Things That I Read That I Love #186: As If They Had Just Been Waiting For Us To Ask
Topics include not having children, Nicki Minaj, the black family in the age of mass incarceration, Bernie Sanders, Ina Garten, the Tonys, a gay commune and more!
Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Meredith Maran’s “A Theory of Small Earthquakes”
A Theory of Small Earthquakes is a novel about bisexuality, family, and secrets, with a narrative that’s quite different from the typical work of women’s fiction.
Lez Liberty Lit #81: All Eileen Myles All The Time
Eileen Myles is having a moment (okay she’s always been having a moment but people finally noticed); a new trans poetry literary journal; queer books to read this fall and more.
Things I Read That I Love #185: You Don’t Choose Her But She Finds You
Topics include the Slender Man murders, girls’ games, multilevel marketing, how to write about trans women, scars, Disneyland/Dismaland, Kony 2012 and moar!
Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Meliza Bañales’ “Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific”
Can you resist a title as snarky as Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific? I couldn’t, especially when the book was written by spoken-word champion and award-winning filmmaker Meliza Bañales.
Fool’s Journey: “She Is Sitting in the Night” is the Queer Tarot Book You’ve Been Waiting For
It’s a queer tarot guidebook and a celebration of an 80s feminist tarot deck rolled into one; a book of beautiful and radical tarot card meanings, and a conversation across generations of feminism and LGBTQ politics.
Lez Liberty Lit #80: Stories Are What You Make Them
The Hitchhiker’s Guide and loving problematic things; The Argonauts and embracing but not constraining queerness; writing about race and representation; queer books with bi characters and more.
Relevant To Your Interests: Books About Hackers
I’m reading a book about hackers right now and feel like maybe some of y’all want to join me. Just a feeling I had.
Drawn to Comics: Kate Beaton Tells Us What Would Happen if Lois Lane Met Wonder Woman
Kate Beaton talks to Autostraddle about why Ida Wells is her hero, the fascinating Filles de Roi, and obviously Wonder Woman.
Things I Read That I Love #184: It Seemed Everyone, Even The Moon, Was Laughing and Drunk.
Topics include working at Disney, the real lives of Sugar Daddies, Michael Derrick Hudson in context, the ghost town of Bodie, Live Aid, an essay that made me cry and so much more!
Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Colleen McKee’s “Nine Kinds of Wrong”
I’d known for a while that my colleague Colleen McKee had a book out, and one day I bought a copy from her in the break room. When I learned that it combined memoir, poetry, and fiction, I had one burning question: “Who let you do that?!”
Drawn to Comics: Maggie Thrash’s Debut “Honor Girl” Captures Teenage Camp Queerness
“So much of being a girl in this society is about people trying to CONTAIN you. When I think about camp, I get this gut feeling, remembering the sky above my head. No walls, no parents. During the school year, you’re just trying to survive. Camp is a chance to be someone freer- an actual person.”
Lez Liberty Lit #79: Still Waiting For My Owl
New Eileen Myles, students who don’t want to read Fun Home, Hogwarts updates, asexual characters in YA, a review of the IKEA catalog and more.
Things I Read That I Love #183: Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable Is A Very Effective Way To Be A Human
Topics include needing diverse books, prison food, Tinder As Video Game, the scam of the Art Academy of San Francisco, a triple murder in Florida, sorority life and so much more.
Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Rae Theodore’s “Leaving Normal: Adventures in Gender”
A smart and eloquent memoir about becoming butch, Leaving Normal: Adventures in Gender will resonate if you have a proud copy of Stone Butch Blues on your shelf, or listen to “Ring of Keys” from the Fun Home musical on repeat.
Lez Liberty Lit #79: Books on Books on Books
Discussing race in a culture hostile to discussing race, transnational trans characters, a book you can drink and more.
Things I Read That I Love #182: In The Morning, I Was Eating Peanuts, I Saw A Light
Topics include Issa Rae, mistreatment of workers on H-2 visas, the disaster rescue business, Nevada, Tinder, Hiroshima, the women assaulted by Bill Cosby and more!
Hidden Gems of Queer Lit: Jennica Harper’s “What It Feels Like for a Girl”
What It Feels Like for a Girl centers on two 13-year-olds who meet in gym class: the narrator, addressed in a piercing second person that has the effect of melding our stories with hers, and precocious Angel, who guides her through a labyrinth of sexual exploration via magazines and videos.
Read A F*cking Book: Tanwi Nandini Islam’s “Bright Lines” Adds Color To LGBTQ Fiction
In a multigenerational, transcontinental tale, Bright Lines weaves together issues of gender and sexuality across cultures, migration, in/dependence, family secrets, conflict and tragedy, and well, botany.
Read A F*cking Book: The Right Side Of History
These 30 essays provide important context and understanding of individuals, movements and moments that formed the greater whole of a long fight for queer liberation, one that is far from over but which has made incredible strides in just a few decades.