BIPOC Books for Nonfiction November

This year I decided I wanted to pursue a hobby and learn something new, so I did something I’ve been saying I’d do for years. That is, I enrolled in a herbalism education and drug manufacturing program. Although I learned a lot, I always knew I needed to seek out additional resources to tap into the aspects of plant medicine that are rooted in my particular culture. Latin herbalism A guide to the art of modern curanderismo and the rich history behind its herbal remedies, botanical medicine, holistic, spiritual, and more. I have my copy in hand and it’s beautiful!

This was the first time I had read Caro de Robertis, the Uruguayan-American author of Cantola and The Palace of Eros, as well as an award-winning translator of Latin American literature. A collection of testimonies of self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival from queer elders of color, this book is a must-read and a necessary record of many lived experiences and hard-won progress. This is a love letter to queer history, an inspiring, hilarious, poignant, and wonderful reminder to cherish the wisdom of those who witnessed it, helped shape it, and gave us space to imagine a future in which we are all free. I had to stop and rethink several times, especially the passage about family discovery and release. This is one of my favorite reads of 2025.

When someone told Julissa Arce that she sounded like a white girl in high school, she took it as a compliment (#RelatableContent). I spent years flattening aspects of my identity to fit in as an illegal alien. Eventually, she began to expose the lie that assimilation leads to belonging and success, and demanded that this assimilation be rejected in favor of a more complete acceptance of one’s cultural identity, language, and heritage. As someone who has always been told that I look like a white girl, this book struck me as dirty, but it also cracked my heart open.

In this darkly funny memoir essay, Gomez shows how he and his working-class queer Latinx friends used Florida wisdom to escape poverty. I mean, they zigzagged from place to place, executed this plan, picked up that job just to be successful. —Erica Eseifedi

Cooper writes about birdwatching and nature in an engaging and inspiring way that makes you want to run outside. Even if you’ve never been interested in birds, you’ll love this book. And Cooper is more than just a birdwatcher (and his viral internet moment), he talks about his life as a gay black man in America, his time working at Marvel, his early life, and more. —Liberty Hardy

I have pursued the heights of reading. How far does light reach? Since 2022, I have finally found the joy of that strange science again. forest euphoria. Mycologist and author Patricia Ononiu Kaissian found acceptance and exploration in the natural landscape of her childhood in the Hudson Valley. As an adult studying science, she found her own strangeness and neural ramifications expressed in the plants, animals, and fungi she studied. forest euphoria The film is a gentle and moving exploration of queer experiences reflected in nature, from community-building in mushrooms to intersex courtship in slugs to the transgender identity of eels. Kaisian weaves her deeply personal memories, nature and science writing, and queer theory into this gorgeous, life-affirming book. —Susie Dumond

We finally have a complete, researched biography of Marsha P. Johnson, a queer and feminist icon who fought through her activist presence and activism to illuminate the Black transgender experience. Tourmaline is a black transgender woman herself, a filmmaker, and an activist who has worked to make transgender history visible. This excellent and much-anticipated biography will become a must-have for feminist, intersectional, and queer libraries in the years to come. —Leah Rachel von Essen