We can look at a rainbow crosswalk, maybe take a selfie with it, and feel recognized or represented in some way, but it doesn’t actually create a space for queer or trans belonging in any real sense.
Dear Outsiders – Jenny Sadre-Orafai
Who lives in the beach town we visit every summer? Who works in, walks by, or rages at the souvenir shops?
Elixir reminds us of the fullness of life, of melody, never a straight line, but rather a round, a chorus joyfully repeated again and again.
I really don’t have a palate for total desolation in books. . . . So maybe as an unconscious decision I worked in these moments of hope or pockets of happiness that saved me from spiraling completely.
Saudade for a Breaking Heart – Kristen Lucia Renzi
We cannot fully know saudade until our bodies experience pleasure’s phantom pangs.
No Way in the Skin without This Bloody Embrace – Jean D’Amérique
. . . like something out of Ŝvankmajer: a tongue torn out and dragging itself along in search of contact and reintegration, streaking blood in its wake.
Singer Distance – Ethan Chatagnier
Having self-elected into the contact genre, Chatagnier redirects Singer Distance away from the alien essence of this story form, suggesting that earthly issues more deserve our attention.
We’re all living in a historical moment that we can’t get out of.
Baron Bagge – Alexander Lernet-Holenia
It’s unclear (even to Bagge himself) if he is in a state of post-traumatic shock or whether he has even survived the battle.
The Speak Angel Series – Alice Notley
Published this year by Fonograf Editions alongside a collection of reissues entitled Early Works, this volume continues, and perhaps culminates, the visionary-epic line of Notley’s work.