Gay men book series in reading order

by Casey McQuiston

Joseph Hansen (1923-2004) was an American crime writer and poet. Dave Brandstetter, a private investigator, is Hansen's central character, in a series running from Fadeout (1970) and Death Claims (1973) through a long line of California cases. Gay men and gay life in Los Angeles are the subjects that set the work apart from the crime writing around it. Early titles appeared as James Colton and two as Rose Brock. Thirty-seven books are catalogued between 1964 and 2002, and the Joseph Hansen Awards carry his name.

Josh Lanyon writes mysteries about gay men, with subject headings naming gay couples, murder investigation, erotic romance, blues musicians and extortion. The catalogue holds 106 books from 2007 to 2026. Boy Meets Body, Old Poison, The Dark Horse, Snowball In Hell and I'll Be Dead For Christmas all date from 2007, and Death of a Pirate King, Dangerous Ground, Hostage and Mexican Heat from 2008. Series include Adrien English Mysteries, Holmes & Moriarity, All's Fair, Dangerous Ground, In A Dark Wood, Doyle and Spain, XOXO Files, Secrets and Scrabble and Haunted Heart. The 12 Days Ultimatum (2026) is the newest.

T.J. Klune (Travis John Klune) won a Lambda Literary Award for Into This River I Drown (2013) and once worked as a claims examiner for an insurance company. Bear, Otter, and the Kid (2011) is the first of 47 catalogued books, and We Burned So Bright (2026) is the newest, with The Stars Look Like Home due in 2027. The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries are named novels. Green Creek and Tales From Verania are series, and subjects include M/M romance, LGBTQ+ fiction and fantasy.

Armistead Maupin

17 books• 2 series

Armistead Maupin, an American writer born May 13, 1944, is noted for Tales of the City, a series of novels set in San Francisco. The catalogue lists 17 Maupin books from 1978 to 2024. Tales of the City and More Tales of the City are both dated 1978, followed by Further Tales of the City (1982), Babycakes (1984), Significant Others (1987) and Sure of You (1989). Maybe the Moon (1992) and The Night Listener (2000) are also listed. Subjects include gay men, lesbians and city life in San Francisco. Mona of the Manor (2024) is the newest title.

Garrett Leigh writes gay romance, with 61 books catalogued from Bullet (2013) to Just This Kiss (2026). Subjects attached to the books include gay men, emergency medical technicians, mental illness, grief, soldiers, the Iraq War, the British Special Air Service and Chicago. Series by Garrett Leigh include Rebel Kings MC, Skins, Blue Boy, Roads, Only Love, Darkest Skies, Men Of Porth Luck and Urban Soul.

Alexis Hall is an English author of LGBTQ romance, urban fantasy and science fiction, nominated three times for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance. Boyfriend Material and The Affair of the Mysterious Letter are among the novels. The catalogue lists 39 books published between 2013 and 2026, from Aftermath, Glitterland and Iron & Velvet in 2013 through to Never After (2026). Series headings include the Spires Universe, Kate Kane Paranormal Investigator, Arden St. Ives, Winner Bakes All, Something Fabulous, Prosperity, Mortal Follies and Material World. Subject tags name England, London, gay men and historical fantasy.

The Mary Calmes catalogue is tagged for gay romance, and also carries tags for romantic suspense, fantasy, science fiction and shapeshifting. The listing counts 102 books from Change of Heart (2009) to Found Objects (2026), with one title co-credited to Poppy Dennison. Mary Calmes series include A Matter of Time, Marshals, Torus Intercession, Mangrove Stories, L'Ange, Timing and House of Maedoc. His Hearth, Ice Around the Edges and Tooth & Nail all appeared in 2010.

Alice Oseman

21 books• 4 series

Alice May Oseman, born 16 October 1994, is an English author and illustrator whose young adult books portray contemporary teenage life in the United Kingdom, praised for their realism, LGBTQIA+ inclusion and treatment of mental health. Oseman ranks as the third best-selling graphic novelist since records began. A first publishing deal came at 17, and Solitaire followed in 2014 as the first novel; the catalogue runs to 21 titles, ending at Heartstopper #6 in 2026. Awards include a British Book Award, three Children's and Family Emmy Awards, three Goodreads Choice Awards and a Silver Inky Award, and Oseman made the BBC's 100 Women list in 2023 and Time's Time100 Next in 2024.

