Author and international queer book club host Layla McCay has read a vast number of books and wants us to share her enthusiasms. The Queer Bookshelf aims to cover the whole range of creative writing that could be called queer (a term she carefully unpacks in her introduction): from ancient epics to Heartstopper.

A London-based psychiatrist who founded the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, McCay is clearly a remarkable person. She has held academic health policy roles in the United Kingdom, United States, Japan and Hong Kong. She hosts book clubs and events in London, Washington and Tokyo. And she has written a book on urban design.

Review: The Queer Bookshelf – Layla McCay (Scribe)

The Queer Bookshelf is both a personal account of her ongoing discovery of queer writing and a broad overview of the field, ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates to around 2000BC in Mesopotamia, to contemporary graphic novels like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.

At times, the book becomes a frantic attempt to list every title that could be considered queer. But McCay comes across as smart, generous and extraordinarily well read.

Queer politics and book banning

It is somewhat surprising to read an entire book about changing perceptions of queer identities without a single mention of either Freud or Kinsey. But McCay is very aware of shifting norms around gender and sexuality, and the constant battles for recognition of diversity.

Although she rarely references historical or sociological texts, McCay’s book is very historically aware. The first half follows the emergence of homosexuality, then transgender, as the bases for identity, and the ensuing growth of what we now call the LGBTQIA community.

First, she gallops through several millennia, touching on writings as varied as the Kama Sutra and Shakespeare’s sonnets.........

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