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Hi everyone! It’s Yashwina, back with my metal detector and all the reading material I’ve dug up on the literary internet over the last couple weeks. In honor of Autostraddle’s 13th birthday, I’ve been thinking about what I was reading when I was 13, and despite my fixations on classics like Jane Eyre and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, I keep coming back to how much I adored the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I maintain that there is something gay about this book; not exactly sure how, but I know it’s in there. This book was perfect for me as a serious, day-dreamy, awkwardly adamant kid, and I reread it at the end of every summer. What were y’all into at 13?
Alrighty, folks, here we go. On this week’s Rainbow Reading, we’ve got:
Shelf Care: Reviews, Essays, and other Things of Note
- Reading material the last couple weeks was understandably dominated by news about Ukraine, and this piece from MEL helped me contextualize the effect on queer Ukrainians and the efforts to support them.
- It’s also a good time to revisit this piece about the impact of Putin’s existing policies on queer Russians:
- Many many many congratulations to Torrey Peters, who won the PEN/Hemingway award for Detransition, Baby!
- I adored this essay from Electric Literature about having a complicated relationship with queer classic The Well of Loneliness
- Allegra Hyde’s Eleutheria is out now (and keep yer eyes peeled for a forthcoming review 👀) and I loved this essay she wrote in Poets & Writers about the craft of writing setting
- My literal favorite library has a new podcast exploring queer history through the lens of their archive holdings!
- Autostraddle’s beloved A. E. Osworth’s We Are Watching Eliza Bright is a finalist for an Oregon Book Award, along with Callum Angus’s breathtaking A Natural History of Transition ! 🥳
- This piece in Bustle has me revisiting and reevaluating my understanding of burnout
- This new essay about queerness, food, and sustenance dropped over at The Rumpus
- I loved this sweet roundup of fun queer history facts too — y’all know I’m a history nerd!
- From the archive: Queer and Jewish Identity Are the Heart of of “Where The Wild Things Are”
- Through March 22, Off Limits Press is accepting submissions of essays “exploring the intersection of queerness and the horror genre”
“Girls Can Kiss Now as a whole will definitely make many queers feel less alone, especially a specific kind of very online and very pop culture savvy millennial. There’s so much to engage with and so much to learn from, and the writing is fun, conversational, and truthful as all hell.”
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— Vanessa in her conversation with Jill Gutowitz about Jill’s new essay collection
Autocorrect: Books content from the last couple weeks at Autostraddle!
- Carmen reviewed Debbie Millman’s career-spanning Why Design Matters and reclaimed the longest-running podcast as queer culture
- Casey collected Eight Mystery Books With Bi+ Main Characters
- Vanessa celebrated the launch of “Girls Can Kiss Now” by Jill Gutowitz
Okay so like, it’s not strictly-speaking gay, but this thread about cats, creatures-that-are-distinctly-not-cats, and chilling in hammocks was a real bright spot in my week. I hope it delights you as much as you delight me.
That’s all she wrote, folks! If you’re a queer writer, particularly an early-career queer writer: I’d love to hear about the cool things you’re up to so that I can share links to your published essays, book reviews, short stories, poems, and longform features on LGBTQ+ topics! Please email me links for consideration at [email protected] with the subject line “Rainbow Reading Submission” — I’m an avid browser-tab-collector, and I especially want to hear from you if you’ve just landed your first publication or first major byline.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorite books. I think the gay vibe comes from a young woman coming into her own. LGBT folks are often forced into deeper introspection and self-conviction in order to be able to live our authentic lives and not be constricted by traditional expectations.
At 13 a few of the books I was obsessed with were: Harry Potter series, the Lost Years of Merlin series, and The Adventures of Blue Avenger. SCOTU-MSOT-FIOTU!
Aunt Sissy is the ally aunt we all wanted.
TRULY. Aunt Sissy is the best
I used to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn every year too! I reread it this fall actually for reasons of fanfiction, and it’s still great. Francie is surrounded by interesting, strong women.
13 would’ve been the tail end I think of rereading LM Montgomery to pieces, & the start of getting more into classics, but also like, Cynthia Voigt. Ooh and Katherine Paterson. I had her sign my falling-to-bits copy of Jacob Have I Loved when I met her in library school. I also loved historical fiction & cozy murders. I started reading all The Cat Who mysteries in middle school (and I don’t even like cats!)
Lots of great stuff as usual, thank you! In particular that Rumpus essay, dang – I’ve read lot of pieces about food and identity but this one really got me.
isn’t it a stunner!!! the rumpus editorial staff have been on a real hot streak lately, it sounds like they’ve got a lot of good stuff in their pipeline
OhhhhHHHH I adored Cynthia Voigt! I marathoned the Tillerman cycle winter of sixth grade and I’ve been planning a reread here — my favorite was A Solitary Blue!
I read a lot of R.L. Stine’s “Fear Street” series when I was in middle school, and other similar teen thriller/horror books. Christopher Pike is another author I remember. At the time they seemed sort of trashy and scandalous, which only made me like them more.
I also think it was either late middle school or early high school when I read V.C. Andrews for the first time. “Flowers in the Attic” is such a fucked up book but we were all obsessed with it.