“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.”
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.
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.
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.
Discussing race in a culture hostile to discussing race, transnational trans characters, a book you can drink and more.
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!
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.
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.
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.
This past month I spent over 80 hours driving long distances in a car and another 40 hours organizing and packing things into boxes, which meant I didn’t get a lot of reading done — BUT I SURE DID LISTEN TO A LOT OF PODCASTS! Here are some episodes for you to check out before we return to our regularly scheduled programming.
How the representation of queerness is changing in African writing; new Shirley Jackson and Dr. Seuss; teen magazines; sexism in publishing; and more.
Abortion, the actual thing and not the Political Issue, can be really difficult to talk about, and that’s exactly what makes such an easily approachable book like this so necessary.
“If you adore any of Tea’s other books, you’ll find Mermaid in Chelsea Creek to be every bit as transgressive and illuminating. If you ever escaped into the magical realms created by J.K. Rowling or Tamora Pierce, or if you got hooked on what dystopian YA like the Hunger Games had to say about class and privilege, you’ll relish Mermaid’s intriguing mixture of magic and social realism.”
This book is jam packed with awesome. Unsurprisingly, so is Maggie Nelson.
Poet Leah Horlick’s book of poems For Your Own Good uses the symbolic language of the tarot as a vehicle to express some of the most traumatic experiences of her life. These poems tell the story of an abusive relationship and its aftermath, using tarot cards and tarot symbolism to do so.
Topics include porn stars, the murder of an unarmed homeless black man, The Runaways, Ta-Nehisi Coates, brand-led fake holidays and DigiTour.
Recent books featuring queer people of color, travelling and reading, reading and your brain, your favorite curse word and more. Plus coverage of the Harper Lee coverage.
“If you have a cherished copy of Sisterhood is Powerful on your shelf, or a fascination with the ways tragedies are remembered and forgotten, you’ll enjoy this book.”
Topics include lithium, a terrible cult, Taylor Swift, immigrant detention, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ letter to his son, LGBT Pride and The Awl.
Zines and sci-fi by people of color, queer magical realism, everything’s an essay, rewriting the diary and more.