Written by: Julianna Black and Michelle Clark
What is Bisexuality?
As we close out Bisexual Awareness Week and Visibility Day (celebrated every September 23), we take a moment to reflect on the importance of visibility and representation for those under the bi+ umbrella. Bisexuality, along with identities like pansexuality, polysexuality, omnisexuality, among others, often face misunderstanding and erasure. Those who identify somewhere under the bi+ umbrella frequently find themselves navigating a world that tends to place sexuality in rigid boxes, making their experiences feel invisible.
Read Books from Bi+ Authors or with Bisexual Representation
As such, it’s vital to celebrate the rich tapestry of bi+ identities and acknowledge the unique challenges they face. By fostering awareness and understanding, we can create a more inclusive environment where everyone feels free to be their truest selves. If you’re interested in learning more, check out the following titles that showcase bisexual representation either through the author or in the story itself.
Goodnight Moon (Buenas nochese, luna)
by Margaret Wise Brown
Written by a bisexual author, this classic of children's literature is beloved by generations of readers and listeners. The quiet poetry of the words and the gentle, lulling illustrations combine to make a perfect book for the end of the day. For ages 0-24 mos.
Star-Crossed
Barbara Dee
Mattie, a star student and passionate reader, is delighted when her English teacher announces the eighth grade will be staging Romeo and Juliet. And she is even more excited when, after a series of events, she finds herself playing Romeo, opposite Gemma Braithwaite’s Juliet. Gemma, the new girl at school, is brilliant, pretty, outgoing—and, if all that wasn’t enough: British.
As the cast prepares for opening night, Mattie finds herself growing increasingly attracted to Gemma and confused, since, just days before, she had found herself crushing on a boy named Elijah. Is it possible to have a crush on both boys AND girls? If that wasn’t enough to deal with, things backstage at the production are starting to rival any Shakespearean drama! In this sweet and funny look at the complicated nature of middle school romance, Mattie learns how to be the lead player in her own life. For ages 9-13.
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy
ND Stevenson
At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together... And they're not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here. Volume 1 of a series. For ages 13+.
Orlando
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabethan England, awaits a visit from the Queen and then traces his experience with first love as England, under James I, lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women. For ages 16+.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
James Baldwin
At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.
For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. And everywhere there is the anguish of being black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. Overpowering in its vitality, extravagant in the intensity of its feeling, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is a major work of American literature. For ages 16+.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. When she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world: her husband has left her and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s, to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star and, as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that their lives are meant to intersect in tragic and irreversible ways. For ages 16+.
Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality
Julie Shaw
For psychologist and bestselling author Julia Shaw, this is both professional and personal—Shaw studies the science of sexuality and she herself is proudly and vocally bisexual. It’s an admission, she writes, that usually causes people’s pupils to dilate, their cheeks to flush, and their questions to start flowing. Ask people to name famous bisexual actors, politicians, writers, or scientists, and they draw a blank. Despite statistics that show bisexuality is more common than homosexuality, bisexuality is often invisible.
In BI: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw probes the science and culture of attraction beyond the binary. From the invention of heterosexuality to the history of the Kinsey scale, as well as asylum seekers trying to defend their bisexuality in a court of law, there is so much more to explore than most have ever realized. Drawing on her own original research—and her own experiences—this is a personal and scientific manifesto; it’s an exploration of the complexities of the human sexual experience and a declaration of love and respect for the nonconformists among us. For ages 16+.
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