#queer-fiction — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #queer-fiction, aggregated by home.social.
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In Conversation: Aslı Tohumcu with Kirsty Logan
28 May, Glasgow Women’s Library – freeAslı Tohumcu & Kirsty Logan unpack the power of queer feminist folklore re-tellings. Drawing on their own writing, both writers will explore how traditional folklore, whether from Turkey or Scotland, can help us understand present-day complexities
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/in-conversation-asli-tohumcu-with-kirsty-logan/
#Scottish #Turkish #literature #folklore #queer #queerfiction #feminism #Scotland #Turkey
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From the British Fantasy Society:
Kicking off a new essay series on queer horror, Bronte Rowan—gothic scholar and co-chair of the Horror Writers Association’s UK chapter—looks at the intersection of marginalised identities and dark fiction, and introduces his first text for analysis.
https://britishfantasysociety.org/an-introduction-to-queer-speculative-fiction/
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She Is Here—Still Here!
US: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | PM Press
UK: Amazon | Waterstones | Blackwells | WH SmithTuesday is traditionally book-launch day. Today She Is Here has been out three months but as a small book from a small, independent press known for its anarchist leanings (see two of my favourites from their merch offerings, below) you might not have seen it reviewed in the usual places. (I didn’t go on tour, and did only two book events—one in person right here in Seattle, and one virtual for City Lights in San Francisco.)
Both events were great, and PM Press are very happy because sales have, by their lights, been unexpectedly strong. (Yay!) But I know there are more people out there who might enjoy the book if only they knew about it.
Some might enjoy what Gary Wolfe in his Locus review characterises as the four “good short but stabby poems.” Some might prefer the essays—including epistolary criticism such as “TheWomen You Didn’t See,” which is my analysis of how Tiptree’s identity shaped her short fiction. But what I’m really keen on getting readers to discover are the four pieces of my short fiction—particularly the original novella, Many Things in Dumnet. Why should you seek them out? Well, here I’m going to quote Wolfe again to save me the embarrassment of praising myself:
More than half the book consists of the four fiction selections. The shortest is “Glimmer”… a showpiece for Griffith’s lyrical prose, as a woman (who describes herself as “a cripple”) is transformed as she travels through time and space – “pulsing, lengthening, cooling, a cord stretched past the horizon along which she slides like a bead.” “Down the Path of the Sun”, one of Griffith’s earliest stories, is a grim but powerful postapocalyptic, postplague account of the narrator’s attempts to protect her sister in a violent, desperately diminished world. Both “Cold Wind” and “Many Things in Dumnet” are rare Griffith fantasy stories. “Cold Wind”, which begins in a women’s bar in contemporary Seattle, explores the complex relationships of predator and prey, as both the narrator and the strange woman she meets there both turn out to be not quite what they seem. “Many Things in Dumnet” is set in what appears to be a fantasy version of Griffith’s early medieval Britain, in which a musician, Anya Reine, arrives in Dumnet, “most southwesterly of the kingdoms of Albion,” and quickly lands a gig at a tavern – only to be warned that no one is allowed to perform without the approval of Macalla, who at first appears to be a local crime boss. But Macalla turns out to be far more than that, and so does Anya. Aided by totemic figures such as a silver fox, she eventually finds herself defending the kingdom from the predations of Macalla’s “wodebreath.” Apart from its supernatural fireworks and its convincing portrayal of a haunted medieval setting, the story also serves as a moving paean to the power of music…
Those who follow me on Patreon know quite a bit about Dumnet—it’s part of an SFnal alt-history set in a ninth-century Dumnonia (Cornwall and Devon) in which, over four hundred years earlier, the Fall of Rome coincided with the Fall of Something Nasty From the Sky and utterly changed the trajectories of every civilisation on earth. (I’m choosing my words carefully here.) But as that novel isn’t actually written yet, this novella is presented as a fantasy—the best way for it to make sense as a standalone. And having now written it and read part of it aloud that way, I remembered just how much enjoy writing fantasy: I can feel myself changing my mind. I think I will turn the novel into a a big-ol’ sword-swangin’ alt-history science-fantasy! Full of all those delicious tropes that writing realism (whether historical fiction, crime fiction, contemporary fiction about fighting ableism, science fiction), doesn’t always allow for: Music can save the world! Sex can save the world! Violence can be a good and useful and even, y’know, kind of cool thing! Lather everything in love and lust and loss and longing! And lesbians. And villains—eeeeeevil villains who can be defeated by lusty lesbians who love to sing! Fighting to save the whole fucking *world*!!! Oh, yep now that sounds exciting…
Er, anyway, my point is that if you like novels such as Spear, Hild, Menewood, and Ammonite, you will like this novella. So do me and PM Press and perhaps yourself a favour and go read “Many Things in Dumnet”—only to be found in She Is Here.
