University of Wisconsin Gender & Women's Studies Librarian

06/12/2026

June is Pride Month, and it's also Rainbow Book Month - a nationwide celebration of the authors and writings that reflect the lives of the LGBTQIA+ community.

You can find lists of award-winning LGBTQIA+ books, tools for libraries and library workers from ALA's Rainbow Round Table, and graphics to help celebrate and spread the word on ALA's website: https://bit.ly/4kKOkOg. Is your library hosting a program you're excited for? We'd love to hear about it!

We also know that these stories are under attack. In 2025, ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom found that 39% of books targeted for censorship in U.S. libraries and schools - 1,671 unique titles - represent the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color. As these stories continue to be disproportionately targeted for censorship and library workers across the country are facing threats and harassment for serving these communities, Rainbow Book Month has never been more important.

If your library is experiencing challenges to materials and programs serving LGBTQIA+ patrons, ALA has resources to help. You can report censorship to ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and receive free, confidential support, and the Unite Against Book Bans campaign can help you activate your community to push back against censorship.

Read with pride.

📸 Photo: ALA's Gay and Le***an Task Force (now the Rainbow Round Table) marching in the 1992 San Francisco Pride March, from the ALA Archives.

06/11/2026

📣 The latest issue of Feminist Periodicals is live! Check it out at feministperiodicals.org/collections/show/33

Feminist Periodicals is a free resource to help researchers, scholars, and students, as well as the general public, see what is currently being written & published in journals & magazines in gender and women's studies, sexuality studies, and LGBTQIA+ studies. We gather tables of contents from periodicals in these fields and index them so you can find resources relevant to your areas of interest.

NEW this issue - we've recently added The Scholar and Feminist Online, an open access journal from the Barnard Center for Research on Women!

This latest issue includes contents information from Media Report to Women, Health Care for Women International, Feminist Pedagogy, QTR: A Journal of Trans and Q***r Studies in Religion, Feminist Anthropology, Bi Women Quarterly, and more.

06/09/2026

Pride Month Books of the Week - this week's theme is trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming books and authors! I've got four books for you this week:

1. Nonbinary Life: An Autotheory by Marquis Bey
2. Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color ed. by Denne Michele Norris
3. Plastic, Prism, Void by Violet Allen (a trans enemies-to-lovers romantasy)
and
4. Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports by Ellie Roscher and Dr. Anna Baeth

Bloomsbury U.S. Electric Literature Ellie Roscher The New Press

06/04/2026

It's Pride Month and WHS Press is proud to share the important stories of the LGBTQ+ community in Wisconsin.

🌈 "We've Been Here All Along" and "Coming Out, Moving Forward" by R. Richard Wagner
🌈 "We Will Always Be Here" by Jenny Kalvaitis and Kristen Whitson
🌈 "Radical Family edited by Margaret Mooney

Learn more about our LGBTQ+ books here: https://wihist.org/4vua8TT

06/01/2026

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! While trying to pick this month's books of the week, I* had a hard time narrowing it down... so I figured, why bother? So instead each Monday this month will feature two or three (or more?) books around a ~theme~. Week 1: Biographies!

Check out THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF REED PEGGRAM: THE MAN WHO STARED DOWN WORLD WAR II IN THE NAME OF LOVE by Ethelene Whitmire and MARSHA: THE JOY AND DEFIANCE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON by Tourmaline!

Comment below if you have more q***r biographies to recommend!

*Who is I? I'm Kelsey, the admin assistant in the Office of the Gender and Women's Studies Librarian, and, amongst many other things, I manage our social media. Usually student staff make the posts, but they're on summer break so it's my turn.

05/25/2026

Yes, we're closed for Memorial Day, but we can still schedule a Book of the Week post, and this week we're highlighting HMONG: A GRAPHIC HISTORY, written and illustrated by Vicky Lyfoung and translated by Kao-Ly Yang.

"This debut graphic novel offers an accessible and memorable introduction to Hmong history and culture. Against a backdrop of war, colonialism, displacement and migration, this story honors the resilience and strength of Vicky Lyfoung’s own family, as well as that of all Hmong people." - Ms. Magazine

05/18/2026

This week's is the first book from q***r travel writer Lindsey Danis, (OUT) ON THE ROAD: THE RADICAL JOY OF Q***R TRAVEL.

Weaving personal experience with data and interviews, (Out) On the Road empowers LGBTQ+ travelers to face their fears, expand their comfort zones, find community, and thrive on the road. This book provides readers with a framework for planning travel, navigating risks, and becoming self-reliant. - Ig Publishing

05/14/2026

05/13/2026

Hey everyone, we are on our summer hours now! We'll be open Tuesday-Thursday 9am-4pm.

As always, check out our online resources 24/7. See hours on our website for any changes (who knows, maybe some of us will actually go on vacation???).

05/11/2026

Happy Book of the Week to LOVING BLACK BOYS: A BLACK FEMINIST BIBLE ON RACISM AND REVOLUTIONARY MOTHERING by Tamura Lomax. Out tomorrow (May 12) from Duke University Press!

"A companion to her 2025 Freeing Black Girls: A Black Feminist Bible on Racism and Revolutionary Mothering, Tamura Lomax’s Loving Black Boys highlights the urgency and importance of Black feminist mothering so that boys may learn, understand and value their vital roles in humanity’s liberation." - Ms. Magazine