Sapphic book with a butch main character (Sapphic Book Bingo #23)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a sapphic book with a butch main character. 

In case you’re not sure what butch means: Butch has been used since the 1940s, primarily in the lesbian community, to refer to masculine-presenting women, but being butch is more than how you dress or wear your hair. It’s an identity that relates to masculinity without being male. Some genderqueer and nonbinary people also identify as butch, e.g., the two main characters in A Jade’s Diamond by Char Dafoe.

There are many ways to be butch, and I hope the books I recommend below reflect that. 

Coming-out story (Sapphic Book Bingo #13)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a sapphic book in which the main character comes out as LGBTQIA+ during the course of the book.

Maybe the character has known for a while that they weren’t straight or weren’t cis but only now comes out to family, friends, and colleagues. Or it could be a book in which the main character discovers that they aren’t as straight or as cis as they had assumed, so the coming out is mostly to themselves first and foremost, perhaps followed by coming out to friends and family. 

Sapphic book by a newbie author (Sapphic Book Bingo #12)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, I would like you to read a book by a new author to give some attention to writers who are just starting out.

For the sake of this reading challenge, I’m defining “newbie authors” as a writer who has published only one or two novel-length books.

I put together a list of 100+ new authors of sapphic books for you, and I’m constantly adding to it as I find new authors, so keep checking back.