7 New Queer Books in Translation Out in 2025

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a collage of new queer books in translation

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September is National Translation Month, which is a good time to spotlight some of the queer books in translation out in 2025! Unfortunately, despite all the incredible literature coming out around the world, very little of it gets picked up by English language publishers to be translated. Usually, it’s just the books seen as having the most award potential, or the most mass appeal—which means queer books in other languages are even less likely to get translated into English. And that’s not even starting on the barriers to getting published at all as a queer author in many countries around the world.

That’s why we should be buying, reading, and talking about the queer books that do make it into an English translation, though! The queer books in translation out this year include literary fiction, a vampire mystery, historical fantasy romance, and a memoir.

Currently, we’re seeing the most queer books in translation from Japan and China, often in the form of manga, manhua, and light novels. Even when a translator isn’t listed, these books are usually in translation. You will have an easier time finding them if you get familiar with the keywords to search, like danmei, yaoi, yuri, BL (Boys’ Love), and GL (Girls’ Love).

8 New Queer Books in Translation Out in 2025

Backlight by Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg

In this Finnish novel, we follow Pirkko Saisio in two times of her life, as a teenager and a young adult. In her teen years, she fights with her father and rebels at school—until her teacher tells her she has a real shot at being a writer, if she would just buckle down. Years later, Pirkko is working at a Swiss orphanage in 1968 and feeling totally isolated. No one understands her German, and she’s struggling to come to terms with her queerness. The world is changing, she’s changing, and she’s homesick. The publisher says, “In Backlight, the Finlandia Prize-winning author looks backward and inward, once again emerging, in Mia Spangenberg’s sensitive translation, with an intimate portrait of a life lived in language.”

Orlanda by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz

This is the newest book from the French author of the surprise TikTok hit I Who Have Never Known Men. It follows Aline, who is reading the classic queer novel Orlando when her mind splinters, lodging a part of itself in a young man’s body. This new, confident being calls themselves Orlanda. Alina sees is Orlanda the kind of person she has always aspired to be, and the two soon can’t bear to be apart from each other. The publisher says, “This lyrical novel is a stunning portrait of a woman who is forced to confront every part of her soul and embrace herself fully.”

Pioneer Summer by Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova, translated by Anne O. Fisher

This gay romance by a Ukrainian-Russian author team was the bestselling novel in Russia in 2022. By December, it was banned under a new Russian law against “gay propaganda,” and the authors were forced to flee the country. Now it’s available in English. Pioneer Summer follows Yurka’s summer at Pioneer Camp, where he meets Volodya. The teenagers can’t deny their feelings for each other, but they know their relationship would be illegal. 20 years later, Yury returns to the defunct camp to reminisce—and finds out that the end of that summer wasn’t the end of their love story.

Self Portrait by Ludwig Volbeda, translated by Lucy Scott (November 4, 2025)

In this Dutch coming-of-age novel, Jip is a teenager struggling with an assignment he needs to complete during spring break: a self-portrait. The problem isn’t the drawing; he’s an artist. But he keeps getting distracted, thinking about beetles, an upcoming party, the new boy in class, and the boy who changed his life. The publisher says, “Ludwig Volbeda writes as he draws: sensitively, intimately, and with striking observations and metaphors that gradually give the reader insight into Jip’s innermost thoughts. What results is a magnificent self-portrait in words (and line art) and one of the more exquisite queer coming-of-age stories in years.”

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated by Gene Png

This Korean bestseller is now available in English! When police officer Su-Yeon learns that four elderly people have died from jumping out a sixth story window at a hospital, she takes the case personally: Grandma Eun-Shim lives on that floor, and Su-Yeon is determined to stop her from facing the same fate. The rest of the police force dismisses the deaths as suicides, but as Su-Yeon investigates, she meets Violette, who claims to be a vampire hunter looking for her ex-girlfriend, Lily. When the next body is found drained of blood, Su-Yeon begins to believe Violette. It’s a vampire murder mystery!

Dinghai Fusheng Records (Novel) Vol. 1 by Fei Tian Ye Xiang, translated by moon, Elestrea, and Zryuu

As I mentioned earlier, danmei (love between men in Chinese media) is one of the biggest categories of queer books in translation at the moment. Unfortunately, its writers are facing intense censorship: dozens of authors have been detained by police recently, with some facing large fines and even jail time.

Dinghai Fusheng Records was originally a webnovel that has since been adapted into an audio drama, manhua, animation, and now print novels in English. It is a fantasy series that takes place in ancient China, where almost all magic has disappeared. Chen Xing is the last living exorcist, led by his heart lamp to the person destined to help him in preventing the apocalypse: Xiang Shu. Xiang Shu is reluctant to become a hero, but the two will have to learn to work together before darkness consumes them all.

So What If I’m a Puta by Amara Moira, translated by Amanda De Lisio and Bruna Dantas Lobato

This memoir, adapted from the author’s popular blog of the same name, explores her life as a trans sex worker in Brazil—a country with record rates of violence against trans women. Amara Moira writes in crônicas: short, quippy essays that act as her diary during this time period. She discusses Brazil’s putafeminist movement, which centers trans sex workers. This essay collection promises to be “brazen, funny, and at times heartbreaking.”

Looking for more? Check out these 20 Must-Read Queer Books in Translation from Around the World as well as LGBTQ Reads’s list of queer adult fiction in translation.

25 New Queer Books Out This Week

As a bonus for All Access members, here are 25 queer books out this week, including the queer guy YA novel The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar by Sonora Reyes, the trans girl middle grade fantasy book The Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell, and the anthology This Queer Arab Family: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers edited by Elias Jahshan.