Queer Futures: Books to Inspire the Next Generation of Change

At Lavender Library Press, we believe queer history isn’t just something to study; it’s a foundation for building the futures we dream of. That’s why we were so excited to release 101 Queer Facts You Won’t Learn in School, a book that uncovers the often-overlooked stories, achievements, and contributions of LGBTQ+ people throughout history.

While 101 Queer Facts gives you bite-sized truth-bomb glimpses into queer life, history, and culture, it’s also designed as a scaffold: a starting point for deeper exploration. Every fact is a door to a larger story, a spark for curiosity, and a bridge to understanding the communities, movements, and ideas that shape queer futures.

If you’re ready to take that next step, we’ve put together a curated reading list of books that imagine, analyze, and celebrate queer futures. These texts are perfect for activists, students, artists, and anyone looking to deepen their understanding of LGBTQ+ experiences and possibilities.

Queer Futures: A Lavender Library Press Curated Reading List

1. Queer Futures Reconsidering Ethics, Activism and the Political

by Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Eveline Kilian & Beatrice Michaelis

This interdisciplinary collection examines how queer theory can shape future possibilities in ethics, activism, and politics. It challenges readers to reconsider the political, ethical, and social dimensions of queer futures.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback, or Hardcover on Amazon.

2. Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies 

edited by Scott Branson, Raven Hudson, Bry Reed, Mimi Thi Nguyen

A radical anthology offering queer and trans strategies for survival and resistance, emphasizing abolitionist and decolonial frameworks. It presents a militant strategy of queer survival in an ever-precarious future.

*Available in Kindle Format and Paperback on Amazon.

3. Queer and Trans Life: Anthropological Futures 

edited by Silvia Posocco, EJ Gonzalez-Polledo, Lars Åberg, Tunay Altay

This volume presents queer and trans anthropological research from emerging European contexts, demonstrating how queer anthropology continues to thrive by providing textured ethnographic analysis and timely interventions in anthropological theory. Available in Kindle Format or a Library Binding on Amazon.

4. Let Them Stare 

by Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy

From Emmy Award winner Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye and #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy comes a bighearted story about friendship, love—and the courage to be yourself. This novel follows a gender-nonconforming teen uncovering queer history in their small town.

*Available in Kindle Format, Hardcover, Audiobook and Audio CD on Amazon.

5. The Bones Beneath My Skin 

by TJ Klune

In The Bones Beneath My Skin, TJ Klune delivers a gripping supernatural road-trip thriller set in the 1990s that explores queer resilience and found family. The story follows Nate Cartwright, a journalist who, after losing everything, returns to his family's summer cabin in Oregon, where he meets Alex and the remarkable ten-year-old Artemis Darth Vader. As they evade cultists and government forces, the trio’s bond reflects the strength and creativity of chosen families—central to queer life and survival. Through their journey, the novel imagines a world where queer individuals navigate danger, oppression, and societal constraints while forging connections that empower and sustain them. Klune’s blend of fantasy, emotion, and LGBTQ+ perspectives makes this story a compelling example of how speculative narratives can envision queer futures filled with resilience, hope, and transformative possibilities.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback, Hardcover, or Audiobook on Amazon.

6. Queer Times, Black Futures 

by Kara Keeling

In Queer Times, Black Futures, Kara Keeling explores how speculative fictions found in cinema, music, and literature, especially those that centre Black existence, open up powerful ways to imagine alternative queer futures. Keeling argues that when we pay attention to the cultural works that disrupt dominant narratives, we gain access to radical possibilities that resist oppression and offer new visions of belonging. This book situates Black queer life not just as a subject of study, but as a creative force that reshapes our understanding of time, history, and futurity.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback and Hardcover on Amazon.

7. Beyond the Binary 

by Jordan Quinn

In Beyond the Binary, Jordan Quinn challenges the rigid gates of gender with a compassionate and lyrical manifesto, inviting readers to embrace the full spectrum of identity and expression. This book doesn’t just critique the limitations of traditional gender; it imagines a world where gender fluidity is celebrated, respected, and recognized as essential to building inclusive communities. That vision makes it a perfect companion to our mission at Lavender Library Press: showing how queer history is not just about where we’ve been, but about where we can go.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback, Library Binding, and Audiobook on Amazon.

8. Queer Theory Now: From Foundations to Futures 

by Hannah McCann and Whitney Monaghan

In Queer Theory Now: From Foundations to Futures, readers are invited into the world of queer theory through a clear, engaging, and accessible introduction. This book traces the foundations of queer thought, highlighting its key concepts and historical roots, while also showing how those ideas can be applied to envision the futures we are working toward. It bridges past and present, making complex theory approachable without losing its transformative edge.

By weaving together foundational knowledge with forward-looking possibilities, it helps readers see how queer ideas have always been about imagining worlds that do not yet exist, but could.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback, and Hardcover on Amazon.

9. Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings

by Juana María Rodríguez

In Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings, Juana María Rodríguez explores how queer Latina experiences, expressed through desire, performance, and everyday gestures, create new possibilities for imagining the future. By centring Latina voices often left out of mainstream queer discourse, Rodríguez shows how intimacy and embodiment become political acts of resistance, survival, and vision-making. This book asks readers to consider how the ways we move, love, and long for one another are not only personal, but also deeply tied to building collective futures. For anyone seeking perspectives that expand beyond dominant narratives, this text offers a vital reminder that queer futures are as diverse, complex, and imaginative as the communities that create them.

*Available in Kindle Format, Paperback, and Hardcover on Amazon.

10. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz

In Cruising Utopia, José Esteban Muñoz argues that queerness is always bound up with futurity; always reaching toward horizons not yet realized. Part manifesto, part love-letter to art and performance, the book insists that the here and now are not enough; that queer identities and communities thrive in the spaces between “what is” and “what could be.”

Muñoz draws on the work of visual and performance artists, writers, and thinkers to show how aesthetic practice, queer “failures,” gestures, and ephemeral moments have historically opened up windows into alternative futures: worlds of belonging, transformation, hope. It shows how queer history isn’t only about past struggles but about ongoing imaginings and creations of futures full of possibility.

*Available in Paperback Format, Hardcover, Audiobook, and Audio CD on Amazon.

Why Reading Matters

Each of these books builds on the insight that 101 Queer Facts reveals. From essays and manifests to fiction and zines, these texts encourage readers to think critically, imagine boldly, and act creatively. Whether you’re interested in history, activism, or speculative futures, these books show that queer stories are alive, evolving, and shaping the world we want to see.

Every page you read, every story you explore, is a step toward queer futures filled with visibility, joy, and possibility.

💡 Start your journey today: Read 101 Queer Facts You Won’t Learn in School and then explore these books to deepen your understanding of queer lives, history, and imagination.