As a reader, there’s nothing quite like curling up with a good book.  But even if you’re an avid bibliophile, it’s important to include stories that celebrate and represent diverse gender identities in your reading.  To help make the search easier and give you a starting point for your reading list, we’ve curated a list of books by transgender authors, non-binary and gender-nonconforming authors.  From award-winning fiction to powerful memoirs, these incredible works explore self-discovery and resilience, all while debunking toxic narratives surrounding gender identity.  You’ll also find books that celebrate love and joy and books that provide an escape.  So no matter what kind of story you are looking for—be it a memoir, romance, or fantasy—this list has something for everyone!

Nonfiction Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi

A full-throated and provocative memoir in letters that is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

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Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride

Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender state senator in U.S. history.  Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender.

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Sissy by Jacob Tobia

A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it’s like to grow up not sure if you’re (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above.

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Fairest by Meredith Talusan

A love story with the heart of Austen classics and a reflective journey of becoming that shift our own perceptions of romance, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.

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Black Boy Out of Time by Hari Ziyad

An eloquent, restless, and enlightening memoir by one of the most thought-provoking journalists today about growing up Black and queer in America, reuniting with the past, and coming of age their own way.

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All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

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Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and inspiration from stories in the Quran in this daring, provocative, and radically hopeful memoir.

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Coming Home by Sawyer Cole Hobson

Nuanced with the societal constructs of the gender binary, Sawyer deconstructs what it means to be queer in an evangelical Southern family in an honest memoir about finding your own voice.

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Fiction Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

Romance Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly 

London, the first openly nonbinary contestant on a cooking show and their clumsy competitor Dahlia feel the heat inside and outside the kitchen.

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Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander

A high-strung pastry chef’s professional goals are interrupted by an unexpected career transition and the introduction of her wildly attractive nonbinary kitchen manager in this deliciously fresh and witty queer rom-com.

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Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner

A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance.

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YA Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons

Love, Simon meets Bend It Like Beckham in this feel-good contemporary romance about a trans athlete who must decide between fighting for his right to play and staying stealth.

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Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

From award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.

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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave in Aiden Thomas’s paranormal YA debut Cemetery Boys.

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Science Fiction Fantasy Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past and, more troublingly, the future―outside the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering not only the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history of America that produced it. Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals but entire nations.

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Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Shizuka Satomi is a brilliant, cursed violinist who must win her soul back from damnation. To do this, she must take seven prodigies as students, then entice each to trade their soul for fame. She has already delivered six.

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She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China. A lush, fresh literary voice merges with commercial appeal in this accomplished debut. Powerful and poetic, beautiful and brutal, She Who Became the Sun is a bold reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

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Literary Fiction Books by Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Authors

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

A moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts.

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Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

The lives of three women—transgender and cisgender—collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires.

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What do you think about this list of transgender books, and books by non-binary and gender non-conforming authors?

Have you read any of these books?  Are any of them on your TBR?  What books by transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming authors would you add to this list?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

LGBTQIA+ Books To Read