Browsing Tag

book

REVIEW: Elisheva Fox’s ‘Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen’ Explores the Paradox of the Queer Texan Experience

Posted on May 26, 2023
Author Elisheva Fox

As a queer Texan, Elisheva Fox’s debut poetry collection, Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen, moved me in recognizable, yet surprising ways. If you have any relation to the area, you will adore the scenery of this book, not only in familiarity (sometimes lacking in poetry) but through the handling of queerness in Texas. The poet draws you into an array of colors, from violets to bluebonnets, from gray-green waters to golden grass. Fox cycles between the vibrancy of the “Texan…

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Out of the Dream House: On Carmen Maria Machado, Domestic Abuse, and Queer Healing

Posted on February 19, 2020
A photo of author Carmen Maria Machado.

In late January, InPrint Houston, an Houston-based, non-profit organization that supports writers and readers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, hosted a dual memoir event with Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House, and Carolyn Forché, author of What You Have Heard is True. The event was moderated by Daniel Pena, a faculty member at the University of Houston Downtown, as a part of InPrint’s Root Brown Reading Series. Machado and Forché discussed creating memoirs through traumatic events—Machado…

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YA Author Addie Tsai on Bi-Racial Twinning, Bearing Witness to Trauma, and Queer Representation in H-Town

Posted on October 22, 2019
A photo of Dear Twin by Addie Tsai.

On a stiff hotel sofa in Waco, Texas, I took out my phone and braced myself to begin reading Dear Twin, author Addie Tsai’s first semi-autobiographical queer, young adult novel. It was October, and I was in Waco for a work event, when I realized I had down time to fill before I had to leave. Her book had been sitting in my inbox since September, and I had failed to start reading it sooner because, 1) I procrastinate, and…

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West Texas and Wonder: A Review of ‘Are You Listening’ by Tillie Walden

Posted on October 15, 2019
A photo of Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden.

If you’re a fan of Texan creators, graphic novels, or queer main characters, Austin-raised cartoonist Tillie Walden’s latest graphic novel is the fall release for you. Published in September 2019, Are You Listening? is a dreamy road trip story with modern flairs of magical realism. The book’s West Texas landscape oscillates between fantastical and familiar, and the characters will have you rooting for them to the very last page. …

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A Royal Romance: ‘Red, White, & Royal Blue’ Makes Bisexual Literary History

Posted on June 3, 2019
A photo of Red, White & Royal Blue.

If you binge romance novels, if you love realistic queer representation, or if you’ve ever fallen into a fugue state while scrolling through updates about the Royal Family, I’ve got excellent news—Casey McQuiston’s debut novel, Red, White & Royal Blue, will check each of those boxes for you, and it’s quickly becoming the hottest romance read of 2019.…

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‘Boy Erased’: Powerful New Film Sheds Light on the Dangers of Conversion Therapy

Posted on August 24, 2018
A photo of the film Boy Erased.

Boy Erased is based on the book of the same name by author Garrard Conley. Like his onscreen character, Conley grew up in Arkansas. “My parents were always pretty religious,” he says in an interview with British TV program This Morning. As a child, he and his parents attended church three times a week. “When I was 16, my dad decided to become a preacher,” Conley tells the hosts. “My mom and I were sitting in church at the time…

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Book Review: ‘Less Than Butterflies’

Posted on August 17, 2018
A photo of the book cover of Less Than Butterflies by Anthony Ramirez.

Sex, drugs, and the gays of Houston. Just a few characters in the zephyr of cynicism, sarcasm, and witty one-liners that makes up author Anthony Ramirez’s third book, Less Than Butterflies. Ramirez, editor-in-chief of About magazine, comes clean—as clean as he can—in the autobiography, exploring his life as it was dragged through the underbelly of Houston’s raunchy gay scene. The book jumps from Montrose to Washington Heights, Midtown to Third Ward, and never a dull moment between them.…

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