New podcast episode! Bangladeshi Irish novelist Adiba Jaigirdar writes love stories with queer brown girls as protagonists. In this interview, we discuss risk-taking in the publishing industry, racism in Ireland, and do deep dives into three of her novels. We discuss the interracial (Brazilian-Bengali) relationship in The Henna Wars (2020), the interfaith (Hindu-Muslim) relationship Hani & Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating (2021), and representing fatphobia without depressing the audience in The Dos and Donuts of Love (2023). Photo by Aleksandria Rudenko.
👂 Listen to the interview at qtpocart.libsyn.com. 👀 Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia. ❤️ Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.
I've been meaning to read more wlw fiction, and someone recommended this one to me a long time ago (I tend to forget where recommendations come from by the time a book makes it in front of my eyeballs, which adds a nice layer of chaos).
I'm not very far in yet, but I want to signal boost because it's lovely so far, and it's an #ownvoices book about a Japanese American girl.
I interviewed Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues, which won the Brooklyn Public Library's Nonfiction Prize for 2023. We discuss growing up South Asian in an Arab country, moving to the U.S. for college, and trying to find/build progressive queer Muslim community once she got here. Listen here. Read the transcript here. Find more podcast episodes of We Want the Airwaves podcast here.
Queer & Trans Artists of Color: Volume Three Book Launch!
Register here!
A night of interviews featuring the following artists:
Qwo-Li Driskill is an unenrolled Cherokee Two-Spirit/queer/trans writer also of African, Irish, Lenape, Lumbee, and Osage ascent. They are the author of Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory and Walking with Ghosts: Poems.
Ant J. Williams is a Black queer abolitionist writer and sociologist. Their work on Blackness, gender identity, sexuality, and disability has been published in Hazlitt, California Magazine, Electric Lit, and The Outline. antjwilliams.com.
Joamette Gil is an Afro-Cuban cartoonist, editor, and letterer for hire. She’s the publisher of such award-winning titles as Power & Magic: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology and Heartwood: Non-binary Tales of of Sylvan Fantasy.
Kamal Al-Solaylee is an award-winning author of three nonfiction books: Intolerable, Brown, and Return. He is the director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Osa Atoe is an artist, teacher, and ceramicist operating Pottery by Osa, producing small-batch handmade ceramics. Osa wrote Shotgun Seamstress and performed in numerous bands, including VHS, New Bloods, and Firebrand.
Venus Kii Thomas is a Black trans femme multidimensional artist & sex worker based in Baltimore, Maryland. Support Venus at bit.ly/venuskiithomas.
Arielle Twist is a Nehiyaw, Two-Spirit, author and artist originally from George Gordon First Nation, Saskatchewan, now based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her debut collection, Disintegrate/Dissociate, won The Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry and she won the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBTQ authors.
Nia King and Maliha Ahmed are the co-hosts of this event and the co-editors of Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 3. Buy the book at bit.ly/buyQTAOC3.
Sponsored by the Aydelotte Foundation, Black Studies, Film & Media Studies. ASL INTERPRETATION PROVIDED by the Libraries at Swarthmore College.Time
Mar 23, 2023 06:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Queer Colombian Salvadoran Alejandro Varela is one of my favorite living writers. His work weaves together comedy and tragedy as if it was the easiest thing in the world. His first novel, The Town of Babylon, is about growing up queer and brown in a place where neither is possible. His second book, The People Who Report More Stress, begins with a short story about gay hookups at the U.N. I had the honor of interviewing him in mid-October when he was in Philly to promote his new book, Middle Spoon. We nerd out about the craft of writing, explore how his public health background shapes the way he sees the world, and discuss how white supremacy leaves immigrants of color blaming themselves for failing to achieve the American Dream.
Listen to the audio at qtpocart.libsyn.com.
Read the transcript at scribd.com/artactivistnia.
Support the podcast at patreon.com/artactivistnia.
New episode alert! I interviewed Charles A. Bush, author of every variable of us, a queer YA novel set in West Philly with a Black girl protagonist and an Indian American love interest.
QPOC Books I read this year, many of which I recommend...
I run a small book group in Oakland, California where we read books by queer and trans people of color. Here are the books we read this year.
Haifa Fragments by Khulud Khamis
I really loved this book, in part because it speaks to an experience you don’t really hear a lot about in the US, that of a (bisexual, feminist) Palestinian citizen of Israel in love with a Palestinian woman who lives in the Occupied Territories. By articulating the differences in their lifestyles and the amount of freedom they have, the book provides a more nuanced and diverse depiction of Palestinian life than the monolithic one we usually get in the US. This book also explored intergenerational trauma and inter-religious relationships. Well-written, would recommend.
What Color Is Your Hoodie? by Jarrett Neal
I’ll be honest. I grabbed this book because I loved the cover and was intrigued by the title, but I was actually very disappointed with it. This is in part because I thought it was going to be a collection of essays by different Black gay men, but turned out to be all essays by the same author, who came across as thinking he was better than other Black gay men at times. I wish I had looked at the book more carefully before buying/suggesting to the book group.
Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabriela Rivera
I really enjoyed this book, in part because it feels VERY contemporary and was written by someone close to my age. It’s about growing up Puerto Rican in the Bronx and then being transported to a parallel universe (Portland, Oregon) for a summer internship. This book includes a very relatable critique of white feminism that I think many young women of color will relate to.
Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
This is a memoir about growing up with a Native Hawaiian mom and a Black American dad and sort of being shuttled between Hawaii and Oakland, California. The book is also largely about gender self-discovery, sexual self-discovery, love and Beyonce.
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
I haven’t finished this book yet, but so far it’s really good. It’s about a young lesbian growing up in Nigeria post civil-war. Despite her strict religious upbringing, she knows that her love for other women is not wrong. Parts of this are brutal, but parts are also extremely sweet and heart-warming.
She of the Mountains by Vivek Shraya
This is one of my favorite QPOC books of all time. It’s about a South Asian growing up in an extremely white part of Canada and trying to understand their sexuality through different relationships with white men and brown women. There also sort of an element of magical realism that combines the main story line with the Hindu mythology that runs parallel. Beautifully written.
Books We Read But I Haven’t Had A Chance to Review Yet
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar
The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin
Another Country by James Baldwin
We The Animals by Justin Torres
Books We Didn’t Read But Should Have / Maybe Will Soon
He Mele A Hilo by Ryka Aoki
All Inclusive by Farzana Doctor
Writing the Walls Down by Amir Rabiyah and Helen Klonaris
Him, Me, and Muhammad Ali by Randa Jarrar
Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2 by Nia King and Elena Rose
A couple great new books by queer people of color came out recently:
Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices by Amir Rabiyah and Helen Klonaris (Helen is white, but most of the content in the book is by POC)
Dirty River: Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Smarasinha
Excited that Amir will be in Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2 and that Leah was in Volume 1!
