This post was originally published on Audible.com.
Lesbian literature has come a long way since the days when the poetry of Sappho and underground novels like Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness were among the few widely available options. Yet, as anyone on the hunt for the best LGBTQIA+ audiobooks knows, it still can be a challenge to find stories centered on lesbian characters and experiences. To ease your search, we’ve compiled our favorites with collections detailing some of the best stories penned by members of the queer community.
Below you'll find our picks for the best lesbian listens across fiction and nonfiction and in a range of genres and age categories, with one common factor: All of these selections are stories focused on lesbian characters, written by queer authors. Lez go!
Nicole Dennis-Benn's critically acclaimed novel captures the courage and costs of choosing yourself first. Patsy is overjoyed when she’s finally granted a visa to America. It means that she can finally leave her small Jamaican town and join her old friend, and first love, Cicely. But it also means leaving behind her daughter, Tru. When Patsy arrives in Brooklyn, it's not exactly the dreamland Cicely's letters described. To survive as an undocumented immigrant, she is forced to work as a bathroom attendant and a nanny. Meanwhile, Tru reconnects with her father in Jamaica and struggles with identity questions of her own. Sharon Gordon narrates this culture-rich novel and, to quote AudioFile, keeps the performance soaring despite the hardships of the characters.
Set in rural Montana in the early 1990s, this coming-of-age novel focuses on Cameron Post, a teen who is suddenly orphaned and must live with her ultraconservative Aunt Ruth. As she navigates the baffling worlds of grief and high school, Cameron falls for her new best friend. But the excitement of first love comes crashing down when the girls’ relationship is discovered. Sent to God’s Promise, a conversion camp, Cameron learns the extent of adult hypocrisy. Narrated by Beth Laufer, The Miseducation of Cameron Post was a finalist for the YALSA Morris Award and is the basis of the award-winning indie film starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
Marking the debut of queer author Celia Laskey, Under the Rainbow was longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Set in Big Burr, Kansas, this poignant novel unpacks what it means to be queer in a society that rejects you through the interconnected stories of several characters, including a grieving widow, an angry teenager, and an avid hunter who suddenly feels like a target. Narrated by a full cast, including Phoebe Strole, Abigail Revasch, and Brittany Pressley, each voice brings the individual and intertwining vignettes to life. Told with warmth and cutting wit, Under the Rainbow is ultimately a hopeful articulation of our complicated humanity and the ways we can learn to live with each other and ourselves.
Ash is Malinda Lo’s groundbreaking debut novel, a YA fantasy reimagining of Cinderella. The author narrates her story about an orphan named Ash, who dreams of escaping her terrible life with a cruel stepmother to live with the faeries in her tales. Then Ash meets Sidhean, a faerie who is willing to grant Ash’s wish— for a price. Along the way, Ash also encounters Kaisa, the king’s huntress, who treats her with unexpected kindness. Just as Ash realizes she’s falling for Kaisa, her promises to Sidhean complicate her feelings, and Ash is left with a terrible choice: live out her dreams or stay with a newfound but uncertain love.
Performed by Hall of Fame narrator Robin Miles, this is the powerful story of a young Nigerian woman, Ijeoma, who comes of age with her homeland in the late 1960s and is sent away as civil war breaks out. While displaced, she meets another young woman who becomes her friend, and then they fall in love. Not only does her love’s gender make their relationship impossible, but she’s also from a different ethnic community. Ijeoma must hide the part of herself that loves this woman if they’re to survive, but at what cost? Inspired by Nigerian folk tales and realities, Under the Udala Tree is a deeply affecting novel about culture, love, gender, and war. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, it was also nominated for an NAACP Imagine Award.
Looking for a lesbian listen that's dark, in the most hilarious way, and super quirky? Dawn Winter's Sedating Elaine is sure to satisfy. A wildly funny and surreal novel about love, sex, grief, and trauma, it revolves around Frances, a headstrong yet vulnerable woman, and her desperate plan to tranquilize her new, intensely amorous girlfriend, Elaine. Think of this comedic and therapeutic roller-coaster of a listen as an over-the-top and unapologetically lesbian take on Bridget Jones's Diary.
A remarkably honest and witty memoir, Jeannette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a story of self-discovery and the courage to act on that very discovery. While listening to this author-narrated tale, it’s easy to understand exactly why Winterson is so revered as a major literary figure. While her work spans memoir, fiction, and even hot takes on Shakespearean plays (looking at you, The Gap of Time), all of her writing is united by its raw and truthful ways of telling on the human condition.
Hilarious, heartwarming, and sexy as hell, this coming-of-age story turned sci-fi adventure is required listening for basically any queer, but especially a New York City queer person who understands the particular type of longing only a subway crush can have on the psyche. Follow along as new-to-the-city August waits tables, moves in with too many roommates, and just might fall in love with her train crush (who might not be exactly what they seem). Author Casey McQuiston is known for their incredible romance writing, most notably their best-selling YA novel Red, White, and Royal Blue, which details the son of America’s first woman president falling for the prince of England. Yes, we love how McQuiston’s mind works too.
Stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito gets funny and frank with this memoir about her youth, growing up Catholic, and coming out—at a Catholic college, no less. In her own voice and with trademark wit, she recalls being an awkward kid with a dubious sense of style, coming of age, figuring out what it means to be queer, joining the circus, making a life and a living in comedy, and falling in love. Save Yourself is a super honest and painfully real account of growing up queer, and Esposito narrates each word with humor, heart, and reassurance.
