Our Community’s Favorites by Trans/Non-Binary Authors

A queer time travel rom-com? Yes, please. Especially one by McQuiston, who brought us the swoon-worthy hit “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Everybody’s gushing about this fun, romantic tale of true love on a subway car stuck between modern day Brooklyn and the punk rock ’70s. You’ll be longing for commute delays so you can keep on reading and rooting for protagonist August, jaw-dropping Jane, wholesome psychic Niko, and a host of other heartwarming, well-developed queer characters.

Aoki’s latest novel gives you everything you didn’t know you needed: An alien donut shop run by an interstellar refugee, a wildly gifted transgender violinist, and a cursed violin teacher desperately caught up in a Faustian bargain. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and unflinchingly honest when it comes to the lived experiences of trans women, “Light From Uncommon Stars” explores the power of identity and found families.

A high-tech and purely magical pre-apocalyptic love story from transgender author Charlie Jane Anders. Patricia Delfine is a budding witch while Laurence Armstead is a science nerd, and being misfits seems to be the only thing they have in common. When the world needs saving, their methods for tackling the problem appear antagonistic, but they end up falling in love with each other. “All the Birds in the Sky” won the Nebula Award and was shortlisted for a Hugo.

A bittersweet YA story about a Black boy in Louisiana grappling with the backlash to the possibility that he’s gay, the shame at outing his friend, and the grief of losing his brother. The beauty of the bayou is lyrically rendered with a touch of magical realism, as King wonders if his brother didn’t die, but instead was turned into a dragonfly. This novel from author Kacen Callender, who’s Black and trans, won the National Book Award.

Nonbinary author Mason Deaver’s debut novel tackles the adversity Ben De Backer faces when they come out as nonbinary to their parents and get thrown out of the house. Ben goes to live with their estranged sister and her husband, and meets a great new friend in Nathan.

Anna-Marie McLemore’s (they/them) enthralling retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” received many a starred review upon its release. The past and the present are connected through a plague of dance that causes death. “The author spins a tale of first love, misfits forging their own places in the world, and the inherent prejudices of people who fear what they don’t understand. This novel will leave an indelible mark on readers’ hearts,” according to Kirkus Reviews.

“The Black Tides of Heaven” was named one of the 100 best fantasy books of all time, according to TIME magazine. “Twins Akeha and Mokoya are sent by their mother, the leader of the Protectorate, to be raised in a faraway monastery. Initially inseparable, the twins begin to take diverging paths as they grow into their abilities — both are gifted with magic that allows them to manipulate the natural world — and their individual identities. Yang’s novella has all the weight of an epic without the page count,” Cate Matthews wrote for TIME.

A cute, queer love story between a gay trans boy and a ghost. Yadriel is determined to prove his gender identity to his Latinx family by exhibiting powers of a brujo rather than a bruja. Yadriel means to summon the ghost of his recently deceased cousin, but instead ends up with the spirit of his school’s bad boy, Julian Diaz. A stunning #OwnVoices story that is breaking down several barriers.

Hindu gods are always in the backdrop of this highly experimental novel from transgender author Vivek Shraya. An Indian Canadian man is always teased for being gay, and feels constrained by the conventions of gay culture. When he falls in love with a woman, more gender and sexuality confusion ensues.

Trans author Yoon Ha Lee tells a wholly original tale about a nonbinary character who wants to be a (magical) painter and a dragon automaton infused with an intelligent personality, both caught up in an imperialistic political battle. “The tale moves swiftly and unpredictably, and all the action is well-staged. In short, this is a lovely fantasy that eschews epic sturm und drang for small-scale challenges, full of tenderness, brutality, and quotidian living,” Paul Di Filippo wrote in a review of “Phoenix Extravagant” for Locus Magazine.