Short Stories
2024 curated booklist
These books are collections of short stories, either by the same author, or a anthology by genre or theme.
Tahuri
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
The stories collected in Tahuri depict the experiences of a takatāpui young woman around the time of Te Awekotuku’s adolescence in Rotorua in the 1950s and 1960s.
“There is always a special feeling I get when I read a book written by a Māori about being Māori, where the world is described through eyes that are my eyes – the people, the humour, the sadness and the occasions are familiar parts of my life – and Tahuri is such a book.”
Category: Short Stories, NZ Authors
Representation: Takatāpui, lesbian
Content Warnings: Sexual violence, racism, homophobia
ISBN: 9780473385552
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic
ED. G. Haron Davis
Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.
Category: Short Stories, Fantasy, Young Adult
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders, non-binary, transgender
Content Warnings: Transphobia, homophobia, suicide, character death, religion
ISBN: 9780063218796
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Out Now: Queer We Go Again
ED. Saundra Mitchell
A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom…aliens run from the government…a president’s daughter comes into her own…a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer…a selkie and the sea call out to a lost soul. Teapots and barbershops…skateboards and VW vans…Street Fighter and Ares’s sword: Out Now has a story for every reader and surprises with each turn of the page!
This essential and beautifully written modern-day collection features an intersectional and inclusive slate of authors and stories.
With original stories from:
Fox Benwell
Tanya Boteju
Kate Hart
Kosoko Jackson
Will Kostakis
CB Lee
Katherine Locke
Saundra Mitchell
Hillary Monahan
Candice Montgomery
Mark Oshiro
Caleb Roerig
Meredith Russo
Eliot Schrefer
Jessica Verdi
Julian Winters
Category: Young Adult, Short Stories, Romance, Fantasy
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Sexual activity, violence, bullying, substance use/abuse, character death
ISBN: 9781335018267
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
ED. Saundra Mitchell
From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.
Category: Young Adult, Short Stories, Historical
Representation: Gay, asexual, transgender, lesbian
Content Warnings: Character death, conversion therapy, religion, discrimination, suicide, violence, substance use/abuse, sexual violence
ISBN: 9781335470454
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us
Ed. Katherine Locke, Nicole Melleby
The first LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders featuring stories for every letter of the acronym, including realistic, fantasy, and sci-fi stories by authors like Justina Ireland, Marieke Nijkamp, Alex Gino, and more!
A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true–but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend’s mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.
From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories from authors including: Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aisa Salazar, and AJ Sass.
Category: Short Stories, Children, Children’s Primary Book, Children’s Intermediate Book
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Homophobia, bullying, discrimination, racism, ableism, transphobia, abuse, character death
ISBN: 9780593303979
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Night of the Living Queers
ED. Vanessa Montalban
Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible, exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.
No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story is told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection brings fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.
Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.
Category: Short Stories, Horror, Young Adult
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Self harm, suicide, transphobia, gore, homophobia, character death, substance use/abuse, mental illness, racism
ISBN: 9781250892966
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Dream Girl
Joy Holley
Alice wants a heart-shaped bed. Mary, Genevieve and Angelica want to know the future. June says she wants Lena to rescue her from a rat, but really she wants Lena to make out with her. Eve wants to get Wallace alone at the strawberry farm. Olivia just wants to leave the haunted boarding school and go home.
Bittersweet and intimate, comic and gothic, Dream Girl is a collection of stories about young women navigating desire in all its manifestations. In stories of romance and bad driving, ghosts and ghosting, playlists and competitive pet ownership, love never fails to leave its mark.
Category: Short Stories, Young Adult, NZ Author
Representation: Diverse sexualities, lesbian
Content Warnings: Sexual activity, substance use/abuse, disordered eating/eating disorder
ISBN: 9781776920846
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Gender Failure
Ivan E. Coyote & Rae Spoon
Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are accomplished, award-winning writers, musicians, and performers; they are also both admitted “gender failures.” In their first collaborative book, Ivan and Rae explore and expose their failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary, and how ultimately our expectations and assumptions around traditional gender roles fail us all.
Based on their acclaimed 2012 live show that toured across the United States and in Europe, Gender Failure is a poignant collection of autobiographical essays, lyrics, and images documenting Ivan and Rae’s personal journeys from gender failure to gender enlightenment. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, it’s a book that will touch LGBTQ readers and others, revealing, with candor and insight, that gender comes in more than two sizes.
Category: Autobiography, Short Stories, Poetry
Representation: Transgender, non-binary, lesbian, diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Discrimination
ISBN: 9781551525365
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
At Midnight: 15 Beloved Fairy Tales Reimagined
ED. Dahlia Adler
A dazzling collection of original and retold fairy tales from fifteen acclaimed and bestselling YA writers
Fairy tales have been spun for thousands of years and remain among our most treasured stories. Weaving fresh tales with unexpected reimaginings, At Midnight brings together a diverse group of celebrated YA writers to breathe new life into a storied tradition. You’ll discover . . .
Dahlia Adler reimagining “Rumpelstiltskin”
Tracy Deonn: “The Nightingale”
H. E. Edgmon: “Snow White”
Hafsah Faizal: “Little Red Riding Hood”
Stacey Lee: “The Little Matchstick Girl”
Roselle Lim: “Hansel and Gretel”
Darcie Little Badger: “Puss in Boots”
Malinda Lo: “Frau Trude”
Alex London: “Cinderella”
Anna-Marie McLemore: “The Nutcracker”
Rebecca Podos: “The Robber Bridegroom”
Rory Power: “Sleeping Beauty”
Meredith Russo: “The Little Mermaid”
Gita Trelease: “Fitcher’s Bird”
and an all-new fairy tale by Melissa Albert.
Category: Short Stories, Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Racism, transphobia, character death, bullying, suicide
ISBN: 9781250806024
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 people who changed the world
Sarah Prager
The star-reviewed LGBTQ+ history book for young adults—now updated and expanded with 3 new profiles and a new foreword! Perfect for fans of fun, empowering pop-culture books like Rad American Women A-Z and Notorious RBG.
World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve likely never heard of many of them.
Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 27 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era.
By turns hilarious and inspiring, the beautifully illustrated Queer, There, and Everywhere is for anyone who wants the real story of the queer rights movement.
Category: Short Stories, Non-fiction, Young Adult
Representation: Diverse sexualities, diverse genders
Content Warnings: Transphobia, homophobia, character death, police violence/brutality, violence, substance use/abuse, suicide, racism
ISBN: 9780063329232
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Ruahine: Mythic Women
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Ruahine is a collection of traditional Maori stories retold from a contemporary feminist perspective.
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku uses her extensive and expert knowledge of Maori culture to add quiet authority to her radical re-interpretations. A straight, authorised version of the story is briefly given, followed by a re-telling: readers unfamiliar with the stories can read the original and then enjoy the re-telling.
Often subversive and always redolent with idiomatic detail these re-tellings breathe fleshy life into characters and stories rendered static by repetition. Irreverent, daring and heart-warming, Ruahine asks readers to swim with Hinemoa to Mokoia Island to meet her lover Tutanekai, limbs aching with cold and exhaustion; and to feel the despair and keenly tempered fury of the bird-woman, Kurungaituku, her family horribly murdered by a trusted servant…
Category: Short Stories, NZ Authors, Adult
Representation: Diverse sexualities, Diverse genders, Takatāpui, Lesbian
Content Warnings: Unknown
ISBN: 9781877283826
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)