While I cannot remember where I first heard about the book Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann, as soon as I learned what it is about—a Black college student navigating her biromantic, asexual identity—I added it to my reading…
Literature
Trans Characters in Fiction
In my experience as a reader on the lookout for transgender characters in works of fiction, the quintessential novel features a gloomy high school protagonist, who leads a pained existence and is often verbally and/or sexually assaulted by the end…
Kingdom in the Dark – Crystal Boys Book Review
Have you ever wondered where you actually belong, or where your heart leads you? Everyone deserves a place that they feel comfortable in, but if you’re still feeling lost and seeking that sense of belonging, Crystal Boys might be your…
Vanilla: Book Review
As an avid reader and a queer person, it means more than words can convey each time I see myself represented well in a published novel. The book’s very existence seems to offer a confirmation: “Your identity is valid and…
OutWrite’s Queer Lit Column: Desire, Dream and Magic in Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
This review of Zami is the first in our series of investigating classic queer literature, forming an OutWrite Archive of novels, poetry, and memoir that our staff believes everyone should read. In the acknowledgements, Audre Lorde tells the reader…
The Ten Best Queer Horror Books Ever
Sink your teeth into characters who finally get your blood pumping… and the back of your neck tingling. Sure, we all know queer classics like Carmilla, or transphobic thrillers like Silence of the Lambs. But what about horror that doesn’t…
Book Review: 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Credit to Vintage Books Let me start off by being quite blunt–I loved the 50 shades books. I thought it was refreshing to read a book that was open and honest about sex, intriguing that marriage and committment were depicted…
Book Review: Ash by Malinda Lo
Credit to Little, Brown and Company The retelling of fairytales has never been uncommon, and today’s mainstream productions certainly speak to that fact. Within the last four months alone, there have been two big screen releases founded upon Snow White,…
Book Review: Keeping You A Secret by Julie Ann Peters
The first time I ever saw Julie Ann Peters’ Keeping You a Secret was at the foot of my mom’s bed, face up and daunting. The image on the cover might have inspired less wariness if my mother hadn’t already informed me of the contents of the book, because I knew the image was not simply indicative of two female characters. It was indicative of two female characters in love.
Queer Your Reading List: The Well of Loneliness
Women getting it on. With each other.
Even today, this premise strikes a chord with audiences. Imagine in 1928, when The Well of Loneliness was first published in England and America. Obscenity trials tried to ban the novel. Still the book sold 100,000 copies in its first year on the shelves. The Well was one of the first lesbian novels ever published, written by Radclyffe Hall, an English author and gay lady. The novel tells the story of Stephen Gordon, an English woman living at the turn of the century discovering and coming to terms with her sexuality.