Bisexuality Visibility Day, celebrated annually on September 23, is a chance to bring awareness to bi people around the world. A diverse and vast community, bi authors create works to educate, entertain, and acknowledge the existence and experiences of this identity. Here are some recent titles to check out!
In Robin Gow’s Ode to My First Car, high schooler Claire is looking forward to spending the summer with her best friend and crush, Sophia. All plans come to a halt when Claire totals her car, requiring her to work at the local nursing home to pay off the damages. She never expects to find kinship in Lena, an 85-year-old lesbian whose stories of her romantic past help Claire come to terms with her own bisexuality.
Couplets by Maggie Millner is a poetic memoir of self-discovery. Through a mix of the titular couplets and prose poems, Millner investigates leaving familiar love for something headier in her first relationship with a woman. No matter how or whom you love, Couplets walks you through the delicious beginnings and messy aftermaths.
Though bisexuality is more explicitly represented in literature than in the past, bisexual men are still vastly underrepresented, prompting Vaneet Mehta’s Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual, and M-spec Men. Deriving from Mehta’s viral #BisexualMenExist campaign, the book uses Mehta’s own experiences and those of other bi men to raise awareness and create community around shared identity.
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea takes us to a much darker place. In the world of competitive ballet, conformity is key. But as a Black bisexual dancer, Laure can’t help but stand out amongst her white peers. To advance to the highest level, Laure makes a deal with a sentient river of blood, imbibing her with power that continues to demand her sacrifice.
Historical reimaginings are all the rage right now (Bridgerton, anyone?) and Natasha Siegel expertly writes a star-crossed love between Richard the Lionheart and Philip Augustus of France in Solomon’s Crown. The instant attraction between the two royals is complicated by matters of politics, but they try to make it work despite their respective loyalties.
Want more books with bisexual characters? Check out Bisexual Reads!
~ posted by Jane S.
Leave a Comment