Cat Sebastian writes queer romance, much of it historical. We Could Be So Good won a Lambda Literary Award in 2024, and Sebastian's books have drawn starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist. The catalogue holds 23 books from The Soldier's Scoundrel (2016) to Star Shipped (2026), across the Seducing the Sedgwicks, Regency Imposters, Page & Sommers and Queer Principles of Kit Webb series. Recorded subjects include gay men, the Regency aristocracy, cross-dressing and gender nonconformity.

Evangeline Anderson is a registered MRI technologist and Florida resident who turned privately written erotic fiction into a career in paranormal and science fiction erotica. The catalogue lists 205 Anderson books from Changing Worlds (2004) to Desired by the Beast (2026). Series include Brides of the Kindred, Kindred Tales, Alien Mate Index, Forbidden Omegaverse, Hidden Hollow, Born to Darkness, Nocturne Academy and Monstrum Kindred. Subjects include erotic and fantasy romance, vampires, gay fiction and science fiction.

Subject records for Andrew Grey list romance, gay men and LGBTQ+ fiction, along with fantasy and erotica. The catalogue holds 230 books by Andrew Grey, running from Children of Bacchus (2008) to Treading Water (2026). Series include Love Means, Carlisle Cops, Carlisle Deputies, Bronco's Boys, Must Love Dogs, Work Out and Senses. Andrew Grey is still publishing.

Gore Vidal

67 books• 6 series

Gore Vidal, born Eugene Louis Vidal on October 3, 1925, was an American writer and public intellectual noted for a cynical, epigrammatic wit, and died on July 31, 2012. Vidal's novels and essays attacked the social and sexual norms Vidal saw shaping American life. Born into an upper-class political family as grandson of U.S. Senator Thomas Gore, Vidal ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the Senate in California in 1982. The catalogue lists 67 books from Williwaw (1946) to I Told You So (2012), including In a Yellow Wood (1947), The City and the Pillar (1948) and Death Before Bedtime (1953). Narratives of Empire and Myra and Myron are among the series.

Colm Tóibín

42 books• 2 series

Colm Tóibín, born 30 May 1955, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. The South (1990) was Tóibín's first novel. The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and The Master, a fictional portrait of Henry James's inner life, was also shortlisted and won the 2006 International Dublin Literary Award. Nora Webster won the Hawthornden Prize, and The Magician, based on the life of Thomas Mann, won the Folio Prize. Eilis Lacey is a series in the catalogue, which runs from Seeing Is Believing (1985) to The Bridge (2026). Tóibín is a member of Aosdána and won the David Cohen Prize in 2021.

William S. Burroughs

39 books• 2 series

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) was an American writer and visual artist and a central figure of the Beat Generation. Drug addiction, unreliable narration and semi-autobiographical material shape the fiction, which begins with Junky in 1953 under the name William Lee and takes in Naked Lunch (1959). Burroughs and Brion Gysin together popularised the cut-up, a chance-based method of composing text. The Nova Trilogy and the Red Night Trilogy group parts of the work, and 39 catalogued titles run as far as The Finger in 2018.

Annabeth Albert writes gay contemporary romance, with subject headings that add firefighters, workplace romance and musicians. The catalogue lists 72 books from 2015 to 2026. Resilient Heart, Status Update, Treble Maker, Winning Bracket, Baked Fresh and Served Hot all date from 2015, and All Note Long and Beta Test from 2016. Series include Out Of Uniform, Portland Heat, Mount Hope, Second Chance Ranch, #gaymers, Rainbow Cove, A-List Security, Perfect Harmony and Shore Leave, and Hotshots is a listed grouping. Hot Dish (2026) is the newest.