To whet your appetite, here are a few nice things people have said about the book:
- “Beyond having an astute way with words, [Griffith] speaks with an emphatic, take-no-prisoners clarity. Griffith plays brilliantly to this strength in her new collection She Is Here.”— Eric Olson, Seattle Times
- “Fresh work from [one] of the greats in the queer literary canon! This new book contains essays, poems, art, and stories. Griffith can indeed do it all.” — Autostraddle on She Is Here
- “Griffith’s sharp and uncompromising voice comes across clearly in the nonfiction and the interview, but the important news for Griffith’s readers lies in the four short fiction pieces, especially an excellent novella, ‘Many Things in Dumnet’, which is original to the volume [and] serves as a moving paean to the power of music … She is Here is a revealing and rewarding self-portrait of one of our most important—and most outspoken—voices.” —Gary Wolfe, Locus
- “A winning survey of Griffith’s work.” — Reactor on She Is Here
- “The collection starts with the most shocking piece, Griffith’s ‘A Writer’s Manifesto.’ I was thrilled to hear Griffith read it aloud. ‘I want to write a novel that invades you,’ Griffith said. ‘I want to control what you think and feel, to put you right there, right then, killing and being killed, f—king and being f—ked, cooking and starving, drinking and thinking, barely surviving and absolutely thriving. I want to give you a life you’ve never had and change the one you live.’ From a lesser writer, these few sentences would sound arrogant, even egotistical. As it is, the manifesto is intense and…a little frightening. For Griffith, it’s a distillation of what she wants to do (and what she does) in all of her fiction. She is Here is an excellent and deeply personal introduction to both Griffith’s writing and her perspective on writing.” — Chaitna Deshmukh, The Daily
US: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | PM Press
#books #fantasy #manyThingsInDumnet #novella #pmPress #queerFiction #shortFiction
UK: Amazon | Waterstones | Blackwells | WH Smith - “Beyond having an astute way with words, [Griffith] speaks with an emphatic, take-no-prisoners clarity. Griffith plays brilliantly to this strength in her new collection She Is Here.”— Eric Olson, Seattle Times
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The front door slammed, I heard her voice. ‘Are you here, Meg? What is it, are you OK?’ Her voice echoed through our apartment.
‘I’m sorry babe, I just… wanted to see you,’ I answered. Then more carefully I said, ‘No… I needed to see you.’
https://medium.com/prismnpen/right-words-come-810455835ca8?sk=57a383fe218936872768329fe861df2b -
I wandered down a road, past stores decorated with traditional Chinese lettering — ducks, herbs and groceries in the windows, then turned left into a lane I’d never noticed before.
So odd, how could I have missed this place?
https://medium.com/prismnpen/i-find-my-feet-e004d4af4309?sk=66a51dfdaf44130e776c2f35b6ea2504 -
I slid to my side of the bed and spread my legs, enjoying the slight coolness at the edge of the sheets.
