Queer Literature
Queer writers and books! Sick of all your lesbians being married off? Bored of all your gays coming out again and again? Where are the trans* folks? In our Queer Book Club, we'll explore a variety of works by and about folks from all across the rainbow. This club usually meets the second Wednesday of the month, unless otherwise noted.
You can find some of Nell’s staff picks here.
The first 2026 meeting for Queer Book Club will be on Wednesday, January 21st, at 7pm. We will be reading REFUSING COMPULSORY SEXUALITY by Sherronda J. Brown. You can purchase the book by clicking here.
About the book:
The notion that everyone wants sex--and that we all have to have it--is false. It's intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that's not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.
In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J. Brown offers new perspectives on asexuality. She takes an incisive look at how anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and capitalism enact harm against asexual people, contextualizing acephobia within a racial framework in the first book of its kind. Brown advocates for the "A" in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer--despite the gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise.
A necessary and unapologetic reclamation, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality is smart, timely, and an essential read for asexuals, aromantics, queer readers, and anyone looking to better understand sexual politics in America.