LGBTQ+ Biographies & Memoirs

Updated September 19, 2022
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Untamed
Glennon Doyle
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! "Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today."--Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club Pick) In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and...
The Argonauts
Maggie Nelson
An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family Maggie Nelson'sThe Argonautsis a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and...
In the Dream House: A Memoir
Carmen Maria Machado
A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and...
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Maia Kobabe
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns,thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographicalcomic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortablewith strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's...
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
Alison Bechdel
The Best Graphic Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly | A New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2021 | A New York Times Notable Book | An Autostraddle Best Queer Book of the Year | A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year | A St. Louis Post Dispatch Best Book of the Year | NPR, 12 Books...
Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
R. Eric Thomas
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today * From the creator of Elle's "Eric Reads the News," a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every...
Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality
Sarah McBride
Sarah McBride is on a mission to fight for transgender rights around the world. But before she was a prominent activist, and before she became the first transgender person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, she was a teenager struggling with her identity. With...
Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays
Lauren Hough
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A memoir in essays about so many things--growing up in an abusive cult, coming of age as a lesbian in the military, forced out by homophobia, living on the margins as a working class woman and what it's like to grow into the person you are meant to...
Broken Horses: A Memoir
Brandi Carlile
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, and six-time Grammy winner opens up about faith, sexuality, parenthood, and a life shaped by music in "one of the great memoirs of our time" (Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed). NAMED...
One Life
Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe, Olympic gold medallist and two-time Women's World Cup champion, has become a galvanizing force for social change; here, she urges all of us to take up the mantle, with actions big and small, to continue the fight for justice and equality. Using anecdotes from her own life and career,...
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation
Hannah Gadsby
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Multi-award-winning Hannah Gadsby broke comedy with their show Nanette. Now they take us through the defining moments in their life and their powerful decision to tell the truth--no matter the cost. Don't miss Hannah Gadsby's...
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
John Paul Brammer
LGBTQ advice columnist John Paul Brammer writes a "wise and charming" (David Sedaris) memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey from a queer, mixed-race kid in America's heartland to becoming the "Chicano Carrie Bradshaw" of his generation. "A master class of tone and...
This Much is True
Miriam Margolyes
'There is no one on earth quite so wonderful' STEPHEN FRY 'As outrageously entertaining as you'd expect' Daily Express BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury's Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable...
How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived
Leslie Jordan
New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Viral sensation and Emmy Award-winner Leslie Jordan regales fans with entertaining stories about the odd, funny, and unforgettable events in his life in this unmissable essay collection that echoes his droll, irreverent voice. ...
I Have Something to Tell You: A Memoir
Chasten Buttigieg
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope for America's future...
Punch Me Up To The Gods: A Memoir
Brian Broome
WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE * WINNER OF A LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' PICK * STONEWALL HONOR BOOK * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AMAZON AND APPLE BOOKS * TODAY SUMMER...
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
Akwaeke Emezi
FEATURED ON THE COVER OF TIME MAGAZINE AS A 2021 NEXT GENERATION LEADER "A once-in-a-generation voice." - Vulture "One of our greatest living writers." - Shondaland A full-throated and provocative memoir in letters from the New York Times bestselling...
I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir
Harvey Fierstein
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER .A poignant andhilarious memoir fromthe cultural icon,gay rights activist,and four-time Tony Award-winning actor and playwright, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career
Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir
Hari Ziyad
An eloquent, restless, and enlightening memoir by one of the most thought-provoking journalists today about growing up Black and queer in America, reuniting with the past, and coming of age their own way. One of nineteen children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu...
Unprotected: A Memoir
Billy Porter
It's easy to be yourself when who and what you are is in vogue. But growing up Black and gay in America has never been easy. Before Billy Porter was slaying red carpets and giving an iconic Emmy-winning performance in the celebrated TV show Pose; before he was the groundbreaking Tony and...
