In celebration of #YYCPride week: a reading list of Calgary LGBTQ+ stories — also over at the Calgary Public Library website. This list is a work-in-progress. If you have suggestions, please send them along.
FICTION
Nancy Jo Cullen, The Western Alienation Merit Badge (2019) – A queer coming-of-age story set in 1980s Calgary
Marion Douglas, Bending at the Bow – A lesbian mourns the death of her lover in 1990s Calgary
Lois Cloarec Hart, The Calgary Chronicles (2001, 2002, 2013) – Three lesbian novels set in Calgary
Suzette Mayr, Monoceros (2011) – A Calgary community reels after the suicide of a gay teen
Suzette Mayr, Venous Hum (2004) – A satire on race, gender and sexual preference set in Calgary
Alyssa Linn Palmer, Betting on Love (2015) – A queer love story set in contemporary Calgary
Gordon Sombrowski, “The Apple Tree” (2020) – A story that reflects on Calgary’s AIDS history
Rae Spoon, First Spring Grass Fire (2012) – The story of a growing up queer in 1980s & 90s Calgary
A Queer Christmas in Cowtown (2018) and A Queer Summer Night in Cowtown (2019) – Collaborative anthologies curated by Calgary’s M. Jane Colette featuring short stories by local queer writers
NON FICTION
Kevin Allen, Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary (2018) – A history of queer Calgary
The Calgary Atlas Project, “A Queer Map: A Guide of the LGBTQ+ History of Calgary “ (2020) – An annotated map of the city’s queer history with text by Kevin Allen
Barry Callaghan, “Calgary: Glory-Hole to the West” in Raise You Twenty (2011) – A Toronto novelist visits 1983 Calgary, and stops at the Parkside Continental
Brad Fraser, “My Own Private Calgary: A Frontier City Where Cultures Collide” (Globe and Mail, Feb 7, 1998) – A gay playwright visits Calgary
Betty Jane Hegerat, “Finding My Grace” in A Family by Any Other Name (2014) – A Calgary writer grapples with her daughter’s coming out
Dale Lee Kwong, “Created by Choice” in A Family by Any Other Name (2014) – A Chinese-Canadian lesbian forges family in contemporary Calgary
Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ2 Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada (2018) — Includes work by Calgary writers Dale Lee Kwong and Masaki Kidokoro
Lynette Loeppky, Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire (2014) – A lesbian grapples with the end of her relationship in and around Calgary
Natalie Meisner, Double Pregnant: Two Lesbians Make a Family (2014) – A lesbian couple’s story of conception and childbirth in Calgary
Tegan and Sara, High School (2019) – A queer coming-of-age story during the twin sisters’ years at Crescent Heights High School in the 90s
PLAYS
Natalie Meisner, Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story (2019) – A play about the Calgary bus driver jailed for being gay in 1960s Calgary, by Calgary’s Poet Laureate
Dale Lee Kwong, Ai Yah! Face the Facts (2020) – A Chinese Calgarian woman inches toward coming out on a lesbian cruise. Part of The Alberta Queer Calendar Project
POETRY
Dale Lee Kwong, “L-Berta Rainbow” (2014) -- A poem about homophobia set against the 2005 floods