LGBTQIA+ literary fiction
The only queer & GNC lists/quests I’ve seen have been genre. I love them, but I wanted to also curate a list of literary fiction with LGBTQIA+ characters and themes!
created by vulpix
last updated August, 2026
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LOVE THIS LIST thank you so much omg
May I recommend "Next Time Will Be Our Turn" by Jesse Sutanto 🙂 It takes place in the USA and Indonesia, Sutanto lives in Indonesia. M. L. Rio's "If We Were Villains" is also queer. If you're open to YA, there's also "I Kissed Shara Wheeler" by Casey McQuiston, and "Summer of Salt" by Katrina Leno.
vulpixOP
Hi! I’m not sure any of these would qualify as lit fic. It’s a very slippery category, but I just don’t think arguments can be made for these. Let me know if you disagree! I absolutely love IWWV
I honestly don't know what "Next Time Will Be Our Turn" could be if not Literary Fiction. (If you haven't read it, just trust me that it's not a cheesy romance.) IWWV may have a bit of a "thriller vibe" so to speak with the death and covering it up, but it's not truly a thriller or crime book as I understand the genres. Literary fiction is actually pretty much just a word to describe books being character-driven, which IWWV is. And since it's not fantasy, scifi, or straight up thriller/crime, I think it can totally be shelved as literary fiction. But I won't try to convince you, I'm just stating my opinion because you asked; it's your list and if those books aren't exactly what you're looking for, I can live with that ;) (The two YA books are less clear in genre, I get that you don't want to add them.) It can be tough to define genres these days, with publishers throwing words around just because they are currently trending or whatever :/
Hello BookBun! I would classify "Next Time Will Be Our Turn" as contemporary fiction (based on storygraph, the publisher, and many other websites). I understand that we may have different understandings of lit fic, but I wanted to clear up a couple of things.
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding, but based on your sentence "since it's not fantasy, scifi or straight up thriller/crime, I think it can totally be shelved as literary fiction," it seems to me that you see a dichotomy between "genre" (that is, romance, sci fi, fantasy, mystery, thriller etc) and "literary fiction." This is a false dichotomy, but there is a chance I'm misreading what you wrote.
"Literary fiction" is not just any novel that isn't straight-up "genre." In fact, there is a lot of overlap between literary fiction and genre (a great example of this is Octavia Butler). Nor is lit fic any novel that is character-driven, although that is an important characteristic of much literary fiction (see Martyr! in this list, for example). There are also a lot of novels that aren't genre, but also aren't literary fiction (I would place Taylor Jenkins Reid here, for example, but I think some people would argue her work is literary).
If you're interested in understanding lit fic more, I would point you to the Literary Fiction Starter Pack Vol 1 quest.
I'm not going to try to provide a definition to such an ill-defined topic, so I would point you there to explain why I'm not including these suggestions. You are, of course, free to create your own list and draw the boundaries differently.
I do think you misunderstood me in part at least (there are books such as literary horror), but I also think we define literary fiction differently. I won't claim I'm right and you're wrong; I think the problem is that terms such as literary fiction and contemporary are interpreted and used differently (in the world of publishing, in the study of literature, and in society). There is no clear cut definition at this point, but several perspectives. I studied philology and literature, so I don't think I have to look at a quest to help me understand, but I appreciate you explaining your point. And as I've said before, it is your list of course, and you can and should create it as you see fit.
Feel free to steal. My Queer Intimacy is all queer lit fic atm, save for The Argonauts - see HERE Mostly m/m at the moment, but a lot of my favorite queer books that I felt deeply.
vulpixOP
Amazing thank you! I’ll add some to my TBR 🥰
