Me Time
Welcome to Issue 2!
I'm excited to welcome you here if you've just subscribed. I hope you'll like the curated content below. Feel free to send me anything you think I should include in future newsletters. I'll even give you a shout out if you are okay with that.
The picture above is from the 1979 March on Washington for (what was then known as) Lesbian and Gay Rights. I was marching with a contingent from Gay Community News, a national newspaper published out of Boston. That's me in the center with the hat. I was 23 years old.
What I've Been Reading, Watching, Doing 11 books read this year to date. Among them I'd recommend Heroine of Her Own Life by Constance Emmett, a historical Sapphic romance wrapped in a family saga set in Northern Ireland after WWI and forward. There's even a sequel. Also, for YA fans, I read Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler, an exploration of bisexual awakening by a girl who thought she only liked boys.
I started watching Abbott Elementary on Hulu. A sitcom that feels like a documentary set in an inner city school in Philadelphia. If you work in education, you'll love it. And really, no matter where you work, you'll love it.
Finally, as the saying goes, I did a thing. Yesterday I spoke on an episode of GCLS' Virtual Series on Optimizing the Book Review Experience hosted by the amazing Suzie Carr. Joining me was the legendary Karin Kallmaker. It was a great session in which we shared the dos and don'ts of book reviewing and the chat was incredibly lively. Here's a link to the video: https://youtu.be/iFIgSi1A73o
Sapphic Lit and Other Book Stuff
ReadOut Festival – ReadOut: A Festival of LGBTQ Literature
The sixth annual ReadOut: A Festival of LGBTQ+ Literature will be held February 17- 19, 2023, live in Gulfport (FL) as well as virtually on Zoom.
2023 NJ Regional Event | GCLS
GCLS has organized a Regional Event in the New York/New Jersey area. Join us in Jersey City, NJ on Saturday, March 18, 2023 from 9am to 6pm for panels, book sales, and author signings. We have collaborated with Hudson Pride Center to host this event at the Hudson County Community College in their Student Center located at 81 Sip Avenue, Jersey City, NJ.
To Warn or not to Warn: The Controversy around Trigger Warnings in Literature – Writer Unboxed
I worried that the warnings somewhat mischaracterized the tone and themes in my work.
“The Fixer” Is Slow Burn Lesbian Romance at Its Finest | Autostraddle
The clouds parted, the heavens opened up, and here was a treasure trove of lesbian romances featuring my absolute favorite tropes: ice queens and age gaps.
Congrats to Lee Winter for this recognition. Now we need Autostraddle to discover more books from Ylva as well as books published by Bella, Bold Strokes, Bywater, Flashpoint, Sapphire, etc. There's more out there than what's available from the mainstream publishers. Support our community's publishers!
Mairead Sullivan’s “Lesbian Death” Tells Us Why the L Isn’t Disappearing
Rather than imagine lesbian as in danger of going extinct, Sullivan sees capacious lesbian feminist world building projects taken up in myriad ways in the contemporary moment. In our conversation and in the book, she points to queer parties, book stores and bars, digital spaces such as apps like Lex, and even Autostraddle as evidence of this. Sullivan argues that these spaces carry on the legacy of lesbian feminist politics whether or not they use the word “lesbian” to describe themselves. In the Conclusion of the book, Sullivan writes, “Rather than mark this time as a forgetting of lesbian feminist pasts, we can read these events as calling forth the social and political commitments of multiple lesbian feminist pasts while also allowing these commitments to be changed and reworked toward the needs of the present.”
Actual Literary Etiquette - by Rebecca Makkai - SubMakk
So how can I support a writer and their work and their fragile ego?
Real Romance | The New Yorker
Nora Roberts is good at what she does not only because she is prolific but also because she can write zingy dialogue and portray scrappy but sincere characters
The 5 Best Newsletter Platforms For Writers | by Writer’s Relief | Jan, 2023 | Medium
If you’re ready to create your own newsletter to boost your outreach and build your credibility as an author, here are the 5 best newsletter platforms for writers to help you get started.
