How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity is an anthology of LGBTQ short stories for young adults edited by American author Michael Cart. It was first published in 2009. The anthology contains an introduction by Cart, 11 short stories, and one novella by acclaimed lesbian and gay authors. The book was a Lambda Literary Award finalist for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature. Booklist added the work to its Rainbow List 2010, a bibliography of young adult books which include significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning content.

Contents

The anthology contains an introduction by editor Michael Cart, and the 12 stories. Cart's six-page introduction declares the theme of the anthology to be "what it might mean to be gay, lesbian, or transgender." The introduction introduces each author, briefly describes their story entry, and provides a very brief note about how the story confronts the concept of sexual identity. Three stories feature transgender characters, and two explore how nationality and language barriers interact with sexual orientation. Most of the stories are written from the perspective of people in their late teens or 20s. The title of the anthology is taken from David Levithan's short story, "A Word From the Nearly Distant Past", which is the first short story in the book: "He has no idea how beautiful the ordinary becomes once it disappears." The short stories in the book are:

Critical reception

A review in the School Library Journal called the anthology "refreshing" and chose the stories by Lanagan and Maguire. The review cited the main character in William Sleator's "Fingernail" as "compelling", and said Ron Koertge's "My Life as a Dog" contained "an ingenious metaphor for coming out". Kirkus Reviews concluded that the book contained " [p] rovocative, quality content." The journal cited Shanower's "Happily Ever After" and Block's "My Virtual World" as the best stories in the collection. Reviewer Gillian Engberg, writing in Booklist, found the experimentation in narrative styles "inventive" and the stories "raw [and] moving", and concluded the anthology was "a groundbreaking addition to young-adult literature". Erin Williams, reviewing the book of the PFLAG National Blog, found the collection "unique" because "...the stories vary from spiritually philosophical to personal histories to comic strips—all dealing with teen GLBT experiences."