Edited by Robert C. Evans, an I.B. Young Professor of English at Auburn University at Montgomery, Critical Insights: LGBTQ Literature presents a genre of literature that is produced by (or especially relevant to) lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender persons, “queers,” intersexuals, and/or asexual people and this title focuses primarily on American literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such literature has long existed and has sometimes even existed openly, especially in ancient Greece and Rome. Only very recently, however, has study of such literature become widespread and prominent. Writing that was, for many centuries, often ignored, shunned, banned, or even destroyed is now freely produced and freely discussed. This book mostly emphasizes authors who have composed in English or who (like Cavafy) have enormously influenced English-language writers. 

This volume features studies of works on LGBTQ literature such as Frederick S. Roden’s “E.M. Forster’s Maurice: A Roadmap to the First “Gay” Novel in English”, Lorna Raven Wheeler’s “The Queer Collaboration: Angelina Weld Grimke and the Birth Control Movement, and “New” Gay Poems by Cavafy by editor, Robert C. Evans. Also included is an introductory essay—“About This Volume”—as well as five critical contexts essays that begin by introducing the genre from the late 1890s to the present, a list of Works in the LGBTQ Literature Genre, a complete Bibliography, an About the Editor section, a list of Contributors, and a thorough Index.

Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources:

• About This Volume
• Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays
• Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays
• Further Readings
• Detailed Bibliography
• Detailed Bio of the Editor
• General Subject Index

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