Lez Liberty Lit: Boredom Banana Bread
The relationships between boredom, work, art, pandemic, and banana bread; the bourgeois romance of pandemic isolation; read books about “disreputable women” by women writers and more.
Things I Read That I Loved #312: The Key Word is “Oneself,” Which Is Irresistible To 20-Year-Olds
Topics include YouTuber adoptions, romance novels, moldy jam, Sarah Schulman, the future of the fashion business is sweatpants, supermarket sweep and so much more!
8 Queer YA Novels With Coming of Age Hope to Relive Alice Wu’s “The Half of It”
Queer YA novels with themes similar to Alice Wu’s already beloved movie: falling in love through letter writing, figuring out your queer identity, keeping secrets, new friendships, small towns, and slowly getting to new your new girl crush.
Lez Liberty Lit: Traditional Vocabulary Is Defunct
Raven Leilani’s Luster and the new vocabulary for morality, how lesbian pulp fiction made one essayist feel normal, a ton of new memoirs and more.
Lez Liberty Lit: Running on Queer Time
What do we do with unthinkable thoughts in the time of covid? Plus: how crime fiction enables police brutality, zines and self-discovery, celebrating the Clueless anniversary, every book you’ll want to read for the next five months and more.
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: July Is a Black Unicorn
I’m still angry. Breonna Taylor’s murderers still walk free. Let’s be real, they’re probably running around without masks. Audre Lorde’s sense of restlessness and barely concealed fury are evident. But so, too, is her unwavering belief in our magic.
8 Great Queer Scandinavian Books, from Tender Novels to Supernatural Horror
This list includes a variety of different genres. The only requirements were a main queer woman or non-binary character, written by a Nordic / Scandinavian author, and set in a Nordic / Scandinavian country or featuring a Nordic / Scandinavian protagonist. Enjoy!
It Should Always Include Lube: Talking with A. Andrews About “A Quick and Easy Guide to Sex & Disability”
A. Andrews’ comic A Quick and Easy Guide to Sex and Disability is a well-written, thoughtful, and enjoyable guide that I strongly recommend to all disabled and able-bodied people alike
Things I Read That I Love #311: As If I Were a Train and the Last Page Was Anna Karenina
Topics include Dollar Stores, Black media, Peak comfort TV, a 16-year-old model in the 90s, Hamilton, racial disparities in coronavirus cases, Ziwe Fumudoh, the primaries and so much more!
Lez Liberty Lit: Values-Driven Art Making
The past and future of trans narratives, a new Black-owned bookstore in the Twin Cities, updates on everyone’s pandemic diaries and more.
Tana Wojczuk’s “Lady Romeo” Profiles Shakespearean Actress Charlotte Cushman, Leading Man of the 19th Century
What kind of choose-your-own-adventure occurs when a queer lady with an unbending will and a penchant for leaping about onstage with a dagger strapped to her thigh is born in 1816 and refuses to espalier herself to convention? Tana Wojczuk’s “Lady Romeo” would like to tell you.
Glennon Doyle’s “Untamed”: A Gay Love Story About a Grown-Ass Woman Who Does What the F*ck She Wants
“There. She. Is.” Glennon wrote in her new memoir, Untamed, when she recalled the moment Abby Wambach entered her life. I assumed that would be the central conflict of Untamed. And in some ways it is — but not the ways I expected.
How to Actually Accept Help from People Who Love You: An Excerpt from “The Art of Showing Up”
When someone I know is dealing with a difficult situation, I typically feel extremely “Put me in, coach!!!” But when I am the one in a difficult spot? Well, then, thanks so much for offering but I’m perfectly fine to handle this on my own!!! The fact is, asking for/accepting help is incredibly difficult for a lot of us—even those of us who know, logically, that no one can get through life alone.
Rosalie Knecht’s Vera Kelly Is Not A Mystery, But Is a Gay Noir Must-Read
There’s another kind of revolution happening within this sequel, and that’s where Knecht really blows the doors off the noir genre.
Lez Liberty Lit: Just Say No to a Coronavirus Novel
The problem with new anti-racist book clubs, 50 Black-owned bookstores to support, writing good sex scenes and more.
“Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the 21st Century” Centers the Wisdom of Disabled People
How many times have you heard that we’re “in a new world” recently? “Disability Visibility” challenges us to consider what a world with disability at its core can look like.
8 Speculative Fiction Books by Black Authors about Black Futures for Imagining a New World
At this moment in time with uprisings against anti-Blackness happening in the US and all over the world, it feels urgent to focus on Black authors who are imagining Black futures. Plus, it was Octavia Butler’s birthday on June 22!
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: June’s Uses of Anger
We are in the middle of a revolution. My Black woman’s anger is here to signal a necessary sea change. Understand that all of our freedoms are bound up in one another.
Check Out the Cover & New Excerpt of Malinda Lo’s Forthcoming “Last Night at the Telegraph Club”!
Malinda Lo’s work has been incredibly relevant and sustaining to this site and this community, and her voice on current leaps forward in lesbian cultural production remains unparalleled. Which is why we’re more excited than we can say to partner with PenguinTeen to debut the cover and a new excerpt from Malinda’s latest and most personal book, Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
Lez Liberty Lit: Bodies Are Not Metaphors
How to find a queer incarcerated penpal, why it is correct to capitalize Black, “The Vanishing Half,” “You Exist Too Much,” living in the Cool Zone, it’s time for publishing to ditch its conservative authors and more.