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.
EXCLUSIVE: Staceyann Chin Performs Her Poem “Crossfire” with Video Artist Sekiya Dorsett
Chin’s work is invaluable always, and in the current moment. We’re glad, then, to bring you this new and gripping performance of the book’s title poem, from Haymarket Books and directed by Sekiya Dorsett.
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: May’s Burst of Light
“I am going to write fire until it comes out my ears, my eyes, my noseholes — everywhere. Until it’s every breath I breathe. I’m going to go out like a fucking meteor!”
Trans Representation in YA Fiction Is Changing, But How Much?
We are in a crucial moment where we can change trans representation in YA and do it in a way that doesn’t leave anyone behind.
6 Queer Authors on What It’s Like to Launch Their Books in a Pandemic
If you’re looking to escape reality for a little while, look no further than this year’s absolute bumper crop of queer novels. As late spring and summer literary events are postponed and cancelled, writers are looking for ways to connect virtually with readers and the publishing community – and finding ways to keep their creativity flowing in a difficult time.
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: April’s Arithmetics of Distance
This is dedicated to those who are just trying to make it through every day. It’s been gratifying on an almost cellular level to find that the queen mother Audre Lorde can so frequently speak to the times and places in which we find ourselves. Her final book of poetry, “The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance,” is no exception.
Read a F*cking Book Club: Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” Offers Persistence, Painstaking Reality
We finished reading “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler. At its core, the book is about embracing truth and change, which is especially true now — when our world seems much closer to Butler’s science fiction. We’d love for you to talk to us about it!
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: March’s Poetry Is Not a Luxury
One of the biggest lessons of Audre Lorde’s work is the strength of coalitional politics. I need a movement that can hold my anger. I need a movement that can hold my contradictions. I shouldn’t have to qualify my rage when speaking out about injustice.
Read A F*cking Book Club: Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”
Come get dystopian and read “Parable of the Sower” with us!
Year of Our (Audre) Lorde: February’s Revolutionary Hope
I’m pairing Audre Lorde’s 1984 conversation with James Baldwin and arguably her best-known speech, “The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” in hopes of exploring how our power and freedom lie in embracing our differences as the source of our strength.
Danny Lavery on Queer Wanting, Difficult Experiences, and Oh Yes His New Book
Trying desperately to want less than what one truly requires — and the goodness that comes from giving up that ghost — is a prominent theme in “Something That May Shock and Discredit You,” Daniel Lavery’s new collection of essays, out Feb. 11.
Building Relationships Is Thriving: Interview with Meenadchi
Conflict is meant to happen. Relationships are strengthened by conflict. What are our capacities to engage with conflict in a way that doesn’t destroy us, but help us better understand each other?
“I Am the Terrorist I Must Disarm”: An Interview with Staceyann Chin
I was in high school when I first saw Staceyann Chin perform, barefoot and incensed. She was fearless in her rage, her sexuality, her eloquence. Now, I feel the same reading her as I felt watching all those years ago — as if I’m being granted permission.
Is the Resurgence of Feminist Bookstores in the South a Moment or a Movement?
Visit five feminist bookstores across the south east that are creating community building and political organizing space as well as curating feminist literature written by authors from different backgrounds holding often marginalized identities.
Toni Morrison Has Died at 88; When I Was 27, She Saved My Life
Maybe that’s why black women love Toni Morrison. She laid bare the kind of secrets that we barely even whispered to each other, the shames that we buried underneath our quick tongues and sisterhood hugs and fashion slays. She wrote for us, and for that she is ours.
Are You the Heroine of a Tamora Pierce Novel?
Are you a regular adult human queer person, or have you been the fictional tomboy heroine of a beloved fantasy series this whole time? Only one way to find out.
The Perfect Queer Poem: For Facing Our Enemies
We stay open, even when our minds are swayed by bitterness and despair, because our queer lives depend on knowing that we don’t have to live like this. We turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
The Perfect Queer Poem: For When it Doesn’t Matter if You Want to Be Her or F*ck Her
H.D. sometimes had a fraught relationship with her own bisexuality, feeling pulled towards either lesbianism or heterosexuality rather than feeling her queerness as an integrated whole. Reconciling her bisexuality was a creative project for her.
The Perfect Queer Poem: When You Need to Find Your Body
A gut feeling is intuition, sure, but it’s also something that announces HERE is the body, NOW is the body, RIGHT NOW.