Hello, Dear Readers!
Welcome to Issue 24, where we stayed consistently strange in our fiction selections with a story about people who amputate their feet, another about a girl who falls for a mute girl whose unspoken words never appear on her body (as they do for everyone else), and a slow-boil after a murder. Stephanie chose two very different poems to publish - each dealing with not often visited places; and Allison selected a fascinating, non-traditional transitioning narrative as well as a piece on Orlando and what it means to be known by the people who love you.
This issue's LINEAGE features Rita Mae Reese writing on the mysterious life of Flannery O'Connor, and how much that life has inspired and influenced her own work. Grab a cup of sweet tea and enjoy this one...
Cooper Lee Bombardier, our new Fiction Editor, referred us to this issue's astounding cover artist, Rae Senarighi, whose work studies the "colorful resiliency, defiant creativity and love through portrait series featuring transgender, genderqueer, and gender-fluid activists, artists, and leaders." Yes, yes it does!
Years ago, I worked for the Advocate and OUT then Alyson Books, and had no idea that that would be the hey day of queer publishing. Back then, a pipeline existed: Alyson and other publishers produced LGBTQ books that were advertised to a healthy base through queer magazines and sold to gay book stores and other outlets. Now, after the great collapse of publishing around 2008, that's changed, leaving two glaring problems: one, the challenge of having great, queer literature vetted for you readers by reliable sources; and two, a hesitancy in the publishing world to take on LGBTQ books without an easy pipeline to market them.
Thus the other thing we've been busy working on: GERTIE - a quarterly, queer book club, which we hope will address both of the above problems. We also hope you and all your bookworm friends will love it. Bookworms are our favorite types of people, after all.
Lastly, there are so many events happening in the world right now, so please, read this issue and take a minute for yourself away from everything. Remind yourself (the way I remind myself) that you need to find your peace in the midst of all that's happening in order to be strong enough to continue to hold the line on who we are and how we want our world to be.
Until next time, continue to love who you love and live how you live!
XO-
Tammy Lynne Stoner
Welcome to Issue 24, where we stayed consistently strange in our fiction selections with a story about people who amputate their feet, another about a girl who falls for a mute girl whose unspoken words never appear on her body (as they do for everyone else), and a slow-boil after a murder. Stephanie chose two very different poems to publish - each dealing with not often visited places; and Allison selected a fascinating, non-traditional transitioning narrative as well as a piece on Orlando and what it means to be known by the people who love you.
This issue's LINEAGE features Rita Mae Reese writing on the mysterious life of Flannery O'Connor, and how much that life has inspired and influenced her own work. Grab a cup of sweet tea and enjoy this one...
Cooper Lee Bombardier, our new Fiction Editor, referred us to this issue's astounding cover artist, Rae Senarighi, whose work studies the "colorful resiliency, defiant creativity and love through portrait series featuring transgender, genderqueer, and gender-fluid activists, artists, and leaders." Yes, yes it does!
Years ago, I worked for the Advocate and OUT then Alyson Books, and had no idea that that would be the hey day of queer publishing. Back then, a pipeline existed: Alyson and other publishers produced LGBTQ books that were advertised to a healthy base through queer magazines and sold to gay book stores and other outlets. Now, after the great collapse of publishing around 2008, that's changed, leaving two glaring problems: one, the challenge of having great, queer literature vetted for you readers by reliable sources; and two, a hesitancy in the publishing world to take on LGBTQ books without an easy pipeline to market them.
Thus the other thing we've been busy working on: GERTIE - a quarterly, queer book club, which we hope will address both of the above problems. We also hope you and all your bookworm friends will love it. Bookworms are our favorite types of people, after all.
Lastly, there are so many events happening in the world right now, so please, read this issue and take a minute for yourself away from everything. Remind yourself (the way I remind myself) that you need to find your peace in the midst of all that's happening in order to be strong enough to continue to hold the line on who we are and how we want our world to be.
Until next time, continue to love who you love and live how you live!
XO-
Tammy Lynne Stoner