The Queer Writer: April 2023
Happy Gay-pril! It's (Daylight Saving) time for more amazing reads, including an autistic trans anthology, a love letter to trans femmes through rock and sex, a memoir about growing up working class and queer, an 83-year-old determined to take down a dragon-riding sorcerer, flesh-eating girls loose at a music festival, a campy YA thriller about a nonbinary birder, and more!
I'm excited to announce a new class I've been planning for a while now: QueerNoWriMo! Based on many requests, this high-intensity course for 4 queer novelists provides two full reads of each student's novel. Meet for 90 minutes once a week in June for workshopping, take July "off" to edit your work, and return in August to workshop your new draft. Workshops are non-silencing and will include at least 2 pages of written feedback per student. Due to the size and nature of this course, each student must show up to every class, must actively participate in both verbal and written feedback, must have workshop experience, must have a polished draft, and must have a novel shorter than 120,000 words.
Also due to demand, I'm adding another Accountability Cafe for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers. Having trouble finding the time to write? Want a group of peers to keep you on the path to your writing goals? Just want to be in the presence of some fellow LGBTQ+ writers? In this low-stress environment, we'll meet for 90 minutes once a week on Zoom to write while I pipe in study/focus music to help bring home that cafe feel. And yes, previous Accountability Cafe attendees are welcome to return!
Is there an upcoming queer book you’re excited about? Know of a great opportunity for queer writers? Read an awesome article about the (marginalized) writing world? Leave a comment! And as always, please share this newsletter with people you think might be interested.
Queer Writing Essentials
- Saturday, April 8th, 2023 from 10:30am to 1:30pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $85, scholarships available
- 12 students maximum
Writing authentic work as a marginalized voice can come with some unique problems, especially if/when we engage with the mainstream publishing industry or its readers. This 3-hour class is designed to help queer writers navigate some of the less-discussed aspects of marginalized writing, including how to introduce your characters as queer, creating effective social justice themes within your storytelling, handling “relatability,” how to invite in outside readers without compromising your story’s authenticity, and navigating scenes of sex and/or physical intimacy. Peppered with writing exercises, this lecture-style class will engage with works from such authors as Gabby Rivera, Andrea Lawlor, Rajiv Mohabir, Kacen Callender, Akwaeke Emezi, Carmen Maria Machado, Jordy Rosenberg, Casey McQuiston, and more.
*While this class is designed with queer writers in mind, cisgender/heterosexual writers are welcome to attend and learn. However, please know we won’t be discussing introductory levels of queer representation or community, nor the do’s and don’ts of writing outside of one’s lane.
Writing Messy Queer Characters
- Saturday, April 22nd, 2023 from 10:30am to 1:30pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $85, scholarships available
- 12 students maximum
Disney villains, disaster lesbians, and hot trans messes, oh my! In this 3-hour class, we’ll look at “good” messy queers, “bad” messy queers, stereotypes, redemption, interiority, and mainstream media representations. Along with a lecture segment, we’ll also take time to discuss some common anxieties when writing a complex queer character, brainstorm craft elements for your story, and engage in a writing exercise.
*While this class is designed with queer writers in mind, cisgender/heterosexual writers are welcome to attend and learn. However, please know we won’t be discussing introductory levels of queer representation or community, nor the do’s and don’ts of writing outside of one’s lane.
Writing Outside of Your Lane
- Saturday, April 29th, 2023 from 10:30am to 1:30pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $85, scholarships available
- 12 students maximum
Over the past several years, the publishing world (and its readers) have thankfully demanded more diversity within stories. But as welcoming as this change is, it can leave many non-marginalized writers with anxiety. How are you supposed to go about it? What if you mess up? Are you allowed to write about marginalized people at all? This 3-hour course provides mainstream writers with the basics of how to write a marginalized character with which they don’t have a lived experience, breaking the process down into the bare bones of Self-Reflection, Research, Craft, Editing, and How to Handle Backlash. With pragmatic and clear-cut information—as well as the wisdom from such writers as Alexander Chee, Peter Ho Davies, and Stella Young—writers will leave this course with significantly more insight, awareness, and confidence to produce the most accurate and empathetic work they can.
