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Hi everyone! It’s Yashwina, back with my metal detector and all the reading material I’ve dug up on the literary internet over the last couple weeks. In honor of Autostraddle’s 13th birthday, I’ve been thinking about what I was reading when I was 13, and despite my fixations on classics like Jane Eyre and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, I keep coming back to how much I adored the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I maintain that there is something gay about this book; not exactly sure how, but I know it’s in there. This book was perfect for me as a serious, day-dreamy, awkwardly adamant kid, and I reread it at the end of every summer. What were y’all into at 13?
Alrighty, folks, here we go. On this week’s Rainbow Reading, we’ve got:
Shelf Care: Reviews, Essays, and other Things of Note
- Reading material the last couple weeks was understandably dominated by news about Ukraine, and this piece from MEL helped me contextualize the effect on queer Ukrainians and the efforts to support them.
- It’s also a good time to revisit this piece about the impact of Putin’s existing policies on queer Russians:
- Many many many congratulations to Torrey Peters, who won the PEN/Hemingway award for Detransition, Baby!
- I adored this essay from Electric Literature about having a complicated relationship with queer classic The Well of Loneliness
- Allegra Hyde’s Eleutheria is out now (and keep yer eyes peeled for a forthcoming review 👀) and I loved this essay she wrote in Poets & Writers about the craft of writing setting
- My literal favorite library has a new podcast exploring queer history through the lens of their archive holdings!
- Autostraddle’s beloved A. E. Osworth’s We Are Watching Eliza Bright is a finalist for an Oregon Book Award, along with Callum Angus’s breathtaking A Natural History of Transition ! 🥳
- This piece in Bustle has me revisiting and reevaluating my understanding of burnout
- This new essay about queerness, food, and sustenance dropped over at The Rumpus
- I loved this sweet roundup of fun queer history facts too — y’all know I’m a history nerd!
- From the archive: Queer and Jewish Identity Are the Heart of of “Where The Wild Things Are”
- Through March 22, Off Limits Press is accepting submissions of essays “exploring the intersection of queerness and the horror genre”
Autocorrect: Books content from the last couple weeks at Autostraddle!
- Carmen reviewed Debbie Millman’s career-spanning Why Design Matters and reclaimed the longest-running podcast as queer culture
- Casey collected Eight Mystery Books With Bi+ Main Characters
- Vanessa celebrated the launch of “Girls Can Kiss Now” by Jill Gutowitz
Okay so like, it’s not strictly-speaking gay, but this thread about cats, creatures-that-are-distinctly-not-cats, and chilling in hammocks was a real bright spot in my week. I hope it delights you as much as you delight me.
That’s all she wrote, folks! If you’re a queer writer, particularly an early-career queer writer: I’d love to hear about the cool things you’re up to so that I can share links to your published essays, book reviews, short stories, poems, and longform features on LGBTQ+ topics! Please email me links for consideration at yashwina@autostraddle.com with the subject line “Rainbow Reading Submission” — I’m an avid browser-tab-collector, and I especially want to hear from you if you’ve just landed your first publication or first major byline.
