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literature

headshot of kamala puligandla sitting in an arm chair with an inviting but stern look on her face. she wears glasses and has a mohawk and is wearing a maroon t shirt. her image is beside the cover of her novel, Zigzags. the cover is a graphic that features two queer women lounging beside Lake Michigan as the sun sets into the purple water.
Books First Person

Kamala’s First Novel Zigzags Is Out Today!

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.

By Kamala Puligandla| October 19, 2020 | 13 Comments
on the left, Zaina Arafat, a Palestinian American woman in a light blue tank top looks at the camera. on the left the cover of her book, You Exist Too Much β€” a typographic cover on top of an abstract painting with swipes of lavender, green, blue, and gold
Books Herstory

Queer Arabs Taking Up Space: An Interview With Zaina Arafat

Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much is the bi Arab romance novel l didn’t know I needed. We chat about the book, first-gen traumas, sexual ambiguity and Arab parents.

By Sarah Yanni| September 21, 2020 | 7 Comments
Film

Observations on Heaven from Dante’s Paradiso That Also Apply to These Stills of Linda Hamilton

In a literary and historicist sense, Dante’s Divine Comedy was a mulit-volume narrative poem that advanced some notable theological suppositions about the afterlife; in another, more honest sense, though, it’s about what a fucking unreal silver fox Linda Hamilton is.

By Rachel| October 9, 2019 | 18 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Checking Out These Hot Literary Rivalries

Getting real about the financial realities of writing, creative forces of subculture, K-pop, the branded ephemera of Frida Khalo, and shedding books to survive academia.

By Carolyn Yates| March 28, 2019 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Investigating Creative Sustainability

A website that generates short stories based on phone numbers, the feminist Western, financially sustaining a creative life, books to read before “The L Word” comes back, and more.

By Carolyn Yates| February 28, 2019 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Writing Honestly About The Body

“Why are we so quick to conclude that marginalized writers’ work is autobiographical?” Plus books about love triangles, a secret lesbian code, why you need to start writing letters to trans people in prison and more.

By Carolyn Yates| February 14, 2019 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Full of Its Past Selves

A humble argument for not counting how many books you read. Plus: Lin-Manuel Miranda saved a bookstore, Mari Kondo doesn’t actually want you to get rid of all your books, and more.

By Carolyn Yates| January 17, 2019 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Going South

Finding queer southern lit, how the queer writers of the ’60s and ’70s shape Patrisse Cullors’s political work, the best of 2018 book lists and more.

By Carolyn Yates| December 20, 2018 | 3 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Toxic

The word of the year, the curiosity crisis in schools, the art of seeing, and more.

By Carolyn Yates| November 22, 2018 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Against Prison Book Bans

Limiting access to books in prisons is bad for everyone, what happens when you wreck a library book, the best time to write, and more!

By Carolyn Yates| November 8, 2018 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Madness, Witches, and Burned Queer Books

A literature of women’s madness, witchy books to read right now, why buying books won’t save independent bookstores and more.

By Carolyn Yates| October 25, 2018 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit Is Into Unlikable Women

Loving unlikable women in literature, talking about horror, new poetry by Ursula K. Le Guin, how to start making zines, and more.

By Carolyn Yates| October 11, 2018 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Everything Is Content

How feminist bookstores changed history, why public libraries are getting less classist, mental models for queerness and more.

By Carolyn Yates| September 27, 2018 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Cannot Resist the Urge to Clean

An everyday trans literature, discipline and creative freedom, fall books previews, lesbian feminist sci-fi and more.

By Carolyn Yates| September 13, 2018 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Kink and History

A new history of BDSM. Plus women in translation, the Asian and Asian American literature explosion and more.

By Carolyn Yates| August 30, 2018
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Literary Manspreading, Now for Women Too

Fighting words about literary organizational systems. Plus animals that break into libraries, writers on the books that inspire them, new poetry from Indigenous women and more.

By Carolyn Yates| August 16, 2018 | 4 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Library Lovin’

Why conservatives are afraid of libraries, what to read that’s out in August, why writing matters in an age of despair and more.

By Carolyn Yates| August 2, 2018 | 3 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Anything Can Be A Beach Read

Tarot and psychotherapy, reading anything at any time of year, give yourself permission not to finish that book you don’t really want to finish and more.

By Carolyn Yates| July 19, 2018 | 3 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: The Queer Erotic Debut Novel of the Summer

How queer writers create queer stories, the history of writing as a history of book burning, queer bookstores to visit and more.

By Carolyn Yates| July 5, 2018 | 2 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Queer People Deserve Happy Endings Too

It’s fun to delete stuff. Plus: feminist zine culture, a Lumberjanes quiz, the 2017 VIDA count results and more.

By Carolyn Yates| June 21, 2018 | 8 Comments
Books

Lez Liberty Lit: Language as Control

Language is a way to exercise control. Also some Pride reading lists, three Latinx zines, dying languages and more.

By Carolyn Yates| June 7, 2018 | 3 Comments
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