CWPA 2019 - Queer Book List

On the origins of Queer Book List…

“There is an old saying in Indiana, “Bit by bit our sweaters we knit,” that says a lot about the evolution of GLBTQ literature. Like the knitting of a sweater, it has been a similarly slow, sometimes tedious and often incremental process plagued by more than a few dropped stitches along the way. But despite the occasional setbacks, progress has been made” (Cart and Jenkins, 2006, p. 165).

Queer Book List was born out of the early stages of my preparation for my Orals exam.
At the time of starting the site, the only comprehensive list of queer young adult novels that I was aware of was Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins’ The Heart Has Its Reasons, published in 2006.
As I began to build on Cart and Jenkins’ work and discover more contemporary texts, I felt that it was important to share this information

A growing resource…

Queer Book List began primarily as a catalog of queer young adult novels.
In addition to cataloging, my goal was to post reviews of the books that I was reading
As I began to think about the project more, I realized that my primary interest and goal was to turn Queer Book List into an educational resource
The first major expansion to Queer Book List came in the form of the resources tab, where I provide educational resources for both instructors and students at the high school and university level
Most recently, the website has been expanded to include a Blog section, where I can discuss topics that I think are important and hopefully create a community.

Looking forward…

Finally unveiling the adult page
A new section on the site devoted to academic and theoretical texts
A section that looks at archival material
An annotated syllabus
More educational resources
More and different reviews
New blogs covering topics such as: author interviews, queering the freshman comp class, and what makes a text queer
And more