“[Queerness] is not something to be ashamed of, and I’m coming from a place of privilege because I was not ashamed. I want [my students] to feel the same freedom, and that’s why in my teaching, in my writing, in the artists I have picked for us to examine, I need all of those identities to be apparent.”
– Roya Marsh, 2017
It’s not uncommon to credit our high school teachers with the beginnings of our writing career, or at least its earliest encouragement. If we’re lucky, our English classes draw new maps for us; we see the world expand upon itself, and paths wind away toward the horizon, beckoning for us to follow. But the impact of those classrooms does not end with literary scholarship. Beyond analytical training and the Great American Novel, English classes have the ability to provide space for underrepresented identities. Any kind of student can find a mirror in literature—including queer kids.
This is still a relatively new development. Despite an existence spanning human history, queer stories have only really entered the mainstream market within the past couple of decades. For a long time, we only had a few archetypes by which to model ourselves; as with any identity, when we see more specific and nuanced representations of ourselves, we understand more possibilities for who we can become.
When I first began working on this project, I had narrowed my scope to the pedagogical Western canon, those works which have been imbued with significance by those who felt they could bestow it—mostly white, mostly straight, mostly upper-class, mostly cisgender. My goal was to explain that queerness in literature does not need to be sought out from the sidelines (though it is also an important exercise to read those writers who have not seen acclaim)—but that it exists within the confines of the traditional canon, which is brimming with works from LGBTQ writers already found on Advanced Placement reading lists. But this conception of “canon” is deficient.
A redefinition of the canon does not have to replace what already exists—instead, it broadens the scope. Human experience is expansive, and literature reflects that. A restrictive canon maintains exclusivity, not prestige. Our new canon has the potential to be as fluid as queerness itself, bending genre rather than bowing to it.
Human experience is expansive, and literature reflects that. A restrictive canon maintains exclusivity, not prestige. Our new canon has the potential to be as fluid as queerness itself, bending genre rather than bowing to it.
LGBTQ+ writers do exist within the Western canon. Their queerness is considered incidental, their writing respected for other reasons: voice, symbolism, imagery, narration. But often, a writer’s queerness seeps into the work, shrouded by other elements of style, though still unmistakable—if you’re looking for it.
Forster, Baldwin, Woolf, Dickinson, Whitman, Hughes: these writers produced stories, essays, and poetry that explored queerness explicitly. But even in their writing which was not plainly queer, it is possible, if not easy, to find threads of their identity. E. M. Forster wrote Maurice as a story of gay love and did not seek to publish the novel during his lifetime for fear of retribution. A Room with a View, more widely read, examines the murkiness of romantic feeling and the secrecy it breeds (particularly in Edwardian England). Despite not being the “queer” novel, themes of queerness—of living with and hiding romantic feelings—overwhelm A Room with a View.
Teaching queerness in the classroom does not have to focus on sexuality. Instead, we can look at the work produced by queer writers and deepen our analysis through various lenses. It is not about projecting identity onto literature—many literature students learn early on not to infuse a piece of writing with knowledge of its author—but rather, reading with intention. Identity is not incidental. It is foolish to assume we can ignore its influence.
Even without teaching a queer text, teaching queer writers creates a safe environment for LGBTQ+ students. It’s powerful, even now, to not only view but think critically about art created by queer people. We’re working toward a future in which queer writing is abundant and widely read. Until we get there, we have a wealth of literature ready to step into a new light.
Below is a reading list of works commonly included in the Western canon, supplemented by novels and collections which have been historically marginalized. More challenging than finding these texts is finding those which depict and explore queer lives candidly. Like Forster and his Maurice, many queer stories have been hidden, augmented by editors for public reception, or discarded altogether. But here, we can endeavor to develop a holistic survey of queer literature, challenge genre, and oppose outdated standards.
