Book Bingo NW 2024: LGBTQIA+ Poetry/Essays

Colleen Lindsay, Bookseller at Charlie’s Queer Books, offers suggestions to fill your “LGBQTIA+ Poetry/Essays” AND “Suggested by an Independent Bookseller” squares for Book Bingo NW 2024.

Since we’re headed toward the last weeks of Book Bingo, I thought I’d share a few suggestions for a category that sometimes intimidates readers: queer poetry and essays. Don’t worry; we got you!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones (poetry)

Saeed Jones writes poetry that examines race, sex, gender, queer identity, homophobia, and grief. His writing is powerful; raw yet nuanced and approachable. This collection, his second after the critically acclaimed Prelude to Bruise, was written as a response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the titular poem begins:

“The end of the world was mistaken

for just another midday massacre

in America.”

It’s impossible to read through this collection and not feel the pain of a generation of young queer people trying to live through the aftermath of the most tragic night of their lives.

Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons by Marilyn Hacker (poetry)

Changing it up for this recommendation because I wanted to share a collection that is full of joy. Hacker, an award-winning poet, writes in a very formal style, but her poems often use modern slang, colloquialisms, and profanity, making them feel as though she is having an impassioned conversation with the reader. This collection of sonnets explores the exuberance of a new love affair between two women, the fear when lust becomes love, the difficult conversations, and ultimately the natural end of the relationship. The narrative moves from New York City to Paris and back and Hacker isn’t shy about delving into the sheer sexual passion between the two lovers. One of my favorite lines in the book:

“sweetheart, it isn’t lust; it’s all the rest

of what I want with you that scares me shitless.”

Just an extraordinary collection!

Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough (essays)

This memoir of a blue-collar queer woman is presented as a collection of eleven essays, each one detailing a pivotal point in the author’s life. Raised in David Berg’s Children of God cult as a child — the same cult in which River and Joaquin Phoenix were raised — Hough is moved from country to country as a child to evade authorities. She eventually runs away to join the Air Force, hoping to escape the violence and abuse of her childhood and to explore her queer identity. But the Air Force becomes a different kind of abusive relationship, as she is targeted by hate crimes and death threats. Eventually Hough ends up homeless, living in her car while working as a cable repair person. Despite the bleakness of her story, this is a funny book, and Hough does a wonderful job of exploring the similarities between the cult she was raised in and the ideology of American Exceptionalism. Hough’s keen eye for detail and talent as a storyteller make this essay collection a must-read.