Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Lez Liberty Lit! This one is short because it turns out that simply taking a lighter few weeks isn’t enough to recover from chronic exhaustion and burnout! It took me six hours to do a single load of laundry the other day. You’re all doing great.

At Xtra, Eli Cugini writes about the troubled golden age of trans literature, including how coverage of successful trans books can mask the challenges of getting published, pay differences between trans and cis writers, and how cis writers continue to profit from transphobia:

“It can be frustrating to see journalists celebrate singular trans writers for their books’ ability to educate cis people, rather than thinking of their work as art independent of cis approval. When books by trans people get reviewed, we hear a lot about their “originality,” “importance” and “bravery,” and far less about their influences and craft. Such uninspired reflections can mean that trans authors’ connections to the literary world around them remain tenuous and provisional; they’re an imported curiosity, rather than a necessary part. When we’re missing from the discussion, nobody notices. Nobody asks who might be keeping us out, or why. Nobody asks why the same rich histories and cultures that inform our books suddenly don’t exist when it’s time to paint trans people as a cultural menace.

‘I really hope we can move on from being surprised that trans literature is a thing,’ Canadian author Casey Plett tells me. ‘I would love to move past that… and instead see more nuanced, complicated, real criticism.’ So, what might that real criticism look like? What would it be like to talk about trans lit in its history and context, rather than just applauding politely at its existence?”

“Too much free time isn’t actually bad for you.”

Today is a good day to preorder Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League by Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Arcangelo.

There is a generational divide in emoji use.

Artistic success requires a hot streak.

Read these books this fall and also these. Read these flash fiction collections. Read these seven books that grapple with memory and loss. Read these innovative new queer stories.

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