How to Come Back to Your Writing Practice After You’ve Been Called Away – Writer Unboxed
I needed a plan to bring myself back. So I created a short syllabus for myself, to ground me in craft again and return me to a place where writing creatively feels familiar once more.
The Official SCBWI Blog: Margot Atwell shares "What to Watch in Book Publishing in 2023"
Margot Atwell, previously Director of Outreach and International for Kickstarter, is now the Executive Director and Publisher of Feminist Press.
The Best (And Worst) News From the Publishing Business – Writer Unboxed
staying informed about the business side of writing and publishing
Meet the historian who is driving a bus full of banned queer books across the U.S. | Xtra Magazine
The pair are working on buying, then building, what they call the Rainbow Book Bus, a bookmobile carrying queer and trans books to small towns. After reaching their crowdfunding goal of USD $100,000 at the end of December, Cervini and Powell are now able to pay a specialized company to retrofit a school bus to become a beacon of queer literature.
A Fake Death in Romancelandia - The New York Times
A Tennessee homemaker entered the online world of romance writers and it became, in her words, “an addiction.” Things went downhill from there.
News You Can Use
Doritos Goes Bold With LGBTQ+ Support in Lesbian Love Ad
Bold Love is the new Doritos advertisement that aired in Mexico this week, featuring a lesbian couple discussing how much they love each other despite the homophobia they encounter. The two-minute ad features the couple on a nighttime drive.
Rihanna's Fenty Ad Stars Wives Miss Argentina & Miss Puerto Rico
Miss Mariana Varela, who is Miss Argentina, and Fabiola Valentín, who is Miss Puerto Rico, have joined the campaign for Rihanna’s new Fenty perfume and are sharing their love story
"Erin's Guide to Kissing Girls" Is Lesbian Lizzie McGuire on a Budget | Autostraddle
writer and director Julianna Notten has met me right where I am with her new film Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls, a middle grades rom-com about a queer nerd named Erin (Elliot Stocking) who’s trying to balance her best friend Liz (Jesyca Gu) with her crush on new girl Sydni (Rosali Annikie).
Niecy Nash-Betts Opens Up About Marriage to 'Hersband' Jessica Betts
Nash-Betts acknowledged that people had advised her not to marry Betts out of fear that a relationship with another woman would be the death of her career. The warnings ultimately landed on deaf ears because Nash-Betts said she wasn’t receptive to the messages.
Kristen Stewart Will Play Susan Sontag in a New Biopic | Them
The actor will be playing the famous writer in an adaptation of the Pulitzer-prize winning biography, Sontag: Her Life by Ben Moser
Pauli Murray Will Be First Black Queer Person on U.S. Currency
Pauli Murray, nonbinary Black activist, lawyer, priest, and poet, will be featured on a quarter in the next round of the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program, making Murray the first Black queer person to appear on U.S. currency.
What the Lesbian Best Friend Trope Leaves Out – Mother Jones
Why are queer women characters so often limited to being the sidekick?
Queer fans and the fight against "Cancel Your Gays" - News Is Out
While lesbian and bisexual characters and storylines have increased significantly in the last decade, queer women fans are often left with tragedy as their legacy.
Indigo Girls In "Protect Trans Kids" T-shirt Are More Than "Fine" At Tiny Desk Show; And Queer Playlist From 10 Years Of NPR Concerts: WATCH - Towleroad Gay News
Many familiar and LGBTQ-resonant among them: Gay Icons, Queer Artists, allies we love, and a few with tolerable good intentions.
Helpful Tools
RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover
Climb over the paywall by using this tool. You should be able to access anything in this issue.
Don't have the time to read something that interests you? Use Pocket to read it later. Create tags for what you save so you can retrieve it easily. (I tag a lot of things "to read" "to listen" "to watch")
