Pride Month: Alternative Classics Core Collection

For Pride Month, we're sharing some reading suggestions available from Vineyard Haven Library that are included in our new "Alternative Classics" core collection, inspired by the Alternate Classics Core Collection developed by a team of staff at Denver Public Library.

The 175 plus fiction and nonfiction titles in this collection are "great works from around the world that may not traditionally be thought of as classics... they are diverse and capture many different voices; they are enduring and important works of literature and narrative non-fiction that speak to the human condition, and are exemplary representations of a particular community, idea, or experience."

To view all titles in the collection with links to our catalog to place a request, visit https://www.vhlibrary.org/alternative.shtml
 

And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic  By Shilts, Randy 2007-11 - St. Martin's Griffin 9780312374631 Check Our Catalog "A heroic work of journalism on what must rank as one of the foremost catastrophes of modern history" (New York Times), this extraordinary book reveals how the federal government put budget considerations ahead of the nation's welfare. (Penguin) …More

The Awakening  By Chopin, Kate Introduction by Showalter, Elaine 1992-11 - Everyman's Library 9780679417217 Check Our Catalog In the summer of her 28th year, Edna Pontellier and her children, along with the wives and families of other prospective businessmen, spend the summer in an idyllic coastal community away from their husbands and the sweltering heat of 1890s' New Orleans. Aware of deep yearnings that are unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood, Edna plunges into an illicit liaison that reawakens her long dormant …More

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes  By Kushner, Tony 2014-01 - Theatre Communications Group 9781559363952 Check Our Catalog Tony Kushner's two-part masterwork is now available in a single edition to coincide with the broadcast of the epic HBO special directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Michael Gambon and Simon Callow, scheduled for December 2003. …More

Born Both: An Intersex Life  By Viloria, Hida 2017-03 - Hachette Books 9780316347846 Check Our Catalog From one of the world's foremost intersex activists, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of gender identity, self-acceptance, and love. My name is Hida Viloria. I was raised as a girl but discovered at a young age that my body looked different. Having endured an often turbulent home life as a kid, there were many times when I felt scared and alone, especially given my …More

Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency  By Wilkinson, Willy 2015-11 - Hapa Papa Press 9780997012309 Check Our Catalog In this historic moment of transgender visibility in the U.S., writer, activist, and public health consultant Willy Wilkinson's Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency uses the power of storytelling to contextualize one of the most misunderstood social issues of our time. This poetic, journalistic memoir shines an intersectional beacon on the ambiguity and …More

Confessions of a Mask  By Mishima, Yukio Translator Weatherby, Meredith 1958-01 - New Directions Publishing Corporation 9780811201186 Check Our Catalog This book is one of the classics of modern Japanese fiction. It is the story of an adolescent who must learn to live with the painful fact that he is unlike other young men. Mishima's protagonist discovers that he is becoming a homosexual in a polite, post-war Japan. To survive, he must live behind a mask of propriety. …More

Confessions of the Fox  By Rosenberg, Jordy - One World 9780399592270 Check Our Catalog A New York Times Editors' Choice: "A mind-bending romp through a gender-fluid, eighteenth century London . . . a joyous mash-up of literary genres shot through with queer theory and awash in sex, crime, and revolution." NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker - HuffPost -Kirkus Reviews - Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award - …More

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for  By Bechdel, Alison 2008-11 - Houghton Mifflin 9780618968800 Check Our Catalog Awards: Triangle Awards (2009)…More

Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation  By Bornstein, Kate Author Bergman, S. Bear 2010-08 - Seal Press (CA) 9781580053082 Check Our Catalog Awards: Lambda Literary Awards (2010), Lambda Literary Awards (2011), Triangle Awards (2011) Part coming-of-age story, part mind-altering manifesto on gender and sexuality, coming directly to you from the life experiences of a transsexual woman, Gender Outlaw breaks all the rules and leaves the reader forever changed.26 black-and-white illustrations. …More

Giovanni's Room  By Baldwin, James Introduction by Toibin, Colm 2016-03 - Everyman's Library 9781101907740 Check Our Catalog James Baldwin's groundbreaking novel about love and the fear of love is set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris. David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni's …More

Invisible Life  By Harris, E. Lynn 1994-02 - Anchor Books 9780385469685 Check Our Catalog 1st book in Invisible life trilogy The re-issue of a remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who has fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming of age story out of the highly controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS. …More

Maurice  By Forster, E. M. 2005-12 - W. W. Norton & Company 9780393310320 Check Our Catalog Written during 1913 and 1914, Maurice deals with the then unmentionable subject of homosexuality. More unusual, it concerns a relationship that ends happily. …More

Less By Greer, Andrew Sean 2017-07 - Lee Boudreaux Books 9780316316125 Check Our Catalog Awards: Pulitzer Prize (2018) WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE National Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book of 2017 A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty" (The New York Times Book Review) …More

Notes of a Crocodile  By Miaojin, Qiu Translator Huie, Bonnie 2017-05 - New York Review of Books 9781681370767 Check Our Catalog WINNER OF THE 2018 LUCIEN STRYK ASIAN TRANSLATION PRIZE The English-language premiere of Qiu Miaojin's coming-of-age novel about queer teenagers in Taiwan, a cult classic in China and winner of the 1995 China Times Literature Award. Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, …More

Rubyfruit Jungle  By Brown, Rita Mae 2015-06 - Bantam 9781101965122 Check Our Catalog "The rare work of fiction that has changed real life . . . If you don't yet know Molly Bolt--or Rita Mae Brown, who created her--I urge you to read and thank them both."--Gloria Steinem Winner of the Lambda Literary Pioneer Award Winner of the Lee Lynch Classic Book Award A landmark coming-of-age novel that launched the career of one of this country's most distinctive …More

The Well of Loneliness By Hall, Radclyffe 1990-10 - Anchor Books 9780385416092 Check Our Catalog First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career. …More

Zami, a New Spelling of My Name By Lorde, Audre 1983-09 - Crossing Press 0895941236 Check Our Catalog "ZAMI is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author's vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde's work is cyclical. It especially relates the linkage of women who have shaped her . . . Lorde brings into play her craft of lush description and characterization. It keeps unfolding page after page."--Off Our Backs …More