This research guide was created as an introduction to queer African American writers. This guide spotlights works in our collection by LGBTQ+ African American authors and features pages dedicated to writers James Baldwin, Roxane Gay, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker to highlight their contributions to American literature. Below, you will find a collection of fiction available to check out at Eden's Library as well background information on the intersectionality of queer and Black identities. On each "Featured Writers" page, you will find biographical information about each author, works by each author that are available to check out, literary criticisms, and more. Happy researching!
Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. "You don't want anyone to think you're gay too, do you?" But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King's friendship with Sandy is reignited, he's forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother's death.
