Reviewed by Jennifer Taub As described on her website, Courtney Long is an Inspirational Speaker, Wellness Coach, Social Worker, Transformational Life Coach, Certified Hypnotherapist, Spiritual Coach and Reiki Master. Her self-published Authentic and Free: A journey from shame to self-acceptance alternates between memoir, journal entries, and passages of conversations between Courtney and a friend likely…
Surprise, I’m Bi!
By Amanda Townsell My freshman year of college is when my story begins. