September-December Reading Diverse Challenge

I have set myself a challenge for the last 4 months of the year. I am only allowed to read books by BIPoC, disabled or atypical and LGBTQ+ authors!

It’s important that we read books by authors outside the publishing norm of straight, white, able-bodied, cisgendered authors. Though more marginalised authors are having their works published, we still have a long way to go to see the balance tipped. It’s not the case that diverse authors don’t want to write or share their imagination with the world. Sadly, they simply just aren’t published as frequently.

Publishing houses and imprints such Stormzy’s Merky Books and Merky Prize, alongside Bindery Books are helping to push diverse voices to the forefront, and I can’t thank them enough for that! But they need our help! We need to keep buying and sharing these diverse books so that the big publishing houses finally get the message that the world is diverse and we want to see that reflected and represented in the fiction and non-fiction we read.

When doing my mid-tear freakout tag and reading so far of 2026, I realised I haven’t read as many marginalised authors as I’d like. And so, this is my correction attempt! The September-December Diverse Reading Challenge.

Rules

1. Books must be written by someone from a marginalised / under-represented group
2. The main characters in the book must feature a marginalised / under-represented group
3. Can access the book in any way, but ideally I have to work through my physical TBR first – sourcing responsibly is always encouraged
4. Share what I’ve read so that more eyes can find these important books

I hate to reduce books and authors down to what makes them “marginalised” or “diverse”, but it’s important for us to read and elevate these Own Voices and diverse authors, too. I share this with the aim only to put authors of colour, LGBTQ+ and disabled authors on your radar by sharing which books I own and would like to get to next at some point (hopefully in the next 4 months).

BIPoC:

• Blood Over Bright Haven M. L. Wang – Asian author
• Reformatory by Tananarive Due – black author
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh – Croatian-Iranian author
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones – Aborigine author
• The Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas – Latina author
• Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang – Asian author
• The Poppy War R. F. Kuang – Asian author
• Taipei Story by R. F. Kuang – Asian author
• Dreamland by Olive Blake – Asian author
• Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang – Asian author
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer – black author
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Latina author
• Moderation by Elaine Castillo – Filipino author

Disability rep:

• Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (currently listening to) – Asian disabled author (congenital myopathy) & rep
• Disability Pride Month Post

LGBTQ+

• Model Home by Rivers Soloman – black, non-binary author
• Palavaer by Bryan Washington – black queer author & rep
• Chlorine by Jade Song – Asian author & LGBTQ rep
• You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White – Trans autistic author & trans rep
• Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White – Trans autistic author & trans rep
• Welcome to Dorley Hall by Alyson Greaves – Trans author & rep

Sincerely,

S. xx