Lez Liberty Lit: The Word of the Year
The word of the year is… depends on who you ask. Plus, being very gay online, a trans-only writing class, getting back into journalling and more.
The word of the year is… depends on who you ask. Plus, being very gay online, a trans-only writing class, getting back into journalling and more.
It’s doubly oppressive that we’re denied care and then left to fulfill the care needs of each other with our own depleted resources. Transantagonism is a global pandemic of indifference and hatred – but there’s no vaccine coming. If you were looking for answers, they aren’t here. If you want to ponder the nuance and difficulty of care, though – dive into Trans Care.
It has felt hard to state how much I’ve been missing my family lately. But Audre Lorde and Pat Parker’s relationship is a testament to the life-affirming power of queer kinship. Their enduring love attests to the power and beauty of Black queer sisterhood.
Plain Bad Heroines is a story so much about storytelling that it feels almost obscene to point it out. “This is story-telling, people!” it seems to shout, in the voice of The Happenings at Brookhants movie director Bo Dhillon, calling “cut” on a disastrous scene that somehow fits perfectly into his plan.
Why literature is so self-aware, living like an artist, caring for others without destroying yourself and more.
A look into the history — and present! — of mid-century lesbian pulp fiction.
Topics include Far Right literature, the Spelling Bee game, influencers traveling during COVID, the pandemic DIY boom, the Folgers Incest Ad, Lean Cuisine, recovery, faking illness on GoFundMe and truly a whole lot more! Like a lot. Sorry it’s been a minute.
What is Afrofuturism, readings on climate and clean energy transition, a new anthology of radical trans poetics and more.
To be Black in this world is to be intimate with a kind of living death. It’s an intimacy no one craves, and yet Black people know better than most that Audre Lorde speaks truth to power when she says “we were never meant to survive.”
Eight trans-inclusive fantasy books for the Harry Potter fans , from all-gender Quidditch to trans boys summoning ghosts, there’s a book here for every Potterhead!
The first time I encountered a book with queer characters must have been James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. At the time I remember feeling afraid of its intensity. Now it’s one of my most returned-to books along with Lydia Davis’ The End of the Story.
Our ongoing adult sex ed requires a little research. These books on queer sex address the questions you didn’t get to ask in health class.
What happens when literary events move online, why we’re obsessed with other people’s bookshelves, lots of horror reading lists and more.
Ultimately, Zigzags was fueled by the nostalgia of all the places I’ve loved and left and missed. There’s a lot of flirting and parties and witty banter, but it’s very much about the necessary and heartbreaking recognition of when it’s time to move on.
Whether you’re interested in witches as a horror trope, a doorway to sex positivity, a topic of historical exploration, or rich characters and ideas in fiction or poetry, at least one of these witch books will bring something into your life!
“But if Steven Universe gets a gay wedding, then every show is going to want a gay wedding!” “‘YES!’ I said. ‘GOOD! WHY NOT???'”
Carnal Knowledge is full of the truths you wish you’d learned from your hip older sister if your hip older sister happened to read a lot of feminist literature.
Why private eyes are watching you, watching everything (jk) (probably); computers are machines; banned books to read by writers of color; Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the first undocumented person to ever be nominated for a National Book Foundation Award; and more.
“I wish I had these books when I was 15. I needed permission. I needed somebody to tell me, ‘You’re ok.’ If I had had one place to go, one book in my hand, known one person, I could have avoided a lot of trouble.”
I am safe nowhere, the Black women in my family of origin and family of choice are safe nowhere. It’s a fact we’ve known but one that feels all the more threatening in the wake of continuing violent injustice for Black women.