Trying to list the very best LGBTQ+ books—or even the LGBTQ+ authors who have changed my life—is, it turns out, a near-painful task. As a lifelong book nerd who came out in my mid-20s and promptly set out to devour every book I’d missed about queer and trans culture, I can attest that it is, in fact, impossible to read everything. That said, it’s a lot easier to be out and proud when you have some of the greatest writers and thinkers in literary history figuratively holding your hand.

To that end, Vogue has rounded up 35 of the greatest books of all time by queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming writers. Whether you’re a queer-fiction pro revisiting old favorites or a newly out member of the community looking to brush up, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find at least one book on

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