I’m going to tell you the story Da told me, and he says he got it from his own Da, Bill Verling. I don’t remember him – he died when I was about two – but Da swears up and down that Granda always spoke about what he saw that night in awe. Granda wasn’t…
Tag: mental health
Saadat Hassan Manto: “The Assignment”
Author’s notes: Content warnings for self-harm, political violence, sexual violence. I consistently refer to Manto’s hometown as “Bombay” rather than Mumbai. I do this for two reasons. The lesser reason is that “Bombay” is simply Portuguese for “Beautiful Bay,” whereas Mumbai is short for “Mumbadevi” and the change was made in 1995 at the instigation…
Trans Day of Rememberance
This post about Trans Day of Remembrance comes to us from Kieryn J. McCann. You can read Kieryn’s amazing poem “Kayla Marie” here.–ed. Today, November 20th, is internationally acknowledged as Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR). It is a day of collective mourning for the trans community. The first TDoR vigil was held in 1999 by…
Ways of Saying “And”
I tried to answer my first wifein truth(e)that, yes, she is selfishand that this is good:Less wear, Few wounds, No rind where ought be ‘life.’But she gnashed and wailed,her Protestant iceberg atremble,and I curled back my wordswith the bad faith of the midway lover. We’d matched tattoos—still do, I’d think:Black ink ampersands,near or on our hands.Hers: a…
Bi+ Visibility 2023
Note: A lot of language surrounding gender is new. These words/ideas have been around for years but it’s only in the last decade or so that the singular “they” and the idea of gender as a spectrum have entered the public consciousness. You’ll see a lot of the outdated style of language in this piece,…
Kayla Marie
I remember you thinking about what to do when we’re gone. There are so many options now, “Bury me gently in the cold dark earth” “Bury me in satin… Lay me down in a bed of roses… Send me away with the words of a love song… … oh oh” I could be a tree!…
The Story Behind the 2 Rules of Writing
A lot has been going on at the website in the last few weeks. We took on an intern, Blossom Akpojisheri of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. We’re sorting things out with a photo editor, Allegra Boverman. And the website became financially self-sustaining. It’s a lot to celebrate all at once. Considering Erika and I founded this…
Disability Wrath Month
July is Disability Pride Month. And I could write some empowering piece about how I make my life work even though fibromyalgia and I’ve got all these things that don’t work in the ways bodies and brains typically do and rah rah rah. I know how to write about Pride. I’ve done plenty of it,…
Coming out versus Letting In
It’s the end of Pride Month. Usually I’m overflowing with words about queer topics, especially in June. I had a year of queer rage in 2022. And 2023 has me filled with even more rage. And yet this month, when I should have been able to say something I’ve had trouble saying anything. Every time I…
‘Like the Wind’: Brain Frog and Ancestors
“I had to learn to think, feel and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink. The great majority of artists are throwing themselves in with life-preservers…