Feature image by F.J. Jimenez via Getty Images
Hi everyone! It’s Yashwina, back with my metal detector and everything I’ve dug up on the literary internet over the last couple weeks. It’s been a good time — I got to write my very first quiz for Autostraddle featuring some fun vintage queer literature from my collection, I got to review River Butcher’s latest standup set, and I’ve been having a splendid time reading Melissa Febos’s forthcoming craft book Body Work and Grace Lavery’s amazing new memoir Please Miss. Y’all know I’m a history nerd too, so currently on my nightstand is this book about depictions of women in 1940s graphic art — aka, yes, Rosie the Riveter and her ilk are queer as hell and we knew it all along. Just been on a real nonfiction kick!
Alrighty, folks, let’s make like an orange and peel. On this week’s Rainbow Reading, we’ve got:
Shelf Care: Reviews, Essays, and other Things of Note
- Help send books and reading recommendations to incarcerated trans women! (Here’s the contact form too!)
- [lizzo voice] I’ve been WAITING for this one — Isaac Fellman’s novel about a trans vampire archivist Dead Collections is out this week!
- “If one idea holds the weight of this thoughtful, acerbic, bracingly hopeful book, it’s that everything is gender, except gender, which is everything else.” Dead Collections also got a great review from Casey McQuiston in the New York Times!
- Also out now — Manhunt is here!!
- In Sensorium is also out now, and stay tuned for the Autostraddle review!
- This is the coolest — Los Suelos is a multimedia digital anthology about a haunted California town, and it’s got new work from some amazing queer writers. I especially loved this short story from R. Phalen Rayson and this one from Ross Showalter!
- Emme Lund, author of The Boy with a Bird in His Chest, wrote an absolutely gorgeous essay about finding her style!
- Stevie THEE Nicks says: Watch Storks…?!
- The debate about Sally Rooney’s depictions of bisexuality and queerness continues apace
- Curious about the behind-the-scenes of bookmaking? Follow from paper to print as they assemble Marlon James’ latest book Moon Witch Spider King!
- A loving homage to The Magic Wand in The Cut
- Three more wonderful interviews from The Rumpus: Kim Fu, author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century; Edgar Gomez, author of High Risk Homosexual; and Ariel Delgado Dixon, author of Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You
- Kristen Arnett has a new short story in this 30th Anniversary issue of The Oxford American
- My favorite Valentine’s Day piece — there’s so much love in Reimagining the Stories We Tell About Trans Love by Alex McElroy for ELLE!
- Valentine’s Day brought some interesting perspectives out of the archives: loved this 2020 piece about the queer history of couples “living apart together” and this one about platonic life partners
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Autocorrect: Books content from the last couple weeks at Autostraddle!
- In addition to this wonderful interview with Drew, Gretchen Felker-Martin wrote this essay about the process of writing Manhunt and depicting its TERF characters
- I’m so, so excited about Dani’s new poetry column In Verse — check out the first installment here, featuring recommendations for healing broken hearts
- I’ll take any opportunity to talk about cool old gay books — which vintage queer classic from my bookshelf are you?
- A deep cut: I stumbled across this piece from 2016 and have since ordered every single book from my local library.
- Casey came through with the best romance recs of the month — check out her quiz and find out which queer romance novel you should read next!
- KKU’s Short Fiction Playlist column continued with a Valentine’s Day iteration featuring short stories with queer sex
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.
