Funeral Diva is the self-portrait of a woman who our society does its very best to ignore: black, queer, statuesque, outspoken. But this particular woman, Pamela Sneed, will not be silenced. There is a fierce urgency to these pages. To
Though portrayed by the popular culture as a joyous, carefree time, childhoods are often far from that–particularly for those who are sensitive and different. For these people, childhood isn’t the happiest time of their lives. Precisely the opposite. Because it
It’s time to get real. In the first year of this website’s publication, 2008, all of the books QueerReader recommended were written by white people. Last year none of them were. It’s important to keep in mind that 2019
Yesterday it was announced that Jericho Brown’s The Tradition won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Rarely has a collection displayed the depth and breadth of poet’s talent as well as this volume does. Blackness plays a big role in
Girl, Woman, Other is an important feminist novel. It tells the stories of twelve women in an experimental style that is both readable and entirely fitting for these characters. Reading this Booker Prize-winning novel is an edifying experience. But it
In some respects the literary award season isn’t all that different from the film award season. The most recent releases have an advantage. And sometimes those released earlier are forgotten. As this year’s queer lit award season approaches, queer reader
This year’s Publishing Triangle Award Finalists list has some surprises. For a start, Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy is not a finalist for any of these awards. More on this later. Also, Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other has been nominated for the
Blame it on Billie Burke. It was her phone call to Vanity Fair in late 1919 that started it all. She was angry at Frank Crowninshield for publishing a review of a Somerset Maugham comedy. The review likened her performance