A Study of Queer Women in New Adult Fiction

Literary representation is an important resource for minority students on college campuses, especially for queer women; I wished to not only better understand the benefits of representation of queer women ages 18-25, but see what representation there is. I chose to examine several queer anthologies (preferably for queer women) to see what short stories there were with main characters that fit into these demographics. Furthermore, I created a list of the best short stories to determine what the current writers are doing well, and what can be improved. I determined that queer women experience their intersecting identities of gender and sexuality in a unique way, and that literature serves to validate and better understand their own experiences, making queer women’s literature incredibly important as a resource. Furthermore, such literature serves as a resource for non-queer/non-female readers and teachers to learn about queer women’s experiences, and combat heterosexism and cissexism. Of the surveyed stories, ten were featured in the “best works” list. Their greatest contributing feature was the use of the characters’ identities to enhance, but not encompass, the plot and characterization. These stories need to improve to include more diverse representation (e.g. bisexual, pansexual, and asexual women), and better representation of college life. Ultimately, this work serves to encourage queer women to read and write about characters that reflect their own lives, and encourage non-identifying persons to explore queer women’s literature and include better representation of queer women in their writing