We love reading books by queer and trans voices all year round, but here are some to finish out Pride Month and count towards your Book Bingo reading goals!
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a meditative, slyly comic novel about a poet and recovering addict, Cyrus Shams, who ruminates on grief, sacrifice, and art in the wake of his father’s death. Cyrus lost his mother at a young age in a tragic plane accident in Iran, and after he and his father started over again in the Midwest, their lives take on an aimless shape. Cyrus starts life over in college, tries everything including drugs and many lovers, both men and women, but sobriety leads him to consider his parent’s deaths and the meaning of life. Cyrus embarks on an artistic project—writing poems about martyrs—that will lead him to an artist whose death becomes an installation of its own at the Brooklyn Museum. Sometimes life can be uncanny, and Akbar’s novel plays up the uncanny with wit and wisdom.
Max Delsohn used to be a stand-up comic in Seattle–at his event at the Central Library earlier this year he quipped that if you can make people laugh here, you can make it anywhere! Crawl is a collection of short stories primarily from the perspective of transmasculine characters that explores Seattle queer community and hang-outs in the 2010s. Written with both humor and pathos, this collection resonates with appreciation and care. Also try Corinne Manning’s We Had No Rules or Stag Dance by Torrey Peters.
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn is a novel featuring a messy, queer heroine told in a self-effacing style. Astrid Dahl is an accomplished writer whose work and public appearances have garnered controversy. She also seems to chase danger and likes to talk about her “Patricia Highsmith” habit of mixing drugs and alcohol to dramatic effect. She opines about her love life, her wayward nature, and her general unreliability with humorous aplomb.
Justinian Huang’s Lucky Seed is a Crazy Rich Asians read-alike as it captures the dramas and scheming of a family hell-bent on a male heir. The Sun clan are L. A.-based billionaires, and continuing the legacy they built is very important to them. Roses Sun, the matriarch of the Sun Clan and CEO of Sunfang Global, hatches a plan to convince her gay nephew, Wayward, to father a son to secure their future in this devious and delightful family drama.
Seattle author Dean Spade tackles how to approach relationships, romantically and in activist spaces, in a restorative and expansive way in Love in a F*cked Up World: How To Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together. Spade, a professor at the Seattle University School of Law, has been working in activist spaces for decades, working for queer and trans liberation, and sharing strategies and approaches to mutual aid and activism that center accountability, reflection, inclusion, and generative conflict. Whether you are trying poly life, working on addressing better dynamics or addressing ruptures and repair in friendships or activist circles, Spade has you covered with tips, stories, and approaches that push for healthy and proactive ways to create the spaces and communities that create connection and liberation.
Check out the full booklist at Book Bingo NW 2026: Queer/Trans Voices for more suggestions!
For more ideas for books to meet your Summer Book Bingo challenge, follow our Shelf Talk BookBingoNW2026 series or check the hashtag #BookBingoNW2026 on social media. Book Bingo is presented in partnership with Seattle Arts & Lectures and the King County Library System.
~posted by Misha