Friday, June 19, 2009

Diversity Roll Call: It's About Pride

June is officially Gay Pride Month in the U.S., so I thought we'd take the opportunity this week to look at some books by gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or queer (GLBTQ) authors, and/or that deal with GLBTQ issues. Do this in whatever way suits you best, but here are several ideas for you and lots of resources to help.

a) Post a list of books you would recommend which happen to be written by authors who identify as GLBTQ, or a list of books you recommend which address GLBTQ issues.
--or--
b) Write a post that highlights a GLBTQ author or book.
--or--
c) Haven't read any that you can think of? Bet you have, without realizing it, but if not, give yourself a challenge assignment--find one, read it, and blog it. Hopefully others will post their lists to help you out (I'll try to get a list done this weekend) and there are several resources below. Give yourself more than 2 weeks for this if you need to.
--and/or--
d) Sign up for the GLBT Reading Challenge and make your reading list for it (Mine is here:GLBT Reading Challenge).

Resources
The Lambda Literary Awards seek to recognize excellence in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature
The African American Literature Book Club lists AA gay and lesbian books
GLBTQ.com has lots of information about literature, sorted into a huge variety of time periods, racial/ethnic identities, and genres.
Wikipedia's trained monkeys have put together extensive lists of gay writers and lesbian writers

I'm going to try the pop-up Mr. Linky this week and hope for the best, but if it doesn't work feel free to post your link in the comments as well.



The C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call is a biweekly meme, co-hosted by myself and Susan of Color Online, with the goal of promoting diversity in reading. No need to enroll, no need to fit a particular mold--just join on in! We'd love to hear from you.

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link. I'm not aware there is a GLBTQ challenge! :)

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  2. A book I highly recommend: Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair. Thanks for the suggestion. I will try to get a list up!

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  3. Oh, you have to check out Lee Wind's, I'm Here. I'm Queer..... He features works for children through YA.

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  4. I have plenty I'd like to share. I'm going to post at Color Online and Black-Eyed Susan's. Great choice, Ali.

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  5. Ah, I meant to link to Lee's blog, Susan, I forgot! Thanks for adding that. Look forward to your posts.

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  6. Here's a list from "LGBT Literature," includes both current and classic:

    http://jclarkmedia.com/gaybooks/recommended.html

    I've really enjoyed Sarah Water's novels in the past.

    Thanks for doing this!

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  7. Wonderful resource, Melissa, thank you!

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  8. Thanks so much for the shout out - yeah, it's great to see these books being read and discussed!

    While I really focus on books for kids and Teens, I love that there's a list of African American GLBT books - what a great launching point for a reader!

    And the GLBT book challenge is a fun idea!
    thanks for doing all you do to make our world better,
    namaste,
    Lee

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  9. Good for you for promoting GLBT month!

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  10. Okay, now when are we going to publish our responses on our blogs? :-) Working on mine now.

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  11. Working on mine, too, Susan. I'd hoped to post it sooner but it will probably be Friday.

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  12. Got mine done now--thanks for the nudge, Susan!

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  13. How about some poetry? Another link.

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  14. I'm back. Been looking forward to doing this one.

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  15. I haven't been online for a few days, but I am really surprised more people haven't done this roll call.

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  16. I hope I'm not too late...these challenges are great, esp if you haven't been reading what's current in a particular field (like me!)

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