Short Story

Caryn and Aly, Sarah's aunts, dance barefoot in a garden. They are older white women wearing summery clothing. Both are smiling widely.
Creative Writing

The Hard Choice

A digital illustration of Barbie, a blonde white woman with blue eyes in a black and white striped top and gold hoop earrings. She looks alarmed. Another woman with a brown skin tone and black nail polish cups Barbie's cheek. The Mattel logo in rainbow is behind Barbie. The top text reads "This Barbie is GAY PANICKING." Next to Barbie, the text reads, "AGHHHHH OMH SHE'S SO PRETTY OMGHA,ASGHJK." The entire image's background is light blue.
Short Story

“What Was I Made For?”: Thoughts of a Queer Barbie

A photograph of a desert landscape including various shrubbery, cliffs, and distant mountains. The ground is edited to be a deep purple, and the sky, light pink.
Creative Writing

A Jigsaw Puzzle Is an Act of Creation

Caryn and Aly, Sarah's aunts, dance barefoot in a garden. They are older white women wearing summery clothing. Both are smiling widely.
Creative Writing
The Hard Choice

Being my authentic self was never the hard choice; it never was a choice at all. It was just me.

A digital illustration of Barbie, a blonde white woman with blue eyes in a black and white striped top and gold hoop earrings. She looks alarmed. Another woman with a brown skin tone and black nail polish cups Barbie's cheek. The Mattel logo in rainbow is behind Barbie. The top text reads "This Barbie is GAY PANICKING." Next to Barbie, the text reads, "AGHHHHH OMH SHE'S SO PRETTY OMGHA,ASGHJK." The entire image's background is light blue.
Short Story
“What Was I Made For?”: Thoughts of a Queer Barbie

I look out over the rolling waves and allow my eyes to rest on her. She’s wearing a fitted white tank top, jean shorts, and her signature silver chain around her neck. Her dimples are on full display as she laughs at something her friend says, and her eyes capture the rays of sunlight and infuse them into her irises, brightening them beyond Technicolor. They’ve broken through to the sixth dimension, and I can’t look away, and I don’t want to look away.

A photograph of a desert landscape including various shrubbery, cliffs, and distant mountains. The ground is edited to be a deep purple, and the sky, light pink.
Creative Writing
A Jigsaw Puzzle Is an Act of Creation

Sometimes I look in the mirror when the angle is just right and fall in love with the sight of my chest, flat and unburdened. Like the rolling desert that I like to call home, just miles and miles of unbroken land. At this moment, no one has ever touched me there except to lay a hand flat, feel the press of my sternum against their palm, and nothing else. 

A digital illustration of two people, one with light brown skin and shoulder-length dark brown hair in a gray suit and one in a blue hoodie with light skin and bob-length blond hair. They stand under an orange umbrella in a green hazy forest.
Creative Writing
The Umbrella 

Lea was already late, running down the sidewalk like a marathon sprinter in the last leg of a race. She dodged around screaming babies in strollers, men in ironed suits in the midst of an argument, and bright yellow fire hydrants. She yelled a quick “Sorry!” or an “Excuse me!” as she weaved her way through the crowds of people hustling to enter the sanctity of their cars after work. Los Angeles at five in the afternoon was not a friendly place.

illustration of a vampire standing by a grand rainbow window
Short Story
Ellos Quieren Sangre

Her shoulders drooped with the weight of her Catholic guilt as the statue of white Jesus stared down at her, telling her, I know what you’ve done. His dark eyes seemed to be in perpetual melancholy as her own peered into them. That statue always scared her, always seemed to follow her home from church; it was the first thing she’d see in her grandmother’s kitchen, a miniature version of the statue hung up in her room right in front of the doorway. She had always accepted that Jesus would be a permanent part of her life, just as she had accepted that she bore responsibilities, as the eldest daughter and the first grandchild, to fall in line with what her family expected from her.. 

photo of writer Alex Penland by the coast
Community
Queer Next Up: Alex Penland

Alex Penland (they/them) is an author, creative writing student, Smithsonian alumnus, and linguist . They primarily write SFF (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction), but also dabble in poetry.

photo of a black haired woman standing under a rainbow umbrella as it rains
Short Story
Umbrellas

A pair of unlikely friends caught in the pouring rain unpack a girl’s perhaps undeserved reputation.

monochromatic dusty pink illustration of two female silhouettes walking down the street under a street lamp
Creative Writing
piper&jenny

Jenny and I met in the early days of middle school, when everyone was all acne and gangly legs, and got on like a gasoline-soaked house gets on with a match. Frankly, it was a nightmare for our parents. My mom, who I know had been quietly worrying about my ability to make friends, was suddenly unable to enter a shared space in our house without me bombarding her with requests to go to Jenny’s house, stories of something funny that Jenny had said at school today, of Jenny’s new puppy that she got last week.

simple illustrated 50s movie poster depicting a red-haired woman with a white headband, green eyes, pearl necklace, and yellow gingham dress behind a tan brunette with glasses and purple coveralls. behind them is a blurred interior of a movie theater. written by kristin haegelin, illustrated by christopher ikonomou. la rousse.
Creative Writing
La Rousse

Illustrated by Christopher Ikonomou (Xe/He) This piece was originally published in our Winter 2022 Volume 2 print issue “Wanting: A Queer Beauty & Burden.“ Since checking into work that morning, Lynn had done little besides load up the popcorn machine…

Creative Writing
Holding On to Let Go

Photo by Zoë Collins (She/Her) She felt the presence approach her before she heard the sand shifting beside her head. “This isn’t like you.” She opened her eyes to a half squint. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she responded. “Come…

Welcome to OutWrite!

Established in 1979 at the University of California, Los Angeles, OutWrite Newsmagazine is the oldest queer college publication in the United States. OutWrite strives to build a growing educational platform through a multi-media approach that uplifts and empowers the often silenced voices of the incredibly diverse queer community. We aim to challenge dominant cisheteronormative narratives through an unapologetically anti-queerphobic, anti-racist, and progressive lens.