Queer Lit to Read this Pride Month

I always knew I wanted to be a writer. When I first entered university I was an English student. I quickly left the department after realizing that literary criticism was not for me, but before I did I took a queer literature class. This list is compiled both from books that I read in that class, as well as books I have come across in my hunger for Canadian small-press works. From my experience reading queer lit, I have found that these stories tell a more representative and relatable account of what it means to exist in a body, to fall in love and have intimate, vulnerable experiences. Queer lit exists as not only a more accurate telling of a story, but often as a retelling of exclusionary past stories, as shown by Anne Carson’s work and Jordy Rosenberg’s work featured below.

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

Autobiography of Red is a retelling of the Greek myth in which Herakles hunts and kills the red monster, Geryon. In Carson's poetic reimagining, this takes the form of a conquest of love and heartbreak. There are two lines from this book which have stayed with me:

“Tell me, said Geryon and he intended to ask him, Do people who like sex have a question about it too?

But the words came out wrong—Is it true you think about sex everyday?

Herakles’ body stiffened.

That isn’t a question it’s an accusation.”

To me, this sums up the feeling of being uncomfortable, sexually inexperienced and unsure of even what to ask, when given the opportunity. The second quote I frequently return to is:

“Are there many little boys who think they are a

Monster? But in my case I am right said Geryon to the

Dog they were sitting on the bluffs

The dog regarded him

Joyfully”

This captures indiscriminate and totally accepting love that animals have, which is especially important to children who feel they are different.

In 2019 Anne Carson visited my university and gave a few lectures. After the first, there was a book signing. I waited in line and bashfully brought this page, page 12 of Autobiography of Red for her to sign.

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

Confessions of the Fox begins with an incredible sentence of Victorian slang: “Jack Sheppard, the Greatest Gaolbreaker and the most devoted, most thorough carouser of quim in all of London, is bound beneath the gallows beam at Tyburn, about to be hanged—” This book offers us the chance to question the accuracy of historical accounts. Jordy Rosenberg himself is transgender, and writes the story of an academic, Dr. Voth who comes across an old manuscript that brings into question past historic facts surrounding Jack Sheppard, the 18th century pickpocket and prison breaker. Voth learns from this work that Sheppard, like himself, was a trans man—with a small stature, making his heists easy to accomplish. The book follows Sheppard and Voth's parallel stories of danger and intrigue and describes the experience of being a trans man in contemporary time and in the 18th century. This book is all about questioning the assumption that readers have about characters' race and gender, unless stated otherwise.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home is a autobiographical graphic novel by Alison Bechdel (yes, the same Bechdel who invented the Bechdel test). It tells the story of Bechdel’s complex growing up, her relationship with her father (who is also queer), his impact on her life and working with him in the family funeral home (from where the title originates). It describes her experience going to university, her discovery of queer lit, her first queer relationship, and coming to terms with her father’s death. The art style is compelling, fun and detailed. This book was made into a successful Broadway show, a song from which I included in this playlist, which you should definitely listen to!

Love Speech by Xiao Xuan/Sherry Huang

Love Speech is poetry, color photographs and a response to queer theory. It describes short, prose scenes of life in the city interspersed with quotes from queer theorists like Eve Sedgwick, Judith Butler, and Sarah Ahmed. The title itself is a response to the writing of Butler on hate speech and its inverse: love speech, and the resulting question of how we give speech power. The lines from this book which have been stuck in my head are:

“I don’t need to remember my dreams in order to believe in the work they do.

Simply a night will lead from one end to another.

It takes guts to erase the day’s quotation marks.”

These lines acknowledge the power of speech. The day’s quotation marks linger in our heads as we try to rest, and come to terms with memories of what people have said to us, which is hard, sleepless work.

Ossuaries by Dionne Brand

Ossuaries changed the way I think about poetry. With short, thoughtful word-magic, informed by her own experience in a Black, queer body, Brand describes remorse, experience, memory, and feeling. Brand employs tercets through the entirety of the collection, and you can read almost every stanza as a poem in its own right. My favorite poem from the collection is Ossuary III which contains the incredible stanzas:

“so don’t tell me how love will rescue me,

I was carnivorous about love, I ate love to the ankles,

my thighs are gnawed with love

still and yet I cannot have loved,

since living was all I could do and for that,

I was caged in bone spur endlessly”

This poem offers us the chance to contemplate the destructive force of living, which takes form in speech and action, impact on the Earth and other people. Brand suggests that while experiencing love offers us relief from our selfishness, it does not undo harm we have caused.