Queer Canon Reading List:
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar
Another Country by James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Ben
They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full by Mark Bibbins
Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
The Awakening by Kate Chopin*
Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni
Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry by Essex Hemphill
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Mucus in My Pineal Gland by Juliana Huxtable
Good Talk by Mira Jacob
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
Haruko/Love Poems by June Jordan
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Humiliation by Wayne Koestenbaum
Gypsy Ballads by Federico Garcia Lorca
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Violets and Other Tales by Alice Dunbar Nelson-Moore
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland
Homie by Danez Smith
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz
The poems of Constantine P. Cavafy
The poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
The plays of Maria Irene Fornes
There is so much stunning queerness in contemporary literature that has yet to be canonized, if they ever will be—and the only way to ensure its growth is to read those LGBTQs+ writers who are living and writing now. Continue your reading with articles from our archives, essays and interviews from our Art of Teaching Writing series, and a selection of links for further recommendations.
From the Teachers & Writers Archives:
“Teaching James Baldwin: Tapping into Baldwin’s Honesty and Passion to Teach Personal Essay” by Philip Lopate
“ARTivism Links & Resources: Blending Art & Activism” by T&W
“Some Greek Girls: On Teaching Sappho and Praxilla” by Eleni Sikelianos
“Teaching Whitman in High School: Connecting to the Spiritual through ‘Song of Myself’ and Writing Poetry” by Bill Zavatsky
“Getting the Word Out: The New York Writers Coalition Helps Develop both Voice and Audience for those Who Have Neither” by Susan Buttenwieser
“Misery Is Fun: Using Langston Hughes’s ‘Black Misery‘” by Ilise Benun
“The Lost Sense: A Favorite Writing Assignment” by Margot Fortunato Galt
Teachers & Writers Interviews
“Claiming a Seat at the Table of Belonging: A Coversation with Poet And Educator Sarah M. Sala” by Amy Klein
“The Talk: Roya Marsh on Student Voice, Black Queer Joy, and Getting Out of the Way” by M. L. Thompson
“A Home at the Nuyorican: A Conversation with Lois Elaine Griffith” by Jehan Roberson
“A Home at the Nuyorican: A Continued Conversation with Lois Griffith” by Jehan Roberson
“How to Be a Human Being: A Conversation with James Lecesne” by Matthew Burgess
“Say Hard Things Tender: A Conversation with Nikky Finney” by Christian McEwen
The Art of Teaching Writing Essays
“Creating an Inclusive Classroom for Transgender Students: Lessons from the Corporate and Nonprofit World” by Nicole Giannone
“Fundamentally About Access: Reflections on Creating a Trans-Inclusive Learning Space” by Jai Dulani
“How (Not) to Teach Gender: What Can Teachers Do to Support Their Students’ Genders?” by Jude Dry
“Bridging Borders with Words: Better Advocacy for Undocumented Students” by Jan-Henry Gray
“Glories Strung Like Beads: The Queer Brilliance of Joe Brainard’s I Remember” by Matthew Burgess
More Resources
25 Queer Poets to Read Now and Forever – Out.com
Queer Love Poems: LGBTQ love poetry by and for the queer community – Poetry Foundation
A Queer Reading List from LGBTQ-Identified Authors at the PDX Book Festival – Los Angeles Review of Books
25 Black Queer Books to Honor Protests and Pride Month – Lambda Legal
The 38 Best Queer YA Novels – Vulture
LGBTQ Poetry – Poets.org
Queer Black Poets Since the Harlem Renaissance: A Reading List – Literary Hub
Poetry Collections About Being a Queer Person of Color – Electric Lit
*Though Chopin did not identify as queer during her lifetime, I would be remiss to exclude The Awakening from this list, because of its rich lesbian themes.
Annabel Paulsen is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. She holds a BA from New York University and is currently pursuing her MFA in fiction through the New School. Her critical essays, which often focus on gender and pop culture, have been published in NeoText, Electric Literature, Document Journal, and Riot Fest Mag.
