Binders Full of Women Writers, Jewish LGBT Must-Reads, and Other LGBT News
Author: Sarah Fonseca
June 27, 2014
This week in LGBT news:
Tablet‘s Wayne Hoffman has compiled the definitive list of Jewish LGBT must-reads. Included are classics like Angels in America and A Queer and Pleasant Danger, as well as lesser heard-of titles such as the 1982 anthology, Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology.
Meg Day, a 2010 Lambda Literary Foundation fellow in poetry, has been named a 2014 Point Foundation Scholar. Day is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Poetry and Disability Poetics at the University of Utah.
Vogue writer Emily Greenhouse has penned a profile of Binders Full of Women Writers, a virtual commune created by writer Anna Fitzpatrick. The secret Facebook group boasts over 20,000 members who seek to network, collaborate, and support one another:
All women, genderqueer, and nonbinary identifying writers are welcome, as is self-promotion, pal-promotion, open conversation, and other methods and means intended to “take down the patriarchy.” Things not welcome: negativity, disrespect, lack of discretion, and trend pieces. (I solemnly swear I’m trying to stick to her rules. I sent Fitzpatrick an email, but she did not reply.) She built a Rolodex and lists an impressive roster of resources: job listings, places to pitch, Twitter accounts to follow (“#binders” is trending), mentor-mentee opportunities, and forums on freelancing and the never-yielding pressure to be “easy to work with.” This is a venue where women writers can lift each other up.
While homosexuality remains punishable by law in India, LGBT creatives in the city of Chennai are cultivating a queer literary tradition. Priya M. Menon of The Times of India explores the writing community’s celebration of Rainbow Pride:
The aim is to create a body of LGBT literature as well as reach out to the world. “I want to encourage more members of the community to write so that others get to know about us,” says Priyababu. Her dream is to create a transgender resource and empowerment centre. “There are a lot of students who do research and documentation. We could collect these and create a library,” she says.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to write more, read The New York Times‘ Carl Zimmer’s exploration of a study that compares the brains of seasoned creative writers to those of professional athletes:
As the scientists report in a new study in the journal NeuroImage, the brains of expert writers appeared to work differently, even before they set pen to paper. During brainstorming, the novice writers activated their visual centers. By contrast, the brains of expert writers showed more activity in regions involved in speech.
“I think both groups are using different strategies,” Dr. Lotze said. It’s possible that the novices are watching their stories like a film inside their heads, while the writers are narrating it with an inner voice.
Heroes Con featured a panel of comic book industry creatives who spoke on the prevalence and improvement of LGBT characters within the medium.
Until next week!
Image via Amazon
