Queer Memoirs To Read for Disability Pride Month

First published in 1999, Exile and Pride is a groundbreaking work at the intersection of queer and disability studies. This blends memoir and essays as Clare discusses his experiences as a genderqueer writer and activist with cerebral palsy, focusing on the body as a site of power, resistance, and oppression.

Dirty River follows Piepzna-Samarasinha as a young brown, queer, disabled femme as they ran from the U.S. to Canada. It’s a vulnerable and resilient story about survival, and you can see Piepzna-Samarasinha’s poetry background in the sharp and precise wording. I also highly recommend her books Bodymap (poetry) and Care Work (nonfiction).

Through a combination of bad decisions and unfortunate circumstances, Jamie has become a Florida Woman headline. Luckily, she has landed a pretty sweet community service job instead of jail time, helping at a macaque sanctuary. The women working there are a tight-knit group, and Jamie desperately wants to fit in (and maybe kiss one of them). But then she starts hearing the monkeys scream at night. Underneath the idyllic facade of the sanctuary, some secrets are being kept…

You can hear me talk about in more depth on this week’s All the Books episode!

Normally, I wouldn’t include a book that doesn’t have a queer main character, but considering the plot revolves around the queer secondary characters, I’m counting it — kind of like Everything Everywhere All At Once, which you should definitely see if you haven’t already. I cried the whole half hour.

Keya Das’s Second Act follows Shantanu Das, who is in his 50s and has a lot of regrets. The biggest one is that he didn’t accept his teenage daughter Keya when she came out as gay, and now it’s too late. She’s passed away. Then, in his attic, he finds an unfinished manuscript Keya and her girlfriend, Pamela, were working on. He decides to pay homage to Keya’s memory by putting on the play himself — but first, he has to get Pamela’s permission.

Gender Queer has been getting a lot of press in recent years for challenges against it, but what it should be known for is how many people it has helped both feel seen themselves and to better understand others. This new addition includes a foreword by ND Stevenson, creator of Lumberjanes, Nimona, and Netflix’s She-Ra. It also has a new afterward from the author.