‘Why do we have to take turns?’
https://medium.com/prismnpen/im-feeling-queer-in-bed-a-love-story-67a927815880?sk=d000529f468f9b61137f859597a08808 -
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil "One can be alone without feeling lonely,” she muses, “One can feel lonely without being alone” Sale: $5.99 to $5.99 by V. E. Schwab Rating: 4.2/5 (10,035 Reviews) #VEschwab #Vampire #Gothic #QueerFiction #Historical #Fantasy #Lesbian #BookSky
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight... -
Update for this - yeah, the funding goal was reached! 🥳 😀 You can still support this, if you like.
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#signalboost for this #Kickstarter #crowdfunding campaign
Two queer Anthologies, with and without spice by @duckprintspressOnly 40 hours left, and ca. 336 $ missing.
Boosts are very welcome.
🏳️🌈
#queerRomance #queerfiction #reading #books #fedibooks #indiebooks -
Cory, clad in freckles with red hair and blue eyes, was seven years old, and I had just turned eight. We would start the school year at Hilton Elementary a week or so later.
I don’t remember not loving Cory or feeling that he loved me. It just seems to me now that there was never a time that he wasn’t there.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/two-boys-mates-for-life-meet-minneapolis-220c55489247?sk=7784f4f16d9876d99ac0f5c966036b37 -
Remember pay phones? Kids used them to call their parents when they’d gotten in over their head and needed to be rescued.
Sadly, my parents were the problem, since I knew I was gay and they were inching closer to having me talk to someone at the church about their suspicions over it.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/my-cover-how-i-was-tagged-for-a-gay-romance-c7b87f4ef996?sk=d67f1610eb7a968c63c1b373c3797595 -
Here, back in the school yard under the orange glow of street lamps and the residual white of soccer floodlights, we put the finishing touches on Alex’s costume. Clipping a plastic “bling necklace” around her neck while she’s dressed as a ghost is peak Alex.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/jae-and-alex-living-lgbtq-in-a-dead-end-town-unhinged-melody-f2e9accb4caf?sk=43f3063ec7b1080f803785ef4dfddea9 -
Our ghost costumes suddenly feel a bit… inappropriate. Not for the world, I don’t care about that — I want to talk to Jae without being surreal.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/jae-and-alex-living-lgbtq-in-a-dead-end-town-ghosts-on-the-run-7fb29aec5fb9?sk=4243eaddeb338a8fadecddf2da91e9a1 -
University of Edinburgh Writer in Residence with Val McDermid
2 April, University of Edinburgh. Free, ticketedWhat does it take to build and sustain a life & career in writing over almost forty years? This event marks the re-issue of Val’s earliest crime series – the Lindsay Gordon novels – first published in the 1980s, & seminal in what has become known as the ‘queering of the genre’
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This book was really hard to write, not because the story is complicated (though it is) but because it's so heart-wrenching. And so very relevant to our times. Follow Aria as she navigates the hard times at the end of Minoan civilization, and ponder how we might make better choices today. Book details, including CWs, here:
https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/the-last-priestess-of-malia
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Jae and I find ourselves in front of a formidable pointy barrier that seems more befitting for a prison. Times sure have changed. I mean, I certainly have since I went here. My school uniform wouldn’t fit these days. In the most important of ways, it never really did.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/jae-and-alex-living-lgbtq-in-a-dead-end-town-ghouls-out-forever-46f9d1201af4?sk=67918f851562738f8a88be7a8b11c4b8 -
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/the-drawn-world
A twenty-one-year-old kid from rural nowhere teaching a mountain of a man from deep Georgia how to read Japanese comics in a queer bar basement. That's the whole story. That's the whole revolution. Scissors and tape on a bedroom wall, updated for a generation that draws its own mirrors. #QueerFiction #LGBTQ #MangaCulture #ChosenFamily #QueerArt #TransLiterature
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I cut down to size some of the loose material that would drag on the floor, put the scissors back, and pick up my house keys instead. Jae is already walking down the path, a backpack with cider deforming their ghostly apparition.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/jae-and-alex-living-lgbtq-in-a-dead-end-town-riding-the-ghoulbus-d914573e7a9b?sk=8157bce96a108c2317f0110aeae94c99 -
“Zebedee, what have you done?”
