Fall is upon us, and we’re saying goodbye to the sweltering heat that has encapsulated most of the country over the past few months and hello to the beauty that comes with the change of season and cooler temperatures. The weather change isn’t the only thing we are looking forward to. Black queer artists will continue to impact culture throughout the second half of 2022. 

There is no shortage of new literary works from Black queer authors. Whether you prefer to curl up with a physical book, a Kindle download, or an audiobook, The Reckoning has you covered with recommendations for titles to add to your must-read list. But wait, we’ve got you covered with music and movies too. 

We’d love to hear about any additional upcoming Black queer releases that have captured your attention. We invite you to take a look at the projects on our radar below. 

ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Saeed Jones 

Release Date: September 2022

Award-winning queer author Saeed Jones (“How We Fight For Our Lives”) is set to release ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD, his latest poetry collection. Jones is the winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry for Prelude To Bruise. In early praise for his upcoming release, Publisher’s Weekly calls ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD: “A kaleidoscope of grief and anger mixes with the poet’s wit, giving these timely poems a striking directness… Balancing elegy with gallows humor, this penetrating collection shows Jones at his poetic best.” 

A Visible Man

Edward Enninful 

Release Date: September 6, 2022

In A Visible Man, Edward Enninful recounts his journey from teen model to the very top of the fashion industry. For a Black, gay, and working-class immigrant, the trajectory was an improbable one—the stuff of fashion fairytales, almost.

“I’d been asked so many times to write a book, but I always said no,” says Enninful, to British Vogue. “This time, it just felt right. This has been a year of change: turning 50, getting married, and now my book. I’m very excited.”

My Pinup

Hilton Als 

Release Date: November 1, 2022

In this brilliant two-part memoir, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hilton Als tackles the complexities of love, loss, Prince, power, desire, and race with the kick of a mule in My Pinup. Als explores the downtown queer nightclub scene, the AIDS crisis, Prince’s ass in tight pants, an ill-fated peach pie, Dorothy Parker, and his desire for true love. 

Long Live Montero Tour 

Lil Nas X

Opens September 6

In his debut world tour, openly gay and Grammy award-winning musician Lil Nas X will open his Long Live Montero Tour on September 6, 2022, in Detroit. The “Industry Baby” singer will play 28 dates on the international tour that will close in Barcelona, Spain on November 17. The Georgia native will return home to Atlanta for two dates at the Coca-Cola Roxy from September 27-28. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 

Marvel Studios 

Release Date: November 11, 2022

The highly anticipated Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever from director Ryan Coogler is slated for a November release. The second installment in the franchise follows Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), as they fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.

Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan

Darryl Pinckney 

Release Date: October 25, 2022

Darryl Pinckney arrived at Columbia University in New York City in the early 1970s and had the opportunity to enroll in Elizabeth Hardwick’s creative writing class at Barnard. It changed his life. Yet the intellectual and artistic freedom that Pinckney observed on West Sixty-seventh Street conflicted with the demands of his politically minded family and their sense of the unavoidable lessons of black history. Through his memories of the city and of Hardwick, we see the emergence and evolution of Pinckney himself as a writer in the pages of Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan.

My Government Means To Kill Me

Rasheed Newson 

Release Date: August 23, 2022

Television writer, showrunner, and executive producer (“Bel-Air”) Rasheed Newson has hit the literary scene with his debut novel My Government Means To Kill Me. A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story, following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s New York City. 

“I think a lot of times when we do works of art about the AIDS epidemic, you would assume that no one laughed, you would assume that no one found any joy, that no one had any hot sex,” Newson tells Bustle. “The truth is those things continue, no matter what we’re going through, and I don’t think they’re frivolous. I think they’re really beautiful. I think they’re signs of resilience. I think they’re signs of rebellion.”