I have to admit that the only corner of the bookish internet I frequent is Bookstagram, but even there, scrolling through the #TransBooks365 hashtag, I saw a lot of the same YA books being featured over and over again. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this! It is a delight to see books like Cemetery Boys, Felix Ever After, Pet, and I Wish You All the Best (among many others) get so much well-deserved love and attention. There has been an explosion of trans YA in the past few years, and 2021 has been an especially great year for it. But 2021 has also been an incredible year for adult trans lit. Happily, this is not an either/or situation; it’s a both/and situation. This list isn’t intended to take attention away from trans YA. I simply want to highlight some of the amazing adult books by trans authors that don’t get included on every trans booklist. I’ve included a few buzzy books, but a lot of these haven’t gotten as much attention as they absolutely deserve. Scrolling through the #TransBooks365 hashtag, these are the titles I only saw mentioned a few times, if at all. Of course, the hashtag isn’t limited to books from 2021. But “adult books by trans authors” is way too broad a category for a list of 20 books. Picking just 20 from this year was hard enough. This list is proof that, as Book Riot editor Danika likes to point out, we’re living in the golden age of queer lit. Here are books by trans & genderqueer authors across just about every genre, from contemporary fiction to historical fantasy. You’ll find horror and sci-fi, memoir and poetry, and even a play. We’ve got short stories and epistolary books and a novel that takes place entirely inside Slack. Get ready for your TBR to explode. Some important notes on how I made this list of trans & genderqueer authors: This list includes nonbinary and genderqueer authors, some of whom identify as trans, and some of whom don’t. Trans is both a specific identity and an umbrella term that encompasses people of many non-cis gender identities. The same is true for the terms genderqueer and nonbinary. Some nonbinary people are also trans; some are not. A person with a specific gender identity (agender or bigender, for example) might fall under the genderqueer umbrella, or they might not. Gender is personal and multi-faceted and so is the language we use to talk about it. My intent with this list is to highlight some of the incredible books written this year by authors who fall under the trans and/or genderqueer umbrellas. I encourage you to read not only these books, but also some of the wonderful interviews, articles, and essays these authors have written about gender as it relates to their lives and work.
2021 Fiction by Trans & Genderqueer Authors
2021 Nonfiction by Trans & Genderqueer Authors
Looking for more books by trans & genderqueer authors? If you’re craving trans YA, we’ve got you covered with this list and this one, too. Or maybe you’re looking for some trans SFF, audiobooks by trans authors, or comics about trans and genderqueer folks. You might want to check out this list of awesome books about trans history. Or how about these novels by trans authors, and these affirming trans books?