*This class is open to all identities.
Writing Group: Accountability Cafe for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers
- 6 Fridays starting May 12th, 2023 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $150/$175/$200
- 12 students maximum
Having trouble finding the time to write? Want a group of peers to keep you on the path to your writing goals? Just want to be in the presence of some fellow LGBTQ+ writers? In this low-stress environment, we'll meet for 90 minutes once a week on Zoom to write while I pipe in study/focus music to help bring home that cafe feel. And yes, previous Accountability Cafe attendees are welcome to return!
*This group is only available to LGBTQ+ writers.
***NEW*** QueerNoWriMo
- 8 Wednesdays starting June 7th, 2023 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $2,500/$3,000/$3,500
- 4 students maximum
This high-intensity course for 4 queer novelists provides two full reads of each student's novel. Meet for 90 minutes once a week in June for workshopping, take July "off" to edit your work, and return in August to workshop your new draft. Workshops are non-silencing and will include at least 2 pages of written feedback per student. Due to the size and nature of this course, each student must show up to every class, must actively participate in both verbal and written feedback, must have workshop experience, must have a polished draft, and must have a novel shorter than 120,000 words. Class dates are: 6/7, 6/14, 6/21, 6/28, 8/2, 8/9, 8/16, and 8/23.
*This course is only available to LGBTQ+ writers.
Novel Writing Workshop for Queer, Trans, and/or Nonbinary Writers
- 8 Mondays starting July 10th, 2023 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm ET
- Virtual via Zoom
- $530, scholarships available
- 12 students maximum
This class is for queer, trans, and/or nonbinary novelists who have taken advanced workshops before, are well versed in matters of craft, and who have already made some progress on a first draft. Many queer, trans, and/or nonbinary writers may have experienced workshops in the past that were silencing, unhelpful, or damaging when being workshopped by a predominantly cisgender/heterosexual writing group, however well-intentioned the group may have been. This particular workshop course is designed to help create a more intimate and relatable space for queer, trans, and/or nonbinary writers to give and receive feedback on their works in progress, while also generating new material.
The goals of this course are to workshop at least 15 pages in eight weeks—minimum, depending on class size—as well as to identify and brainstorm any shortcomings in craft areas such as characterization, point of view, structure, plot, and scenes. Each class will include workshopping two students, with the final hour dedicated to accountability and generating new material. Feedback will be delivered using the novel-in-progress method: reading your pages (up to 15 pages, double-spaced, 12pt font) aloud in class at least once in the course—again minimum, dependent on class size—and receiving on-the-spot, non-silencing feedback from your fellow novelists and instructor.
*This class is intended for writers who identify as queer, trans, and/or nonbinary only. While novels that deal with queer, trans, and/or nonbinary themes are certainly welcome, they’re not required for this class.
*Previous students of this course are welcome to return and continue workshopping their pages.
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante
Any Other City is a two-sided fictional memoir by Tracy St. Cyr, who helms the beloved indie rock band Static Saints. Side A is a snapshot of her life from 1993, when Tracy arrives in a labyrinthine city as a fledgling artist and unexpectedly falls in with a clutch of trans women, including the iconoclastic visual artist Sadie Tang. Side B finds Tracy, now a semi-famous musician, in the same strange city in 2019, healing from a traumatic event through songwriting, queer kinship, and sexual pleasure. While writing her memoir, Tracy perceives how the past reverberates into the present, how a body is a time machine, how there's power in refusing to dust the past with powdered sugar, and how seedlings begin to slowly grow in empty spaces after things have been broken open. Motifs recur like musical phrases, and traces of what used to be there peek through, like a palimpsest. Any Other City is a novel about friendship and other forms of love, traveling in a body across decades, and transmuting trauma through art making and queer sex--a love letter to trans femmes and to art itself.
Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans
Murder most fowl? In this sardonic and campy YA thriller, an anxious, introverted nonbinary teen birder somehow finds themself investigating a murder with their neighbor/fellow anime lover, all while falling for a cute girl from their birding group...and trying not to get killed next.
Changelings: An Autistic Trans Anthology by Ryan Vale and Ocean Riley (eds.)
A young adult anthology of stories about trans autistic characters by trans autistic authors. These last few years have been difficult for the transgender community. This has included frequent attacks on autistic trans people, claiming we can’t possibly understand who we are or what we want. This book focuses on autistic trans people telling our own stories. It aims to explore autistic trans joy and challenges and to show all the autistic trans people out there that they are not alone.
Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick
Stevie and Nora had a love. A secret, epic, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. They also had a plan: to leave their small, ultra-conservative town and families behind after graduation and move to California, where they could finally stop hiding that love. But then Stevie has a terrible fall. And when she comes to, she can remember nothing of the last two years--not California, not coming to terms with her sexuality, not even Nora. Suddenly, Stevie finds herself in a life she doesn't quite understand, one where she's estranged from her parents, drifting away from her friends, lying about the hours she works, dating a boy she can't remember crushing on, and headed towards a future that isn't at all what her fifteen-year-old self would have envisioned. And Nora finds herself...forgotten. Can the two beat the odds a second time and find their way back together when "together" itself is just a lost memory?
Non-Essential Work by Omar Sakr
In this exciting follow-up to his acclaimed collection The Lost Arabs, award-winning poet Omar Sakr delves deep into his loves and losses to create a riveting literary experience. Asking questions of timeliness and timelessness, ranging between the present and the past, Non-Essential Work is a restless and relentless volume that showcases a poet unquestionably in his prime.
The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher by E. M. Anderson
When you're a geriatric armed with nothing but gumption and knitting needles, stopping a sorcerer from wiping out an entire dragon-fighting organization is a tall order. No one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. After all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell. And everyone knows the Council of Wizards always chooses a teenager-like the vengeful girl ready to snatch Edna's destiny from under her nose. Still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. With her son long dead in the Knights' service, she's determined to save dragon-fighters like him and to ensure other mothers don't suffer the same loss she did. But as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks and the sorcerer's history as a Knight, she questions if it's really the sorcerer that needs stopping-or the Knights she's trying to save.
Prepare to meet the gender trailblazers of past and present - who dress and express themselves however they choose! Featuring icons from across art, sports, fashion, music, politics, civil rights and the media, this vibrantly illustrated book introduces children age 5+ to transgender, non-binary and genderqueer role-models who dare to be different - and are conquering the world as they go. Packed with the triumphant tales of 25 gender heroes - including Laverne Cox, Elliott Page, Marsha P. Johnson, Gavin Grimm and Alok Vaid-Menon, as well as a glossary of key terms, this is an inspirational introduction for kids and educators alike - and a timely reminder that not all heroes wear capes.
No Worries If Not: A Funny(ish) Story of Growing Up Working Class and Queer by Soph Galustian
No Worries If Not is a funny, relatable coming-of-age story, that explores Soph Galustian's experiences of poverty, queerness, mental health, grief and community. She recounts her life from childhood, to teens, into adulthood through a mixture of short stories, spoken word, illustrations, and space for the reader to reflect (or draw tits... whatever you prefer). This book is for anyone who was raised struggling, anyone who wrestled with coming out, who accidentally killed their childhood pet, who has lost the person closest to them...Filled with flashbacks to the 2000s/2010s, No Worries If Not is equally for the straights and the gays, the rich and disadvantaged. In this book Soph offers a space to reminisce and laugh at life's misfortunes.
