#qtpoc writers

[smittybuckler]

please

lie to me

tell me

everything is going to be ok

lie to me

tell me

you love me

tell me

you like me

lie to me

tell me my life

has value

lie to me

and tell me

not to die

[lemursandsirens]

i keep wanting to see me

keep wanting to meet me

keep seeing glimpses, a hue, a sheen of that person

still disconnected from the “who”

but i see the focus 

i see the hyper awareness of this “new”

and i see the way you’re repelled

by this layer you’ve ordained as dirt

so i’ll scrub again

cleanse again

to dissolve the glimpses of me

for a few days at least

this constant pruning 

leads to regrowth

and you wouldn’t prune suddenly visible roots

of an old tree

so acquiesce

sooner rather than later

i don’t want glimpses anymore

[mannakigubat]

•

"i admire your resiliency," said a longtime friend, who has witnessed me rise from four soul shattering ruptures in the last decade.

"wow, thanks for the affirmation. i hardly think i'm resilient, mostly just foolish," i reply, with a sarcastic laugh mixed with a twinge of shame bubbling in my chest.

"you are resilient though. how do you remember who you are? how do you return to yourself after unbearable heartbreak?" they ask. i hear them crying along with the evening rain, grieving the end of their partnership.

"never abandon yourself ever again," i answer with a magnitude of unwavering certainty.

--

you will read poetry and sob with monsoons, thinking nobody can hear you

you will learn to cook breakfast without weeping every morning

you will wash your laundry with bitterness and sleep among piles of resentment for days on end

every song will remind you of what used to be and you will make music to write your new chapters

one day, when you least expect it, you will enjoy solitude without crumpling to the floor

'til then, ella&louis and chet baker are your favorites, as you stare at the popcorn ceiling

you will fall in love for only five minutes, with a stranger on the dance floor who makes you feel desirable again

you will wake up, just a little, each time the breeze brushes your cheek and you will remember that you have a body

pluck plumerias and run their petals along your skin to cure your touch starvation

because even though you crave to be held by another, you cannot rest in any arms just yet

you are tired, jaded and cautious. yet open and curious--over and over

you become specific and particular, with a list of the highest compatible qualities you seek in your future life partner

but no amount of non-negotiables will ever fully prepare you for when you suddenly feel sparks again

it will feel like such a surprise when your heart starts unfolding again

give yourself gratitude for how remarkably expansive you are

trust that you will not fall so easily in a flurry of passion, but rather steadily and certainly

you will love more practically and stronger each time

knowing that what you need is a warm, cosmic, boundless and inspiring love

a love that is deliberate, reliable, forgiving, gracious, compassionate and beyond

but most of all, you will know that you must take care of yourself first

you will choose someone who matches your frequency and divine timing

someone who is equally committed to never abandoning themselves

you will be mirrors for one another

you will choose each other every night and morning

knowing that it is possible to live an abundant life together

knowing it takes tenacious love and collaboration

you will build new worlds together

a risk worth taking

a resiliency that is admirable and never foolish

•

[madsolar]

i need more queer trans bipoc poets and artists to follow !!!! pls !!!!!!

[orangejuicegarage]

As the world hugs me slow it catches it’s calloused yarn on the thorny cocoon I forged myself in. It peels it back to expose translucent wings that smell of microwaved rice and hold like amber.

My form is temporary, empty by design, it serves to be seen but not held.

What unsanctimonious form would I take if I did not self-serve to meld to involuntary mirrors out of fear of my own nature?

Sacrifice expectations poolside. The aqua is healing, its home; it's simply the stagecoach to finality.

I find myself faceless in the face of loneliness, there are no mirrors left for me in a tarnishing castle.

May I dare to evolve my amber to silver. May I look back over my shoulder and know who I am becoming.

