Bodymap
A love song filled with divine secrets of the queer brown disabled sisterhood. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
A Plethora of LGBTQIA Poets
Although all writing is in some way about identity, one of the reasons I enjoy poetry so much is that identity is usually much closer to the surface. Whether the poetry is of the confessional type or not, reading a poem is reading the careful thought-process of the writer and is often about the poet viewing and navigating their world. I am what you might call “nebby,” so having access to such a beautiful and stylized form of writing that reveals so much is very attractive.
When it comes to a poet who identifies within the LGBTQIA community, the question of identity comes even more to the forefront. These identities are intensely personal but made inherently political, so the question of self intersects deeply with the world.
This selection of recent collections of poetry by LGBTQIA-identified poets bears this observation out. Reading the work of these poets can be affirming and tender, eye-opening, and sustaining – all the feelings that might come from getting to know a person better.
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Holy Wild
Confessional poems of indigenous and trans life.
Homie: Poems
The necessity of friendship and intimacy in a world filled with violence is the central theme of Smith’s most recent book of poetry. You can also check out this title as eAudio on Hoopla or as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Hustling Verse: An Anthology of Sex Workers’ Poetry
A finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, this anthology centers the voices of sex workers in all their complexity. You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.
If They Come for Us
Asghar’s understanding of herself as a queer Pakistani Muslim woman in America is filtered through an understanding of the generations that came before her. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Nature Poem
The titular poem takes up the length of the entire book and describes the struggle of a queer, Native American poet to write a nature poem and trying to escape stereotypes and expectations. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on Hoopla.
Nothing Is Okay
A collection from spoken word performer Rachel Wiley incorporating elements of her queerness, fat positivity and intersectional feminism. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Soft Science
These poems live in the boundaries between human and artificial intelligence, through the lens of queer, Asian American femininity.You can also check out this title as eBook on Hoopla.
The Tradition
Brown’s collection of poems interrogate how evil intersects with the individual – their past and future – and how the individual intersects with the ideas of freedom, nation, and various identities. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby, as eBook on Hoopla, as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on Hoopla.
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities
In these poems, Chen Chen describes navigating queer identity in an immigrant Asian–American family. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eBook on Hoopla.
The Year of Blue Water
A mix of free verse and prose poems relate a journey of selfhood guided through many practices such as tarot, therapy, and friendship.