The American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table has announced its latest Over the Rainbow Book List. Compiled from a selection of 332 books across all genres released in 2021, the 10 books on the list showcase a wide range of queer stories and experiences.
The Over the Rainbow Book List Committee, which compiles the list each year, selects titles for adults over age 18 that exhibit commendable literary quality and significant, authentic LGBTQIA+ content. The committee noted: “In a year which saw more book challenges than any other, largely concerning books with queer content, it was heartening to also see publishers continue to feature, promote, and elevate queer narratives across all genres. Queer stories can be heartbreaking, exciting, romantic, incredible, challenging, unbearable, exquisite, silly, and anything else you can think of. These selections prove it.”
The Top 10 selections in fiction and non-fiction were:
Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir by Hari Ziyad (Little A)
The Natural Mother of the Child by Krys Malcolm Belc (Counterpoint)
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness and Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison (North Atlantic Books)
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett (Riverhead Books)
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder (Scribner)
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (St. Martin’s Griffin, and imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
Detransition Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters (One World, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House)
Stone Fruit by Lee Lai (Fantagraphics)
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon (MCD)
Patience & Esther by SW Searle (Iron Circus Comics)
The Rainbow Round Table is the oldest professional association for LGBTQIA+ people in the United States. It is committed to serving the information needs of the LGBTQIA+ professional library community and information and access needs of individuals at large. It is home to Rainbow Book Month, a nationwide celebration every June, and the Stonewall Book Award, the first award honoring LGBTQIA+ books. For more information, visit the Rainbow Round Table online.
