Pick These Books Up for the Trans Rights Readathon
The third Trans Rights Readathon has begun! It runs from March 21st to March 31st to coincide with Trans Day of Visibility, and it aims to uplift, amplify, and support trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and Two-Spirit authors. It’s a great excuse to not only read trans books but also to donate to trans causes, buy books from trans authors (you could preorder these ones!), and talk about the trans books you love.
There are five core prompts to complete, as well as a list of bonus prompts. I’ve included recommendations for each of the core prompts below, but I’ll be recommending more in the Our Queerest Shelves newsletter, like these trans graphic novels you can read in one sitting.
I know many of you Read Harder challengers participate in other readathons and reading challenges throughout the year, and this is a great one to join! You can also keep working on the prompts after the readathon is done, stretching it into a year-long readathon.
Now, here are a few trans books we recommend picking up for the Trans Rights Readathon or any time!
Transfemme and Trans Woman Rep
The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation by Raquel Willis
In this memoir, Willis recounts her life. She grew up feeling isolated in Augusta, Georgia as a queer Black child, despite her supportive family. It wouldn’t be until going to college and finding a queer community that she began to explore herself and her identity. As she entered the field of journalism, the Black Lives Matter movement started gaining steam, and the trans community was getting more visibility. Becoming aware of the threat to trans lives, especially those of trans teens and trans women of color, led to her coming out as trans and becoming a voice for the voiceless. —Erica Ezeifedi
Unexploded Remnants by Elaine Gallagher
After a devastating war, trans woman Alice is the last human alive. That war threatens to reignite when Alice finds an AI personality in an ancient data core that controls a dormant weapons system, and convincing it that the war is over isn’t going well. Alice travels across the known universe in search of answers and aid, knowing that if the AI falls into the wrong hands, this could destroy the tenuous peace that was so hard-earned. This is a trans, sci-fi reinvention of Alice in Wonderland!
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Transmasc and Trans Man Rep
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman
This is a gorgeous contemporary love story about fandoms, archives, storytelling, academia, and queer and trans culture — with one magical twist: the main character is a vampire. Sol has been lying low and staying alive by living in his basement office, but when he meets the widow of a famous lesbian TV writer, he slowly begins to venture out into the world again. There’s so much going on in this novel; it’s a unique perspective on vampires and what it means to be alive, dead, in-between. —Laura Sackton
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Felix is a Black trans teenager attending a summer art program, hanging out with his best friend, and dreaming of falling in love. When someone posts old pictures of him in the school lobby, he hatches a complicated plan to get revenge on the person he thinks did it. It doesn’t go as planned. What follows is a complicated, layered story about identity, family, friendship, racism, and transphobia in queer communities, making art, and growing up. —Laura Sackton
Nonbinary, Agender, Genderqueer, and Other Gender Expansive Rep
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
This beautiful, genre-defying book is part memoir of a mixed-race nonbinary scientist and part science writing about marine biology. By braiding these two threads together, though, it’s more than the sum of its parts. It explores queer people as shapeshifters, as swarms, as immortal. I savored these essays and never wanted the collection to end. Even if you aren’t usually a reader of science writing — I usually am not — I highly recommend picking this one up.
The Heartbreak Bakery by A. R. Capetta
This cozy YA novel with a dose of magic is one of the most comforting books I’ve ever read, and it stars an agender main character with a genderfluid love interest. When Syd (no pronouns) bakes brownies after a breakup, anyone who eats them ends their romantic relationship. With the help of bike delivery person Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin), the two of them try to find everyone who ate a brownie and repair the damage.
Intersectional Trans+ Rep Outside Your Own Experience
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
This unique, genre-blending science fantasy novel has several main characters, including 79-year-old Shizuka, a violin teacher who sold her soul for musical talent. If she can find seven souls to take her place, she’s freed from the contract, and she only has one more to go — and one year to do so. Her new student is the perfect candidate: Katrina, a teen trans girl who is a violin prodigy. Oh, and then there’s Lan, an alien running a donut shop, who Shizuka slowly starts to fall for. This is a beautiful book that also has some harrowing moments of trauma and transphobia. I’ve truly read nothing like it.
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
A beautiful, beguiling blend of magic and technology, this novella is all about what it truly means to belong to a place. The city of Ora is controlled by a network called The Gleaming, a living web that provides both surveillance and protection. Anima is an extrasensory human whose job it is to watch over Ora’s citizens; æ can access all the memories and knowledge contained in The Gleaming, but nothing more. When a mysterious visitor comes to Ora, expanding Anima’s consciousness beyond the city’s walls, æ begins to question ær entire purpose in life. —Laura Sackton
2Spirit, Indigiqueer, and Indigenous Gender Expansive Rep
It Was Never Going to Be Okay by Jaye Simpson
The title of jaye simpson’s debut collection sets the tone for the poems inside. It’s about so many things, from queerness to Indigeneity and beyond. Some of the poems are long, sprawling across multiple pages, and consisting of multiple segments. Others are short and swift, lasting just a few lines…but the ideas stay on your tongue for hours or days. It’s a hard collection to sum up in a short space, but perhaps that says something in and of itself. —Anne Mai Yee Jansen
Looking for more? Try 11 of the Best Memoirs by Transgender and Nonbinary Authors, 12 Trans and Nonbinary Books Out in 2025 to Preorder Now, and 20 Must-Read Adult Books by Trans & Genderqueer Authors.