Backlist Bananas is a series of posts dedicated to underrated classics and the backlist in general.
Happy Valentine’s Day! In the spirit of ‘we have always been here’, here’s a list of 100 queer/LGBT+ books published in the last 100 years. It includes common queer classics, as well as more underrated titles, and attempts to showcase an international collection of 100 years of LGBT+ literature.
So, if you’re a lonely gay on this day of romance, you can bury your nose in one of these queer classics. And if you have a special someone, you can forgo the capitalist traditions and instead both bury your noses in these queer classics! Isn’t love great? Let’s get right into it.
1920-1929
Nobuko Yoshiya 
Radclyffe Hall
1920: El hombre que parecía un caballo (translated from Spanish: “The Man Who Looked Like A Horse”) by Rafael Arévalo Martínez
1921: Sodom and Gomorrah (translated from French) by Marcel Proust
1922: The Life to Come by E.M. Forster (short story)
1923: Flower Tales (translated from Japanese) by Nobuko Yoshiya
1924: Pasión y muerte del cura Deusto (translated from Spanish: “Passion and Death of Prist Deusto”) by Augusto d’Halmar
1925: The Counterfeiters (translated from French) by André Gide
1926: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1927: Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
1928: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
1929: Burnt Offering (translated from French) by Jeanne Galzy
1930-1939
1930: Poems by W.H. Auden
1931: Strange Brother by Blair Niles
1932: The Pure and the Impure (translated from French) by Colette
1933: Torment by Richard Meeker
1934: Jeunes filles en serre chaude (translated from French: “Girls In A Hothouse”) by Jeanne Galzy
1935: Men and Women: The World Journey of a Sexologist (translated from German) by Magnus Hirschfeld
1936: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
1937: Dečki: roman iz dijaškega internata (translated from Slovenian: “Boys: A Novel from a Boarding School”) by France Novšak
1938: Torchlight to Valhalla by Gale Wilhelm
1939: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
1940-1949
Carson McCullers 
Ismat Chughtai
1940: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
1941: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
1942: Lihaaf (translated from Urdu: “The Quilt”) by Ismat Chughtai (short story)
1943: Our Lady of the Flowers (translated from French) by Jean Genet
1944: The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson
1945: Querelle of Brest (translated from French) by Jean Genet
1946: Miracle of the Rose (translated from French) by Jean Genet
1947: The Strumpet Wind by Gordon Merrick
1948: The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal
1949: Confessions of a Mask (translated from Japanese) by Yukio Mishima
1950-1959
Roberta Cowell 
James Baldwin
1950: Women’s Barracks (translated from French) by Tereska Torrès
1951: Forbidden Colors (translated from Japanese) by Yukio Mishima
1952: The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
1953: The Charioteer by Mary Renault
1954: Roberta Cowell’s Story by Roberta Cowell
1955: Howl by Allen Ginsberg (poem)
1956: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
1957: Chocolates for Breakfast by Pamela Moore
1958: A Room in Chelsea Square by Michael Nelson
1959: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
1960-1969
Suniti Namjoshi 
John Rechy
1960: Journey to a Woman by Ann Bannon
1961: The Gay Detective by Lou Rand
1962: Árbol de Diana (translated from Spanish: “Diana’s Tree”) by Alejandra Pizarnik
1963: City of Night by John Rechy
1964: Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule
1965: A Season in the Life of Emmanuel (translated from French) by Marie-Claire Blais
1966: Paradiso (translated from Spanish: “Paradise”) by Jose Lezama Lima
1967: Poems by Suniti Namjoshi
1968: Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal
1969: Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault
1970-1979
Manuel Puig 
Rita Mae Brown
1970: Cruising by Gerald Walker
1971: Maurice by E.M. Forster
1972: Cobra (translated from Spanish) by Severo Sarduy
1973: Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
1974: The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren
1975: Ernesto (translated from Italian) by Umberto Saba
1976: Kiss of the Spider Woman (translated from Spanish) by Manuel Puig
1977: The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell
1978: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
1979: Only As Far As Brooklyn by Maurice Kenny
1980-1989
Alice Walker 
Pai Hsien-yung
1980: Duffy by Julian Barnes
1981: The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo
1982: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1983: Crystal Boys (translated from Chinese) by Pai Hsien-yung
1984: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
1985: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
1986: Sphinx (translated from French) by Anne Garréta
1987: Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria E. Anzaldúa
1988: Kitchen (translated from Japanese) by Banana Yoshimoto
1989: Sweet Days of Discipline (translated from Italian) by Fleur Jaeggy
1990-1999
Sarah Waters 
Leslie Feinberg
1990: To The Friend Who Didn’t Save My Life (translated from French) by Hervé Guibert
1991: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
1992: Peculiar Chris by Johann S. Lee
1993: Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
1994: Notes of a Crocodile (translated from Chinese) by Qiu Miaojin
1995: Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave
1996: Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
1997: Love Like Gumbo by Nancy Rawles
1998: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
1999: Sor Juana’s Second Dream by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
2000-2009
Alison Bechdel 
Nalo Hopkinson
2000: My Fellow Skin (translated from Dutch) by Erwin Mortier
2001: At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill
2002: Letters to Montgomery Clift by Noel Alumit
2003: Girl from Mars (translated from German) by Tamara Bach
2004: The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
2005: And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
2006: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
2007: Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
2008: Jambula Tree by Monica Arac de Nyeko
2009: The Others (translated from Arabic) by Seba al-Herz
2010-2019
Amanda Lee Koe 
Maggie Nelson
2010: The Two Krishnas by Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla
2011: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
2012: Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
2013: Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe
2014: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
2015: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
2016: The Devourers by Indra Das
2017: Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
2018: La Bastarda (translated from Spanish) by Trifonia Melibea Obono
2019: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Bonus: 2020
A.K. Larkwood 
Kate Milliken
Some new/upcoming queer releases include:
- A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen
- The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood
- This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples
- Kept Animals by Kate Milliken
- Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
- Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters
For more information about all of those, check out my list of book releases to watch out for in 2020. I also have a Goodreads shelf with books released this year, of which a good majority are queer. You can find that here.
If you have suggestions for books in languages that are not featured above, please let me know in the comments below, or get in touch on Instagram or Goodreads, so that I can diversify this list more. General recommendations for queer/LGBT+ classics are also welcome!
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