Dias Novita Wuri, author of "Birth Canal" recommends Nusantara fiction that shines a light on the taboo. Growing up as a Javanese daughter, there was one word that was drilled deep into my head by my mother: malu, which means “shame.” I had a huge list of things that I shouldn’t do or say because … [Read more...]
Jezebels, Jazz and Rijsttafel
August 24, 2023 by
Dear readers, I never witnessed my grandmothers interact — I don’t think they were ever in the same time zone together, or even the same continent — but they managed to present a united front about some essential principles. Hardly anyone was entitled to privacy, and very few stories could get by … [Read more...]
New International Fiction: Dark Histories, Daunting Labors
July 1, 2023 by
CROOKED PLOW (Verso, 276 pp., paperback, $19.95), by the Afro-Brazilian author Itamar Vieira Junior (and translated by Johnny Lorenz), offers a salt-of-the-earth paean to a land where “the blood of history flows like a river.” Life is hard on the Água Negra plantation in northeastern Brazil in the … [Read more...]
The Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books for Summer 2023
June 18, 2023 by
hat even is time? I had a couple conversations this past year, some of them surrounding the publication of my non-chronologically structured novel We Do What We Do in the Dark, during which the concept of “queer time” came up, this idea that LGBTQ people experience time differently, almost … [Read more...]
The Best New Book Releases Out June 6, 2023
June 7, 2023 by
Tuesday means new releases, and I’ve got some meaty ones for you. As we hurtle towards officially starting summer, the release of highly anticipated new releases is amping up. Just this week alone, there’s a new, thrilling murder mystery by king of Southern noir S.A. Cosby. Elliot Page shares his … [Read more...]