--

silver // in adulthood I find that friendship comes every few months or so

[librarycards]

hello! i apologize in advance this is probably something that you get asked a lot. but do you have any recs on literary magazines to submit to? im a trans poet, ive been writing for over a decade but never shared anything and ive been wanting to try to send my stuff to get it published somewhere. obv ive been google searching but theres so many big and small publications and i was wondering if you have ones you like especially and/or tips on how to choose a magazine/journal to submit to. thanks a lot! <3

no worries, thank you for reaching out!! i've been publishing for like 8 years + an editor for almost 4, so i always appreciate the opportunity to help people new to the world find ethical publications that will treat their work with the care it deserves.

first and foremost: there are going to be pubs out there that are awesome and i don't know about. you may be the one to discover them for yourself! one aid in finding the best mag for your work is the wonderful, writer-created chillsubs. it's a fantastic platform that keeps a huge list of mags and presses and their relevant stats, and lets you create an account and bookmark those you're interested in. everyone i know uses them, and it's very worth it given the sheer volume of mags out there.

i also have some recs of my own, ofc. i'm going to list them below. if they pay (which i prioritize) I'll mark them with a $. some are trans/queer focused and some aren't, but all are pubs i've either edited and/or published with and can confirm their ethics + respect for writers.

manywor(l)ds - my mag! i'm co-founder and eic. break genre _ shapeshift with us. ($)

Sinister Wisdom - old, well-regarded lesbian+ lit mag, now open to everyone who is/loves a dyke. I'm guest-editing an issue on Madness with them, now open for submissions!

fifth wheel press - run by a beloved friend and comrade of mine. i've published here. excellent transparency, care, great for first-timers. ($).

kith books - headed by trans literary icon kat blair. a mag/press/community centered around bodymind non-conformity and noncompliance.

Honey Literary - QTPOC-centered, unabashedly pop-culture + social justice oriented. the vibes are simply immaculate.

Whale Road Review - not queer/trans focused, more oriented toward....'grown up' poetry/prose/pedagogy papers. Katie Manning (eic) is a fucking gem.

Graphic Violence Lit - just had my first experience publishing with them, and their care + consideration for the whole writer is amazing. they publish boundary-pushing work.

beestung - one of the brainchildren of Sarah Clark. nb/gq/2s SFF. I just edited a few guest issues w them and have published with them. amazing work. ($)

A Velvet Giant - genrequeer work. the editors are experienced, enthusiastic, and amazing at promoting writers long after publication. it's a family! ($)

Ethel Zine + Press - handmade with love by Sara Lefsyk (as you can see, trans/nonbinary/2s sarahs dominate indie publishing, as well we should :3). Sara is a sensitive and care-full editor and bookmaker whose every publication is a work of art.

Protean - pro- as in proletariat. awesome left mag with a mix of politics and culture and everything in between. they take reprints! ($)

Mudroom - publish your work along with a picture of your mudroom/shoe rack. very responsive editors who will hype you tf up. ($)

The Institutionalized Review - for psych survivors. the editors concreteness of vision and dedication to their community know no bounds.

Just Femme + Dandy - queer and fashion-focused! led by the inimitable Addie Tsai. They pay *handsomely*. ($)

In addition, there are also some "big" mags I have had excellent experiences publishing with and wanted to shout out. These are harder for a beginner to break into, but worth keeping on your radar + have been fantastic to me as a writer.

Electric Lit

Split Lip Magazine

The Offing

Nat. Brut

Santa Fe Writers' Project

Bodega

New Orleans Review

Augur Magazine

I hope this is helpful to you + others! the literary world is ever-changing and this is just a snapshot. Hopefully you find some that you like!

[niaking]

My books are on sale for pride season. Usually $20 each, you can get all three volumes of Queer & Trans Artists of Color for only $50 (and free shipping) until the end of June. These books include interviews with Janet Mock, Julio Salgado, Vivek Shraya and more! Get the discount here. Full listing of interviewees below the break.

VOLUME ONE (2014) ​CO-EDITED BY TERRA MIKALSON & JESSICA GLENNON-ZUKOFF

Mixed-race queer art activist Nia King left a full-time job in an effort to center her life around making art. Grappling with questions of purpose, survival, and compromise, she started a podcast called We Want the Airwaves in order to pick the brains of fellow queer and trans artists of color about their work, their lives, and “making it” - both in terms of success and in terms of survival.

