The Vagaries of Love: How Poetry and Queer Movements Give Each Other Names
For National Poetry Month, an ode to the queer poets who talk about their love, fight for justice, and helped me save myself.
Patricia Velásquez, Gay Latina Supermodel, Wants You To Live Your Truths: The Autostraddle Interview
The Venezuelan supermodel, actress and activist talks about her new memoir, coming out now vs. then, inspiring gay Latinas, the kinds of pastries she brought Sandra Bernhard years ago and working on set of The L Word.
Hey, Let’s All Read Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa!
Come join the Speakeasy Book Club as we quest for literary enlightenment and embiggen our collective minds.
Team Pick: Feminist Hacker Barbie
“Barbie: I Can Be A Computer Engineer,” remixed.
Jacqueline Woodson, Ursula LeGuin Reign Triumphant at the 65th National Book Awards
Out black lesbian Jacqueline Woodson wins in youth fiction, sci-fi gender pioneer Ursula LeGuin takes home an award for distinguished contributions to American letters and skewers capitalism and Lemony Snicket ruins the mood with racist jokes.
The Speakeasy Book Club Is Reading “Sister Outsider” And You Should Too!
The Speakeasy is starting a book club to read QTPOC-relevant books, and you’re all invited to join.
Dear Queer Diary: We Are What We Read
Are the pages of your journals festooned with book titles? Mine are.
National Poetry Slam 2014 Queerer Than All The Other Slams Forever
“This not just your average poetry reading with people standing stoically reading prose or page poetry. This is a rock show of poetry. This is aggression, fierceness, tenderness, passion, tears and jubilance.”
50 Shades of Non-Consent: Editing BDSM Erotica as a Queer Top
“The path of least resistance is to write off 50 Shades of Grey as harmless fluff, but frankly, after editing over one hundred novels full of distortions and abuse, I don’t think I could respect myself if I did so.”
If They Build A New Queer Bookstore, Will You Come
Listen up all queermos within striking distance of Philly! There’s a new bookstore coming your way — a very very queer bookstore with a café and art and all sorts of amazing things. And it’s being built from the ground up by community members Makella Craelius and Puppett.
2014 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced, Include Alison Bechdel, Imogen Binnie And More
This year’s Lambda Award winners were announced yesterday evening and now it’s time to read ALL OF THEM.
Home Decorating Tips for the Trend-Conscious Bookpocalypse Participant
Oh my stars and garters. You’d better find your pearls and start clutching, because winter is coming and the death of print is upon us. Here are some home decorating tips to help you stay on-trend during bookpocalypse.
Read a F*cking Book GIVEAWAY: Write Bloody Wants To Fill Your Heart With Poems
Write Bloody Publishing is giving away a stack of books to two lucky Autostraddle readers!
National Poetry Month: Sonya Renee Isn’t Sorry
“The work I do is all about how we make peace with the body, our own and other people’s bodies. I can’t have that conversation without talking about my queerness, or my blackness, or my size, or my mental health, or trans issues, or disability. It’s about everybody’s right to be on this planet.”
Dear Queer Diary: All The Feelings (and Alison Krauss)
When you’re happy/sad/grumpy/giggly/annoyed and you know it, write in your journal!
National Poetry Month: YaliniDream Opens Spaces and Hearts
I ended up taking advantage of the fact that I was on the margins. I used the power of invisibility to crack open spaces at the edges. The power of performance is impermanence — nobody could catch it and say “here’s proof of what she is saying or doing.”
National Poetry Month: Denice Frohman Slams Down Oppression With Survival Poetry
“Poetry calls us into ourselves. It’s asking you to be truthful and say whatever it is you need to say.”
National Poetry Month: Lauren Zuniga Will Lull You Awake
“I just started working on a piece that’s a mash up of Neil Degrasse Tyson and Nicki Minaj.”
Dear Queer Diary: Virginia Woolf Is My Homegirl
No, I do not know Virginia Woolf’s official stance on bras. However, let’s put it this way: she wrote that a woman needed five hundred pounds and a room of her own to write fiction—not five hundred pounds, a room of her own, and an uncomfortable, expensive, and otherwise constraining undergarment. Enough said.
Dear Queer Diary: Commonplace Books Should Be More Common
Craft “a salad of many herbs” for your reading and writing pleasure.