From 19th and 20th century trailblazers, and gripping recollections of the AIDs years, to anti-coming out stories, and fiercely ambitious anthologies—some of our most beloved LGBTQ+ authors have shared their reading recommendations to pick up this Pride month and beyond, championing a diverse range of voices, celebrating queer life and queer love. Read on for recommendations from Julia Armfield, Oisín McKenna, Jason Okundaye, K Patrick and more.

Julia Armfield's work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2023. Her latest novel is Private Rites. She lives and works in London.

Dean Atta is an award-winning author and performance poet. He won the 2012 London Poetry Award and was named as one of the most influential LGBT people by the Independent on Sunday Pink List. He has written two YA novel-in-verses which includes The Black Flamingo which was a top-selling debut of 2020, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, CILIP Carnegie Medal, the Jhalak Prize and the YA Book Prize. The Black Flamingo was also awarded the prestigious Stonewall Book Award and the Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Award 2020. Person Unlimited is his non-fiction debut.

Chloé Caldwell is the author of The Red Zone: A Love Story, I’ll Tell You in Person, Legs Get Led Astray and Women. Her next book, Trying, will be published by Graywolf. Chloé’s work has been published in the New York Times, Bon Appétit, The Cut, Longreads, Nylon, Hobart, The Sun, The Rumpus, Vice and a dozen anthologies. She teaches creative writing online and hosts seasonal writing retreats. Chloé lives in Hudson, New York.

Moïra Fowley is the author of three critically acclaimed YA novels, and a part-time witch. Her short story ‘Such a pretty face' from Eyes Guts Throat Bones won the 2023 Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year. Half-French and half-Irish, she lives in Dublin with her girlfriend and her two children.

Luke Healy was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, where he also received a BA in journalism. He holds an MFA in cartooning from the Canter for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, USA, and his two previous books, The Con Artists and Americana, were both named as Guardian Books of the Year. His latest book is Self-Esteem and the End of the World.

Calla Henkel is an American writer, playwright, director and artist living between Berlin and Los Angeles. Her debut novel, Other People's Clothes, was a New York Times Book Review 'Editors' Choice'. She has staged plays at Volksbühne Berlin and the Whitney Museum of Art, and her artistic work with Max Pitegoff has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. She currently operates a theatre in Los Angeles, called New Theater Hollywood. Scrap is her second novel.

Henry Hoke is the author of the memoir Sticker, The Book of Endless Sleepovers, the story collection Genevieves, and the novels The Groundhog Forever and Open Throat. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, Triangle House, The Offing, and the Catapult anthology Tiny Crimes. He holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught for five years, and presently teaches at the University of Virginia Young Writers Workshop and lives in Brooklyn.

Oisín McKenna grew up in Drogheda, Ireland, and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends - the highest award for an emerging artist in Ireland - and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, which supports London's most promising underrepresented writers. In 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin's youth.

Jason Okundaye was born in 1997 in South London, where he remains. His essays and features have been published in the Guardian, Evening Standard, British GQ, and the London Review of Books, amongst others. Revolutionary Acts is his first book.

K Patrick is a writer based in Scotland. In 2023, they were named an Observer Best Debut Novelist and were selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. They were runner up for the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Laura Kinsella Fellowship and were shortlisted for The White Review Short Story Prize. Their poetry has appeared in Poetry Review and Five Dials, and was shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize in 2021. Mrs S is their debut novel.

Alana S. Portero is a Medieval historian, writer, playwright, LGBT+ activist, and cofounder of the theatre company STRIGA. Her writings on feminism and LGTBQ+ activism from the perspective of a trans woman have been featured in a number of international publications, including Agente Provocador, El Salto, SModa and Vogue. Bad Habit is her debut novel and spent over 17 weeks on the bestseller list on publication in Spain. She lives in Madrid.

Phoebe Stuckes is a writer and poet from West Somerset, living in London. A four-time winner of the Foyle Young Poet of The Year Award and a Barbican Young Poet, her writing has appeared inThe Poetry Review, The Rialto, and Ambit among others. Her debut pamphlet, Gin & Tonic was shortlisted for The Michael Marks Award 2017 and in 2019 Phoebe was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award for her first full-length collection, Platinum Blonde, which was also highly commended by The Forward Prizes.

August Thompson was born and raised in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. He studied in New York and Berlin, wasted all of his good hearing at metal shows, taught English in Spain for two years, and spent another two on couches across three continents. He returned to New York as a Goldwater Fellow at NYU’s Creative Writing Program. Anyone's Ghost is his first novel.

Kate Young is a writer and cook, whose award-winning Little Library Cookbooks feature food inspired by beloved works of literature. After a sunny Australian childhood (spent indoors reading books) she moved to London, which suited her much better. She now lives in a converted mill in a Gloucestershire town. Experienced is her first novel.