In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses fat burlesque with MAGNOLIAH BLACK, queer fashion with KIAM MARCELO JUNIO, interning at Playboy with JANET MOCK, dating gay Latino Republicans with JULIO SALGADO, intellectual hazing with KORTNEY RYAN ZIEGLER, gay gentrification with VAN BINFA, getting a book deal with VIRGIE TOVAR, the politics of black drag with MICIA MOSELY, evading deportation with YOSIMAR REYES, weird science with RYKA AOKI, gay public sex in Africa with NICK MWALUKO, thin privilege with FABIAN ROMERO, the tyranny of “self-care” with LOVEMME CORAZÓN, “selling out” with MISS PERSIA and DADDIE$ PLA$TIK, the self-employed art-activist hustle with LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASINHA, and much, much more. Buy book one here.

VOLUME TWO (2016) ​CO-EDITED BY ELENA ROSE

Building on the groundbreaking first volume, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Nia King is back with a second archive of interviews from her podcast We Want the Airwaves. She maintains her signature frankness as an interviewer while seeking advice on surviving capitalism from creative folks who often find their labor devalued.

In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses biphobia in gay men’s communities with JUBA KALAMKA, helping border-crossers find water in the desert with MICHA CÁRDENAS, trying to preserve Indigenous languages through painting with GRACE ROSARIO PERKINS, revolutionary monster stories with ELENA ROSE, using textiles to protest police violence with INDIRA ALLEGRA, trying to respectfully reclaim one’s own culture with AMIR RABIYAH, taking on punk racism with MIMI THI NGUYEN, the imminent trans women of color world takeover with LEXI ADSIT, queer life in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps with TINA TAKEMOTO, hip-hop and Black Nationalism with AJUAN MANCE, making music in exile with MARTÍN SORRONDEGUY, issue-based versus identity-based organizing with TRISH SALAH, ten years of curating and touring with the QTPOC arts organization Mangos With Chili with CHERRY GALETTE, raising awareness about gentrification through games with MATTIE BRICE, self-publishing versus working with a small press with VIVEK SHREYA, and the colonial nature of journalism school with KILEY MAY. The conversation continues. Buy book two here.

VOLUME THREE (2019) ​CO-EDITED BY MALIHA AHMED

Is it possible to make art and make rent without compromising your values? Nia King set out to answer this question when she started We Want the Airwaves podcast in 2013. In her Queer & Trans Artists of Color book series, Nia collects podcast interviews — with Black, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern and Indigenous LGBTQ writers, musicians and visual artists — which feature both incredible storytelling and practical advice.

In the latest installment of the Queer & Trans Artists of Color series, Nia discusses performing at the White House with VENUS SELENITE, the global nature of colorism with KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE, writing for Marvel Comics with GABBY RIVERA, using lies to tell unspeakable truths with KAI CHENG THOM, Black mental health with ANTHONY J. WILLIAMS, curating diverse anthologies with JOAMETTE GIL, growing up trans in rural Idaho with MEY RUDE, covering crime as a baby-faced reporter with SAM LEVIN, feminist approaches to journalism with SARAH LUBY BURKE, documenting Black punk history with OSA ATOE, crossing color lines with QWO-LI DRISKILL, fat hairy brown goddesses with PARADISE KHANMALEK, the usefulness of anger with JIA QING WILSON-YANG, transitioning as death and rebirth with ARIELLE TWIST, surviving homelessness and touring the world with STAR AMERASU and much, much more. Buy book three here.

[appolsaucy]

A dear friend runs an amazing qtpoc-focused massage/bodywork business. They've witnessed just how difficult and terrifying it can be specifically for transfemmes in the bodywork field, and are hoping to boost their intern's gofundme below.

Signal boosts v welcome.🖤

[sfplhormelcenter]

https://www.facebook.com/events/278307659759351/ Join us in the Koret Auditorium tomorrow June 6th from 5:30-7:30 for RADAR Superstar!

Curated by Seattle Civic Poet & James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award winner Anastacia Renee this interdisciplinary extravaganza features a pre-show face painting session with Bailey, reading by local poets Aimee Suzara, Tommy Pico and librecht baker, an Adult Drag Queen Story Hour with Honey Mahogany.