This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham
Two years ago, a small percentage of population underwent a transformation known as the Hollowing. Those affected were only able to survive by consuming human flesh. The people who went without quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. Luckily, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy their hunger. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal. Cut to Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine, four hollow girls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before graduation they decide to attend a musical festival in the heart of the desert. They have a cooler filled with seltzer, vodka, and Synflesh... and are ready to party. But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral and ends up killing and eating a boy in one of the bands. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is targeting people like them. And if they can't figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is getting out alive.
If I See You Again Tomorrow by Robbie Couch
For some reason, Clark has woken up and relived the same monotonous Monday 309 times. Until Day 310 turns out to be...different. Suddenly, his usual torturous math class is interrupted by an anomaly--a boy he's never seen before in all his previous Mondays. When shy, reserved Clark decides to throw caution to the wind and join effusive and effervescent Beau on a series of "errands" across the Windy City, he never imagines that anything will really change, because nothing has in such a long time. And he definitely doesn't expect to fall this hard or this fast for someone in just one day. There's just one problem: how do you build a future with someone if you can never get to tomorrow?
The Immeasurable Depth of You by Maria Ingrande Mora
Fifteen-year-old Brynn can't stop thinking about death. Her intrusive thoughts and severe anxiety leave her feeling helpless--and hopeless. So after her mom interprets one of Brynn's blog posts as a suicide note, she takes extreme measures, confiscating Brynn's phone, blocking her Internet access, and banishing her to stay with her father who lives "off the grid" on a houseboat in the Florida mangroves. Isolated from her online friends--her only friends--Brynn resigns herself to a summer of mind-numbing boredom and loneliness...until Skylar appears. Skylar is everything Brynn isn't--sultry, athletic, and confident. Yet Brynn feels at home around this fearless girl who pushes her to try new things and makes her belly flutter with nerves that have nothing to do with anxiety. When Brynn discovers that Skylar is trapped in the bayou and can't tell her why, she resolves to free her new crush from the dark waters, even if it means confronting all of her worst fears.
- What: "We're seeking fiction with an intersectional feminist lens! The fiction team is looking for short stories and flash fiction pieces that engage, challenge, and surprise us. We particularly love stories that tackle multiple intersections (of race, class, ability, sexuality, and/or gender identity) and allow us to hear points of view that are not often heard."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $100
- Deadline: April 10th, 2023
- What: "We publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid work, and translations of all of these forms. We welcome work that is genre-less and the traditional genres some magazines shun—yes, that means we want more speculative fiction! We don’t believe in the divide between literary and genre fiction. We want to read your science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, ecofabulism, irrealism and slipstream."
- Fee: $3
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: April 30th, 2023
- What: "Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $50
- Deadline: May 1st, 2023
- What: "nw{p} is a trans and gender expansive poetry and hybrid journal, but that doesn’t mean work must be related to those topics. We publish work from emerging and established trans poets. We love polished work that makes us stop mid-poem to catch our breath and relish words; words that surprise us and feel like they were agonized over; words that make us catch fire."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: Two copies and a year subscription
- Deadline: May 3rd, 2023
- What: "Kweli’s mission is to nurture emerging writers of color and create opportunities for their voices to be recognized and valued. By creating a community of Black, Indigenous and POC artists and programming based on artistic excellence and rigor, Kweli empowers writers to share stories that engage and impact our communities. Our vision is for a world where the narratives being told reflect the truth of our histories and the possibilities for our future."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: May 30th, 2023
Rebel Satori Press: Novellas & Novelettes
- What: "Rebel Satori is seeking short form fiction, novels, and novelettes for its new Bijou Book Series. Manuscripts should be 25-30K words in length. Themes may include LGBTQIA+, spirituality, mindfulness, speculative fiction, fantasy, and magick."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: Publication
- Deadline: May 31st, 2023
The AutoEthnographer: "QUEER" Special Issue
- What: "Rarely in the history of our English language has a word so quickly and so profoundly shifted in meanings and usage as the word queer has throughout the last century. As such, The AutoEthnographer is excited to announce a new call for submissions that celebrate, problematize, challenge, or illuminate the many meanings of 'queer' whether referring to emotion, difference, critical theory, or sexuality."
