5 books to read this LGBTQ+ History Month at SOAS Library

Celebrate queer history this February with a curated selection of books available at the SOAS Library. 

February is LGBTQ+ History Month. It was launched in the UK to promote the existence of queer lives throughout history and encourage acceptance and pride in the present. At SOAS Library, we’re celebrating by showcasing a selection of books that highlight queer voices, histories, and experiences from around the world.

Our collection spans both general and region-specific materials, offering a rich resource for learning and reflection. Visit our LGBTQ+ History Month display on Level E of the library to explore featured titles.

Solo Dance

Solo Dance is a coming-of-age novel by Li Kotomi that explores a queer Taiwanese migrant reinventing herself in Japan after a traumatic experience. It won the Gunzo New Writers’ Award for Excellence in 2021.

As Alison Fincher writes for Asian Review of Books, ‘Solo Dance isn’t a hopeful book, at least in the most conventional sense. It is, perhaps, an uplifting one in its quiet reassurance that the self matters. It is an important book by a queer author in Japan who isn’t ethnically Japanese, tackling identity and mental health. And it is, certainly, a work of art as both a book and a translation.’

Guapa

Saleem Haddad’s debut novel Guapa centres on 24 hours in the life of a gay man in an unnamed country after the Arab Spring. Winner of the Polari First Book Prize in 2017 and receiving high praise from the Guardian, Guapa is ‘fluent, passionate and emotionally honest.’ 

La Bastarda

La Bastarda, by Trifonia Melibea Obono, follows Okomo, who joins a group of rebellious outcasts and falls in love with its leader. Originally published in Spanish, this is the first novel to be translated into English by a woman from Equatorial Guinea. 

It has been described as ‘an invaluable contribution to lesbian and gay literary culture.’ Despite it being such a short read, the work explores the gendered nature of Fang society, exploring identity and creating a new concept of family.  

Queer Jews, Queer Muslims

A non-fiction recommendation, this 2024 work edited by the co-founder and coordinator of the Jewish-Muslim Research Network (JMRN) attempts to explore queer Jewish and Muslim identities with nuance and intersectionality. 

As Saleem writes in the introduction, this book aims to ‘challenge and go beyond this narrative of Jewish-Muslim polarization and conflict’ and begin to ‘unravel the intimate relationship between race, religion, gender, and sexuality and modernity, capitalism, and coloniality.’ 

Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before The Modern

Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before The Modern  delves into the long history of trans and gender non-conforming lives across the world. Trans Historical  has been described as a ‘thoughtful, well-researched, highly responsible, sober, cautionary, and often festive collection of essays in the history of transgender experience.’  

These books only scratch the surface of what we hold at SOAS Library. Check out the LGBTQ+ History Month display on Level E of the library this February, as well as our expanded online reading list of books, e-books and further resources to explore.

Header image credit: Agustin Gunawan via Unsplash.