2000s Made Me Gay
Grace Perry
From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman A Lambda...
Deaf Utopia: A Memoir―and a Love Letter to a Way of Life
Nyle DiMarco
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A heartfelt and inspiring memoir and celebration of Deaf culture by Nyle DiMarco, actor, producer, two-time reality show winner, and cultural icon of the international Deaf community Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model...
Love Is an Ex-Country
Randa Jarrar
Queer. Muslim. Arab American. A proudly Fat femme. Randa Jarrar is all of these things. In this "exuberant, defiant and introspective" memoir of a cross-country road trip, she explores how to claim joy in an unraveling and hostile America (The New York Times Book Review).  ...
Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son
Richie Jackson
Chosen by Town & Country as one of the most anticipated books of the year | Named "An LGBTQ Book That'll Change the Literary Landscape in 2020" by O: The Oprah Magazine In this poignant and urgent love letter to his son, award-winning Broadway, TV and film producer Richie Jackson reflects...
I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir
Precious Brady-Davis
A powerful memoir of independence, releasing the past, and living the dream by award-winning trans advocate Precious Brady-Davis. Precious Brady-Davis remembers the sense of being singular and grappling with "otherness." Born into traumatic circumstances, Davis was brought up in the...
I'm in Seattle, Where Are You?: A Memoir
Mortada Gzar
Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize. An award-winning Iraqi writer creates a new world for himself in Seattle in search of lost love. As the US occupation of Iraq rages, novelist Mortada Gzar, a student at the University of Baghdad, has a chance encounter with...
My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris
Alexander Lobrano
In this debut memoir, a James Beard Award-winning writer, whose childhood idea of fine dining was Howard Johnson's, tells how he became one of Paris's most influential food critics   Until Alec Lobrano landed a job in the glamorous Paris office of Women's Wear...
A Wild and Precious Life: A Memoir
Joshua Lyon
A lively, intimate memoir from a marriage equality icon of the gay rights movement, describing gay life in the 1950s and 60s New York City and her longtime activism. "Brash, funny and brave." --NPR "A captivating and inspiring story of a queer woman who...
High-Risk Homosexual
Edgar Gomez
A debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez's uncle's cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at thirteen years old to become a man. Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love...
Miss Memory Lane: A Memoir
Colton Haynes
A brutally honest and moving memoir of lust, abuse, addiction, stardom, and redemption from Arrow and Teen Wolf actor Colton Haynes. Four years ago, Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He'd had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almost ruptured a kidney, and...
Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life
Jonathan Van Ness
The Emmy-nominated host of Netflix's Queer Eye follows up his New York Times-bestselling memoir, Over The Top, with this collection of thought-provoking essays on grief and healing, cannabis reform, LGBTQIA+ rights, imposter syndrome, personal style, the HIV safety net, and of, course, how to...
Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change
Danica Roem
An inspirational memoir-meets-manifesto by Danica Roem, the nation's first openly trans person elected to US state legislature Danica Roem made national headlines when--as a transgender former frontwoman for a metal band and a political newcomer--she unseated Virginia's most...
This Body I Wore: A Memoir
Diana Goetsch
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year A captivating memoir of one woman's long journey to late transition, as the trans community emerges alongside her. "Achingly beautiful." --Manuel Betancourt, The New York Times Book Review...
As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy after I Transitioned
Paula Stone Williams
This moving and unforgettable memoir of a transgender pastor's transition from male to female is an "audacious, gripping, and profoundly real journey that speaks to the mind, heart, and soul" (Joshua J. Dickson, director of Faith Based Initiatives, Biden Campaign)--perfect for fans...
Red Rock Baby Candy
Shira Spector
Shira Spector, whose drawing is visceral, symbolic and naturalistic, literally paints a vivid portrait of the most eventful 10 years of her life, encompassing her tenacious struggle to get pregnant, the emotional turmoil of her father's cancer diagnosis and eventual death, and her recollections of...

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