Hi and welcome to this week’s Lez Liberty Lit!
“Can you write a novel as a group?”
We read for good sentences.
“One never sees a five-paragraph essay in the wild. Could it hold its own in a mature piece of writing? Constraints can lead to creativity, right? Isn’t that what poetic forms are about?” A perfect five-paragraph essay? Does that even exist?
“Area woman heads to town and impulse-buys entire bookstore.”
It’s not just you; books are more expensive now.
“Where are all the memoirs about abortion?,” asks Emily Heiden at Electric Literature:
“After combing Google, scouring bookstore sites, and asking groups of nonfiction writers online and in-person, I have found a total of four books in which a pro-choice author devotes the whole story to her pregnancy, abortion, and its aftermath. They are: May Cause Love: An Unexpected Journey of Enlightenment After Abortion by Kassi Underwood (2017; HarperOne), Poor Your Soul by Mira Ptacin (2016; Soho Press), Deep Salt Water by Marianne Apostolides (2017; BookThug), and Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict by Irene Vilar (2009; Other Press).
Let me repeat: after much searching, I found four, all published in the past decade. Why is this the case? Why are these stories still so untold in contemporary nonfiction?”
“[I]t can be hard for me to tell when my work is motivated by drive, or fear. Or is it both? Is there a difference between the two?” writes Katie Heaney at the Cut.
“[C]utting the gas and conserving the cooking water (I use mine to water herbs) are things I add to my to do list: avoiding and reusing plastics, filling the vermicompost bin, freezing that stale bread for something, sometime… But Fisher, an elegant, witty writer, was as aware as anyone that thrift is always in dire need of rebranding,” writes Abby Walthausen at Electric Literature.
Read these books about surviving under late capitalism. Read these small press books. Read these stories about journalists. Read these 20 recent post-apocalyptic books. Read these books this fall and also these. Read these novels about artists. Read these eight books about toxic school friendships. Read these books when patriarchy’s got you down.
Thanks for always putting in the effort to find good and interesting things to read!