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Guide: Queer African Reads
Let’s start with the obvious: Neither “African literature” nor “queer literature” are stable, precise, unproblematic categories. Here I collect books by African and African‑diasporic authors. The books are either written by openly queer writers and/or and feature queerness in some prominent way. As of now, there is a regional bias in this list which partially reflects the publishing realities but also my own reading biases. Furthermore, the guide is obviously not a complete representation but limited not only by what I have read so far but also by what I have access to (language, availability etc). The descriptions below are partially reviews I have written over the time and some…
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#ReclaimHerName – or maybe don’t?
In 1939, Ann Petry published her first short story “Marie of the Cabin Club” though the name “Ann Petry” was not listed as the author, instead, it was “Arnold Petry”. Like her, throughout history, women have taken on masculine pen names in order to publish their writing in a sexist and misogynistic (publishing) world. To celebrate its 25th birthday the Women’s Prize for Fiction has put together a box of books by authors who had been published previously under masculine pen names. In these new editions, their (supposedly) ‘real’ names are used. The cover designs – all by female designers – look striking and many people have been fanning over…
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A Month of Reading Exclusively Queer Literature – 50 Years After Stonewall
On the night from the 27th of June to 28th of June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn at Christopher Street in New York City. The raid sparked resistance and a revolt against police violence over the following days. The exact sequence of events from these days and especially of the early morning hours at the 28th is difficult to retrace today. Even though, it is important to note that the riot involved prominently BPoC trans women and drag queens, sex workers, butch drag kings etc. Morgan M Page, writer and host of the trans history podcast One From the Vaults, writes in her article “It Doesn’t Matter Who Threw the…
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Contemporary Queer Nigerian Writing
Over the last couple of years, I accumulated a fair amount of books (texts) from Nigeria/ by Nigerian and Nigerian diasporic authors which tackle queer themes and focus on LGBT+ protagonists. This list brings them together in one post. It is not to supposed to be a complete representation of everything ever published. I left out short stories (for examples those included in the Queer Africa short story collections, but also from writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Chinelo Okparanta – whose novel is part of the list) and books which only have minor queer characters. Also, I still do not own Unoma Azuah’s BLESSED BODY: The Secret Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual…
