Finalists for the 22nd annual Lambda Literary Awards are poised to be announced soon, which got me thinking about all the LGBTQ fiction available from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, a literary history spanning from Radclyffe Hall’s formative novel The Well of Loneliness to Alicia E. Goranson’s spirited genderqueer romp Supervillainz.
Our LGBTQ literature may be out of the closet, but that doesn’t mean it’s flying off the shelf. If your reading interests are off the path of the straight and narrow, here’s how you can get your hands on some fun, fancy, and altogether fabulous LGBTQ fiction:
The New & Featured GLBT Collection
Our Main Library boasts an outstanding collection of some of the best and brightest of LGBTQ publishing in the last few years, located on the First Floor. Every year, we reintegrate books older than a few years back into the general fiction, so if you’re browsing the stacks and see a little tan & white sticker–that’s your cue that the book was once featured in our New & Featured GLBT Collection.
Booklists on Carnegielibrary.org
Every so often, we piece together a few books from our GLBT Collection featuring different themes or just the books we’ve read and loved. You can see them all here and, while you’re at it, browse the rest of the outstanding lists that CLP librarians have put together for you.
Search the Catalog
Subject headings aren’t just for research, they work for fiction, too–especially when it comes to LGBTQ content. Our catalogers mark down the different sexualities and gender identities represented within each item’s record, allowing you to find books even when it’s not obvious. Try clicking a few of the links below:
- Lesbians — Fiction
- Gay Men — Fiction
- Bisexuals — Fiction
- Transsexuals — Fiction
- Transgender people — Fiction
No system for cataloging human sexuality and gender is ever going to be perfect (I mean, we’ve all read Michel Foucault and Kate Bornstein, right?), but hopefully through our New & Featured GLBT Collection, booklists, and behind the scenes work in the catalog, you’ll be here, queer, and reading in no time!
-Joseph
Eleventh Stack 