Sammy

Brief Book Reviews

The First Bad Man by Miranda July: This book is a delightfully weird experience. Full of cringe moments, bizarre fantasies, and the ugly magic of an un-extraordinary life. This book explores the weird, embarrassing, deeply funny moments of being a person through the eyes–and the overactive imagination–of this eccentric, queer, lonely woman. The Liar’s ClubContinue reading “Brief Book Reviews”

Over-Planting

This year was my first attempting a full-blown vegetable garden, and now that autumn has really hit I would say it was a modest success–by which I mean, I finally managed to keep a tomato plant alive for the full growing season. The hopes for the garden were, perhaps, a little too optimistic–I probably plantedContinue reading “Over-Planting”

Pride & Joy

I’m having a hard time feeling the same level of pride and euphoria I usually feel during the beloved month of June. This is my first Pride month as a married queer person and the feeling really is bittersweet. I think about my younger self, before I was out of the closet, never dreaming thatContinue reading “Pride & Joy”

Fallen Fruit and the Portal to New Knowledge

Stoppard’s Arcadia considers the role of gender in the quest for knowledge and the ways human nature resists a fully deterministic model of the universe. The play uses the symbol of the apple to connect the two women, their thirst for new kinds of knowledge, and their theories about the ways nature and mathematics reflect or resist each other.

Ancestry

**alternative version published in issue 3 of Stone Fruit Literary Magazine** I walk a thin and unkept road of rocks,of dirt & roots, of things forgotten—lost& found. Those afternoons spent unconcernedbeneath a patchwork quilt of leaves & sky& warm late light. My chants would float like smoke:she loves me not, she loves me. Now IContinue reading “Ancestry”

Dissolution of True Knighthood: Queer Identity and Trauma in Calvino’s _The Nonexistent Knight_

The narration of Italo Calvino’s novel The Nonexistant Knight explores the aftermath of trauma in the queer body through the repeated use of mirrored images, contorted doubles, and illusion. In this translation by Archibald Colquhoun, the character Bradamante embodies elements of a non-binary gender identity through her status as a knight within Charlemagne’s army. InContinue reading “Dissolution of True Knighthood: Queer Identity and Trauma in Calvino’s _The Nonexistent Knight_”

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi: Book Review

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi is a queer coming-of-age novel like no other, exploring trauma and its aftermath within an earthly body full of gods. The story centers on a young Nigerian girl named Ada, but is narrated largely by the Ogbanje—a swarm of Igbo spirits that come from the womb of the python deity AlaContinue reading “Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi: Book Review”