[lemursandsirens]

eds

today the lack of collagen isn’t just in my connective tissue i feel the strands of experiences twisting and breaking down as if they want to get me to stop i think it means i should be kind and delicate perhaps some elmore’s oil and a weighted blanket or googling again if i’m eligible for care (you never are) instead i think i should just do what i usually do be a sock outta the buskin duo for the day eventually i’ll feel it (you never do)

[mannakigubat]

• • • i am • • •

30 for 30 decolonization through poetry day 1: “write a poem that tells the world who you are in this very moment.” --

i am wanting

waiting

for the spirit i am becoming

i am tired

of flying into wildfires

only to return with ash

from grieving our star kin

these minuscule crystals sleep in my palm and

must be mixed gingerly into fresh sugar cane water

i pray it is enough

to surface the markings of the chosen ones

tap tap

we

are the ones

i am. among you

here to unearth what we'd almost forgotten

beings from galaxies and oceans beyond

this multiverse cannot fathom

tap tap

download the sunrise into this vessel

ancient melodies breathing light into our temples

remember how water flies freely as song

i am everything and nothing

tap tap

weaving constellations that detonate lava

brighter than the rage of sacrificing our slumber

for the new earth we are building

i am wanting

tap tap

waiting

tap tap

for the love(r)

spirit

warrior

i am becoming

[theboywhocriedbooks]

Writers Group for queer writers of color!

Hello! If you don't know, my name is Joseph, and I'm a queer Chicano writer from Los Angeles. Last week, I mentioned in a tiktok that I'd love to form a virtual writing group for QTPOC! So, that is launching soon on Discord!

The goal is just to foster community, talk about writing, and motivate each other to write! Is anyone here interested?

[orangejuicegarage]

i burned down the house of cards you built for me with matches made of rage and fire forged in devastation your eyes were the salt water i drowned myself in i don’t think i coughed all of it up in my resuscitation it left mineral deposits in my bloodstream my tears tasted foreign when i refused to let them soak my shirt in the middle of crosswalks it reminded me of open endings

--

open endings // please tell me I'm not the only one that makes up fake scenarios with my crush

[librarycards]

hihi, i work in a public library & m always seeking new (to me) books & writers! i read largely magical realism & specfic w the occasional litfic (most recently Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!) & plenty of poetry by qtpoc whose imagery gets called “weird”, trying to avoid repetition of titles i’ve seen in ur already answered asks, here r some books/authors i love:

Past Lives, Future Bodies & Gods of Want (everything, rlly, but emphasis on the short stories & poetry) by K-Ming Chang

Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (particularly for the sense of utter existential dread it left me)

M Archive by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (hybrid forms <3)

Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde

& Jamie Berrout’s entire bibliography

tyty!!! p.s. just bc i can imagine them being clear connections to make, i also already know & cherish Akwaeke Emezi’s & Rivers Solomon’s books!

given that you're a library professional, i'm going to focus on un(der)known books with relatively little buzz! hopefully this might inspire you to order some of these or maybe find a new hidden gem :)

Niki Tulk, O.

Jesi Bender, Kinderkrankenhaus

Keely Shinners, How to Build a Home for the End of the World

Mairead Case, Tiny

Jay Besemer, The Ways of the Monster

Marwa Helal, Ante Body

Precious Okoyomon, Ajebota

i also have a book (forthcoming in aug., but I have ARCs/pre-orders open now!) you may like :3

there are other books I could rec, but I trust you've seen them in my other asks or know about many of them already!

[b-a-pigeon]

✨Support a low-income QTPOC author on their birthday!✨

Hi, I’m B! I’m queer, trans, neurodivergent, & multiracial. I'm also an indie author who writes contemporary/low fantasy, featuring adult LGBTQ characters & characters of color; at the moment, my writing is my only source of income.

I'm turning 28 on November 29th, and all I want for my birthday is support for my writing career to help me pay my rent 🖤 Here’s how you can help!

Pay for my writing (link includes summaries + purchase links) | Become a patron | Buy me a coffee!

If you don’t have $$ to spare but want to support, you can reblog this post; find my mailing list & other social media on linktree; and leave me a review if you’ve read my work.

Thank you so much for your support in whatever form that takes!

[naetorious]

Healing and Housing for Kofi

Healing and Housing for Kofi

Good evening folx, so much has shifted for me since the creation of this blog. I had really elaborate plans of doing a Sunday series on soul food for thought, an intention to create and post more music, as well as plans to get my online store up and running. All of these desire were thwarted by mold poisoning, a mystery illness that completely debilitated me for a year and a half. Now that I’ve…