry, and private essays, transgender teenagers share their very own ideas and experiences. Included are epiphanies about who they’re, how they really feel in regards to the world they stay in, and what helps and actions from others make them really feel accepted.
Grownup Fiction by Transgender and Non-Binary Authors

The Thirty Names of Evening by Zeyn Joukhadar
An unnamed transgender Syrian-American man navigates following his inventive desires whereas caring for his in poor health grandmother Teta. When he finds the journal of a lacking artist named Laila, who was as soon as a tenant in his condominium complicated, he discovers that she as soon as painted the identical uncommon chicken that his late ornithologist mom as soon as fought to avoid wasting.
As he searches for a duplicate of Laila’s portray, he unravels secrets and techniques about his mom’s previous and discovers a reputation for himself.

Gentle from Unusual Stars by Ryka Aoki
Shizuka Satomi is the Queen of Hell. Damned for a Faustian deal she made in life, she should persuade seven musicians to promote their souls to earn her freedom.
However her seventh pupil, a transgender runaway named Katrina Nguyen, and the bond she makes with starship captain and donut store proprietor Lan Tran make Shizuka query the whole lot she’s been working to perform. What good is life in the event you can’t spend it with these you care about?

The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Regardless of the variations of their musical careers — with one on the rise and the opposite shedding relevance — Neela Devaki and Rukmini develop into shut mates. Till a single tweet calls the futures of their friendship and careers into query with your entire web watching.

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
Set in New York Metropolis in the course of the early 2000s, this novel follows genderqueer bookbinder Daybreak Levit. After discovering a love letter in a lesbian pulp novel, Daybreak units out to search out the writer and return it to them. Amidst this search, Daybreak additionally seeks a greater understanding of her gender identification and the methods expectations from her job and her accomplice stifle it.

Little Fish by Casey Plett
After her grandmother passes away, Wendy Reimer is shocked to find that her grandfather might have thought-about himself transgender, if he’d had the phrases and alternatives to discover the disconnect he felt along with his assigned gender in rural Canada. The extra she learns about her grandfather, the extra she contemplates her personal experiences as a transgender lady.

Small Magnificence by Jia Qing Wilson-Yang
Grieving the lack of her cousin, Mei strikes into his empty dwelling in small-town Canada. Right here, she will be able to’t assist however mirror on the previous — each her cousin’s and her personal — in addition to the household secrets and techniques she uncovers after shifting again.

World Working Down by Al Hess
In post-apocalyptic Utah, transgender salvager Valentine takes harmful missions to earn sufficient cash to achieve citizenship in Salt Lake Metropolis. When he meets Osric, an AI steward trapped in an android physique, he accepts a gig with a reward massive sufficient to alter his life — if he survives, and if the particular person behind the gig is telling the reality.

By Manner of Sorrow (Erin McCabe #1) by Robyn Gigl
Within the first installment of this authorized thriller sequence written by a real-life lawyer, legal professional Erin McCabe defends Sharise Barnes — a younger trans lady accused of murdering the son of a New Jersey senator. McCabe, who can also be a transgender lady, quickly finds herself within the midst of a political firestorm that threatens her and her consumer’s security.
Grownup Nonfiction by Transgender and Non-Binary Authors

Black on Each Sides: A Racial Historical past of Trans Identification by C. Riley Snorton
Historian C. Riley Snorton confronts the erasure of Black transgender folks from queer U.S. historical past, in addition to the intersection between anti-Black and anti-transgender laws. In analyzing the lives of Black transgender folks via historic data from the nineteenth century to the current, Snorton hopes for a future the place Black trans folks can stay in security.

Tremendous Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye
In a sequence of comics, artist Julia Kaye data the primary months after she begins taking hormone substitute remedy — each the joyful and difficult moments. As she displays on her gender transition, she involves a greater sense of self-acceptance and appreciation for who she has develop into.

Pricey Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi
Of their epistolary memoir, Nigerian writer Awaeke Emezi writes a sequence of letters on spirituality, creativity, and gender identification. Every chapter is addressed to a unique particular person, together with mates, household, colleagues, romantic companions, and inspirations.

Actual Queer America: LGBT Tales from Crimson States by Samantha Allen
GLAAD award-winning journalist Samantha Allen embarks on a highway journey throughout pink states to interview the queer individuals who stay there. Alongside the best way, she displays on her experiences rising up transgender in Utah and finds hope within the chosen household LGBTQ communities create within the locations they name dwelling.

Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia
Actor and producer Jacob Tobia displays on their youth as a closeted teen in North Carolina the place they have been typically labeled as “sissy” by others and the moments that supplied them readability and confidence of their genderqueer identification.

One thing That Might Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery
Mixing memoir and popular culture commentary, writer and recommendation columnist Daniel M. Lavery’s essay assortment snarkily displays on quite a lot of subjects that curiosity him, from transgender identification to The Golden Women.

Good Boy: My Life in Seven Canine by Jennifer Finney Boylan
What are life’s milestones if not formed by these we now have liked? On this memoir, trans activist and New York Occasions columnist Jennifer Finney Boylan displays on key moments in her life and the way the canine she’s adopted each outlined these moments and helped her higher perceive find out how to love others and herself.
Desirous about extra guide suggestions? Take a look at these YA books written by trans and non-binary authors, together with The (Un)well-liked Vote by Jasper Sanchez.