Hooves dripping with crimson equine blood, Zebedee Zebra hunched over the body of Zelda Zebra, his ribs shaking with… laughter?
https://medium.com/prismnpen/the-zebra-did-it-with-zeal-a-queer-equine-murder-at-the-zoo-18376ca2133e?sk=78d7cf0e6177bd79a3a66bb300774109 -
‘What are you lookin’ at, Tom?’
‘What am I lookin’ at?’ I answer, in an attempt to copy her.
‘Don’t you make fun of me,’ she warned, holding an egg as if it were a dagger.
‘Master Shakespeare has told all of the boys we must study women and copy their affectations and manner of speech.’
https://medium.com/prismnpen/a-trans-woman-walks-amongst-shakespeares-men-8667c4c31654?sk=7c5d9a6f49b49e6f43594f7051b80ab6#LGBTQ #Transgender #Fiction #QueerFiction #HistoricalFiction
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This is what happens when the ‘what-if’ machine runs amuck. Originally written as one piece, I came up with four other scenarios, all based in the same room, at the same time of day with the same characters. Me, my ex-wife and a courier.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/a-trans-woman-an-ex-wife-a-courier-and-five-endings-43e64b85ba51?sk=9d882692d26f9c40d73f5e19fb0a04c0 -
She was born of foam and sand, of waves crashing by the shore. The only mortal child of two sea gods, her family’s divinity constantly loomed over her, a storm in calm waters. Her sisters were ageless immortals, but vowed to use their endless years to protect the weakest of the daughters, the unruly youngest.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/the-thumotic-gorgon-a-sapphic-retelling-of-the-greek-myth-of-medusa-01ae3f492762 -
As her feet touched the floor, she found her slippers and made her way to the bathroom. Once again, she confronted her nemesis, the mirror. Her hair was a mess and still thinning. Her eyes looked puffy, and she noted that the aging brown spots her dermatologist said would never go away were … still there.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/my-take-on-the-queer-magic-button-question-the-magic-dot-355448287680?sk=14705502258ce3d2a6deb9c5dab3e01f -
Dear sapphic fiction readers,
It is officially time to get excited! 🥳
My books will be in the 2nd Annual Sapphic Shelf Explosion! 📚 🎆
Coming soon:
February 26, 2026 – the day after tomorrow! 🤩
HAPPY READING! 📖 ❤️www.yearofqueerlit.com
#sapphicbooks
#sapphicliterature
#sapphicfiction
#lesbianbooks
#lesbianliterature
#lesbianfiction
#queerbooks
#queerliterature
#queerfiction
#sapphic
#lesbian
#queer
#LGBTQIA
#books
#literature
#fiction
#lesfic
#booklove
#booklovers
#bookstodon✍️ 📚 🌈 👭 💕
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The air was as crisp as a dragonfly’s wings, and Lancington Lake dutifully reflected all the surrounding lights in the spring air. It gave a yawn of forgiveness for the encroaching darkness, swallowing its memories of so many people who now found it warm enough during the day to swim in its fold.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/free-will-a-boys-first-kiss-of-another-boy-5f8b38280351?sk=c1a89b43bbf407bb1fd9aa139c3e157d -
Board games waited on every table — chess, Chinese checkers, Trouble, Sorry.
“Want to play chess?” Maya asked as we settled into black velvet seats.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/what-happens-after-the-lesbian-meet-cute-0cf8d5a7fa5b?sk=c6f96ed846a261d13c1b8ac1bfd5b8c2 -
‘Oh, it’s Pete now is it? You put a lot of faith in his taste.’
‘I think he has OK taste.’ She takes a sip of wine and places the glass on the coffee table.
‘What about that jacket and tie the other night? I saw the reel you posted. You were cringing.’
https://medium.com/prismnpen/can-a-blackout-help-girlfriends-kindle-a-real-flame-0fc11c3c08a1?sk=1776a936fbc9dba905f77ea55fee6fac