Samuel R. Delany

61 books• 4 series

Samuel R. Delany, born April 1, 1942, is an African American writer and literary critic whose output covers science fiction, memoir, criticism and essays on literature, sexuality and society. Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for 1966 and 1967. Delany holds four Nebula Awards and two Hugo Awards and entered the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002. The catalogue counts 62 books from The Jewels of Aptor (1962), including Nova (1968) and the Return to Nevèrÿon series, with The Edge of Language set for 2027.

Alan Hollinghurst

9 books

Alan Hollinghurst, born in 1954, is an English novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. 9 catalogued books span 1982 to 2024, from Confidential Chats with Boys to Our Evenings. The novels are The Swimming-Pool Library (1988), The Folding Star (1994), The Spell (1998), The Line of Beauty (2004), The Stranger's Child (2011) and The Sparsholt Affair (2017). Hollinghurst took the Somerset Maugham Award in 1989, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1994 and the Booker Prize in 2004 for The Line of Beauty, and is credited with carrying gay-themed fiction into the literary mainstream.

Contemporary romance and romantic suspense are the two fields Canadian author Elle Kennedy works in. Born on 19 January 1982, Kennedy has won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America. The catalogue credits 78 books to Kennedy, starting with Bad Moon Rising (Short Story) in 2007 and reaching Bad Idea, due in 2027. Kennedy's series include Killer Instincts, Off-Campus, Briar U, Campus Diaries, Avalon Bay, Outlaws, Prep and Small Town Scandals. Subjects tagged on the books include hockey and sports romance.

E. Lynn Harris wrote about African American men, gay and bisexual identity, and friendship. Invisible Life (1991) opens a catalogue of 17 books that runs through Just As I Am (1994), If This World Were Mine (1997) and Not a Day Goes By (2000) to No One in the World in 2011. The Yancey Harrington Braxton and Bentley L. Dean books form the later series, and nothing after 2011 is catalogued.

Gail Carriger

37 books• 13 series

Gail Carriger is an American author of steampunk fiction. Carriger's 37 catalogued books span 1999 to 2024 and cover the Alexia Tarabotti, Finishing School, Custard Protocol and Delightfully Deadly series, plus a Parasol Protectorate manga line and titles issued as G.L. Carriger. Werewolves, vampires, London society and etiquette run through the work, and Carriger remains actively publishing.

Cassie Alexander is an American writer and nurse whose catalogue mixes urban fantasy, paranormal romance and medical fiction. The 40 books run from Nightshifted (2012) to Guarded by the AI (2025), with Moonshifted and Shapeshifted also from 2012 and Deadshifted (2013) and Bloodshifted (2014) after them. Series include Edie Spence, Dark Ink Tattoo, Sleeping With Monsters, Moth and the Monster, Prince of the Other Worlds and Wardens of the Other Worlds. Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifting and gay romance appear among the subjects.

Eric LaRocca writes horror, much of it at novella length. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021) is the best-known title, an epistolary story of an online chat group; it was reissued in 2022 with other stories. Online cruelty, sadism, masochism, gore and queer lives are the running subjects. Fifteen books date from 2020 to 2026, at a median 208 pages, including You've Lost a Lot of Blood (2022), We Can Never Leave This Place (2022), Everything the Darkness Eats (2023) and The Trees Grew Because I Bled There (2023).

The Hours (1998) won Michael Cunningham the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999, and a 2022 edition pairs it with Mrs. Dalloway. Cunningham, born in 1952, is an American novelist and screenwriter and Professor in the Practice of Creative Writing at Yale University. Golden States (1984) opens the catalogue, with A Home at the End of the World (1990), Flesh and Blood (1995), Specimen Days (2005), By Nightfall (2010) and The Snow Queen (2014) after it. Gay men, male friendship, families, parents and children, and AIDS run through the fiction. Eleven books are catalogued to 2023.

Andrew Sean Greer

10 books• 1 series

Less (2017) won Andrew Sean Greer the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Less Is Lost (2022) continues the Arthur Less books. Greer, born in 1970, is an American novelist and short story writer whose earlier work includes The Confessions of Max Tivoli (2004), named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and a California Book Award winner, and The Story of a Marriage (2008). Travel, gay men, friendship, aging and romantic love recur across 10 catalogued books dated 2000 to 2026, at a median 288 pages.