Feature image photo by master1305 via Getty Images
Hey hi hello!
I know we all talk about “staying up late reading under the covers” as a nostalgic shorthand for illicit enjoyment, but we’re all adults here, and when was the last time we actually did that? For me, it had been a minute, but following a top-tier recommendation by Tor.com’s Molly Templeton (and a co-sign from Autostraddle alum A.E. Osworth) the latest installment in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series had me reading in bed, turning out the lights, and switching on my little camping lantern for the full experience. That’s the highest praise i can fathom —gosh, I’ve needed something utopian desperately and this series is healing everything that has ailed me. Sibling Dex, a nonbinary tea monk, bicycles around their post-apocalyptic eco-utopia with a sentient robot named Mosscap, surveying what it is that humans want in a world where they have everything they need. If Ursula Le Guin wrote The Little Prince, I imagine it would feel something like this.
Publishing loves its dystopian novels, and true utopias feel even nicer for their scarcity. The last time I read a book that felt utopian, it was the 1915 novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (best known for AP English staple The Yellow Wallpaper), and that was, uh, before this mixed-race dyke learned about Gilman’s virulently racist and eugenicist principles. That’ll spoil the vibe for sure 🙃 so please, what other utopian novels should I read? Are there (gasp) any other particularly gay utopian novels? I’ve got a hankering for more! My favorite printmaker Cj of Black Lodge Press has a poster that declares “Queer utopias are not fantasies, queer utopias are necessities!” and that’s never felt truer.
Alrighty, let’s make like a volcano and rumble. On this week’s Rainbow Reading, we’ve got:
Shelf Care: Reviews, Essays, and other Things of Note
“It is tension: living well on a viral warming planet is too much to ask of any person. And yet it is what our circumstances are asking of us.”
Autocorrect: Books content from the last couple weeks at Autostraddle!
[Kings of Leon voice] oHHHHhhHHHhh, this section’s on fiiiIIIiiiiiIIIiiiiRE~
Jessie Ulmer’s debut chapbook, Bewildered, combines poetry and prose to reimagine the story of Hansel and Gretel! Chapbook, zine, and indie press culture are some of my favorite corners of the queer literary scene, and it’s such a delight to celebrate these.
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.