- Fee: $5 donation requested
- Pay: $25
- Deadline: May 31st, 2023
Genre: Urban Arts Queer Black and Brown Creative Anthology
- What: "Calling all Queer People of COLOR Creatives! Genre: Urban Arts seeks to give Black and Brown Queer perspectives a space to be vocal with your artistic medium, wherever it falls on the spectrum. Our goal is to highlight voices of the LGBTQ+ community that often go unheard or are misunderstood. Come join us in illuminating the readers' experience in an artful way! We want to hear what YOU have to say! Spread the word."
- Fee: $5
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: August 30th, 2023
- What: "Stellium centers Black queer and trans creatives. We still accept work from other Black and QTPOC creatives. We seek those emerging and established (with an emphasis on emerging)."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $50
- Deadline: rolling
Boston Writers of Color: Literary Support Program
- What: "GrubStreet's Boston Writers of Color program is excited to offer a limited number of $125 and $250 stipends for BIPOC writers. The funds are to be used for submissions, contests, fellowships, retreats, expenses for writing needs, and any other literary opportunities."
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $125-$250
- Deadline: rolling
Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities
- What: Seeking “new pitches and finished pieces that interrogate past, present, and future issues within the realm of Black and Asian feminist solidarities, and that imagine possibilities between our communities through various written forms.”
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
- What: Baest Journal, "a journal of queer forms and affects," seeks to publish work by queer writers and artists.
- Fee: $0
- Pay: $0
- Deadline: rolling
The disabled villain: why sensitivity reading can't kill off this ugly trope
by Jan Grue
What is a sensitivity reader to do with this? Does it make a difference if the Yorkist king is referred to as “differently abled” and not a “cripple”?
Undoubtedly – but I don’t think the change would be for the better, and for reasons beyond the clanging sound of euphemism. In many ways it would be worse. The fundamental problem lies not with the words used to describe the character, but with the attributes ascribed to him. And if those attributes are demanded by the logic of the narrative, we are facing a challenge that can be unexpectedly subtle.
...I am simply pointing out that sensitivity reading has both its purposes and its limitations. Sensitivity reading “on the fly” is an invaluable tool for parents reading to children. It can even be a useful exercise for authors who revisit their work at a later stage. It is less helpful, I think, when it is used by commercial entities to obscure the cultural history of storytelling.
...Language is powerful, but never on its own. It is entwined with politics, culture and history. If we replace older and ostensibly more stigmatising words with newer and softer-sounding labels, but do nothing to change the context in which the words appear, we leave the job half done. Arguably, we also risk new words and euphemisms being overtaken by old stigmas, in which case the fundamental problem of representation remains. Politely calling a Bond villain a “differently abled person” does nothing to undo the link between their embodiment and their villainy.
Meeting Yourself Where You're At: A Gentle Approach to Writing
by Claudia Wilson
I’m leaning on the hope that writing offers the opportunity to tell important stories. I have important stories to tell, and I must survive to do that. To tell the stories that matter, you must keep finding a way to yourself. You must show up. Kindness is a way to meet myself, and practicing kindness has been a long, hard journey. Our world is surrounded by critique, accusation, and blame. Have you ever gone to write something and then listened to your mind as you do so? What I’ve heard is: Can you do this? Who do you think you are? You’re not good enough. These accusations diminish you and your writing. Sometimes they start small and then get bigger. I’ve learned to practice kindness with my mind, and you can do the same.
...[O]ne concept that [Akwaeke] Emezi offers us in Dear Senthuran: the binary separation of “doing” from “being.” How do we write with an integrated self, not in the binary of just doing? When you only become your “doing” there is no relationship with your “being.” When there is no positive relationship with your being, the impetus to write withers. When I am steeped in doubt, I have to practice coming back to my intention. What initially made me want to write when I didn’t have the MFA program, accolades, or books? It was my firstborn self with something to say. I have to remember her.
