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