Girl, Woman, Other is a rich and vivid portrait of 12 people, most of them women and Black. From a lesbian playwright to a nonbinary influencer and a white-passing schoolteacher, the characters’ stories are connected by their shared identities and experiences across decades of life in the United Kingdom. The fast-paced novel is written entirely in lowercase, allowing the prose to flow almost lyrically as it examines Britain’s complicated colonial history. It won Evaristo the Booker Prize in 2019, making her the first Black woman to win that prize. —Vanessa Diaz

In this beautifully written novel, Jonny is an Indigiqueer person returning to the reservation to attend his stepfather’s funeral. In the week that follows, he tries to reconcile his life in the city with his life on the rez, including the complex relationship he has with his family. Jonny Appleseed came out in 2018 and was one of the first traditionally published books with a Two-Spirit main character. It was nominated for the biggest literary awards in Canada, including the Governor General’s Awards and the Giller Prize, and it won a Lambda Literary Award. It also won the 2021 Canada Reads competition. —Danika Ellis

Martyr!, poet Kaveh Akbar’s remarkable debut novel, is the kind of book that forever alters your brain chemistry. It stars Cyrus, a queer Iranian American poet who grew up in the shadow of his mother’s death from a senseless act of violence. Cyrus has grown obsessed with the concept of martyrdom and what it means to die with purpose. As he works on a manuscript about martyrs, he encounters an Iranian artist with a terminal cancer diagnosis whose insights reshape Cyrus’s perspective. Although the story deals with heavy topics like death, grief, and war, Akbar writes with a sense of playfulness and whimsy that shines a warm light on the darkest corners of the human psyche. It’s a phenomenal first novel from an author we’re sure to still be talking about at the end of the century. —Susie Dumond

Ocean Vuong’s debut novel takes the form of a letter written by a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother, recounting their family history as well as the fraught relationship between the two of them. It explores trauma, war, masculinity, abuse, and grief. Vuong is a poet, and that shines through in the sumptuous language. It won the Publishing Triangle Award as well as the Stonewall Book Award, and we’re not the only ones who think it’s one of the best of the century: it was also a New York Times Readers Pick for the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, and it was one of Kirkus‘s Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far). —Danika Ellis

This Lambda Award-winning collection of stories about queer Black women is going to live in my head for a long time. If you love Carmen Maria Machado’s work, you need to pick this up. Both authors excel at writing feminist, fabulist/magical realist stories that get under your skin. These stories explore intense, undefined relationships between women; the horror of having a body (especially a racialized, sexualized body); and the strange paths grief can lead you down. Visceral, evocative, and thought-provoking, these are stories that benefit from discussion and deep reading. This collection deserves to be recognized as a new classic. —Danika Ellis

From the title alone, we know early on that Vivek, who the story is centered around, dies. Despite this, Emezi’s poetic writing grips you and propels you forward. Readers are moved through time—from when Vivek is born in Nigeria to an Indian mother and Nigerian father, through his middle-class upbringing, and finally to his dissociative episodes. Vivek finds community in the daughters of foreign-born women and his cousin, and finally begins to step into his queerness when tragedy strikes. Here is a transcendent story of queerness and love in Nigeria—a modern classic. —Erica Ezeifedi