2025 has been an excellent year for queer nonfiction. We’ve had definitive biographies of big names in queer history, essays about the queerness of nature, reflections on transness and horror movies, an oral history of trans people of color, and a history of intersex liberation.

It’s Nonfiction November, after all, so this is the perfect time to catch up on some of the biggest and buzziest queer nonfiction books of the year, before 2025 ends.

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

I’ve been chasing the high of reading How Far the Light Reaches since 2022, and I finally found that queer science joy again in Forest Euphoria. Mycologist and writer Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian found acceptance and a place to explore in the natural landscapes of her childhood home in the Hudson Valley. As an adult studying science, she found representation of her queerness and neurodivergence in the plants, animals, and fungi she researched. Forest Euphoria is a gentle, poignant exploration of finding queer experiences reflected in nature, from mushroom community building to intersex courtship in slugs to trans identity in eels. Kaishian weaves together her deeply personal memories, nature and science writing, and queer theory in this gorgeous, life-affirming book. —Susie Dumond

Uncanny Valley Girls: Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love by Zefyr Lisowski

This essay collection is about finding comfort in horror movies: “From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror’s reciprocal impact on our culture and—by extension—our lives.” Woven throughout is Lisowski’s own story, including her trans childhood in the South. This comes highly recommended by Torrey Peters and Jeanne Thornton! —Danika Ellis

So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color edited by Caro De Robertis

This was my first time (shame! I know!) reading Caro De Robertis, the Uruguayan American author of Cantoras and The Palace of Eros and award-winning translator of Latin American literature. This collection of testimonies from queer elders of color about self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival is such an essential read, a necessary record of so much lived experience and hard-won progress. It is a love letter to queer history and an inspiring, hilarious, heartbreaking, and gorgeous reminder to treasure the wisdom of those who’ve witnessed history, helped shape it, and given us the space to imagine a future where we’re all free. I had to pause to reflect several times, especially in the passages about found family and liberation. This is phenomenal on audio and brought me to tears! — Vanessa Diaz

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Hermaphrodite Logic: A History of Intersex Liberation by Juliana Gleeson

Intersex people are some of the least represented in LGBTQIA+ literature, so I’m excited to see a new work about the history of the intersex liberation movement. In this history, Gleeson explains how the movement began in protest against medical abuses. She blends personal insight with theory to demonstrate how intersex liberation is tied to liberation from sexed oppression for all. —Danika Ellis

Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs

This isn’t just another biography about James Baldwin, acclaimed writer and civil rights activist. In *Baldwin: A Love Story, *Nicholas Boggs set out to explore James Baldwin’s life and works through his intimate relationships: his mentor, the painter Beauford Delaney; Lucien Happersberger, a Swiss painter who was Baldwin’s lover and muse; and his collaborators, actor Engin Cezzar and the French artist Yoran Cazac. “From the very beginning,” Boggs writes that he knew this book was “a love story.” —Emily Martin

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline

We finally, finally have a full and researched biography of the queer, feminist icon Marsha P. Johnson, who fought both by existing and through her work as an activist to illuminate the Black trans experience. Tourmaline, herself a Black trans woman, a filmmaker, and an activist, has worked to make trans history visible. This excellent, highly anticipated biography promises to become a must-have for feminist, intersectional, and queer libraries moving forward. —Leah Rachel von Essen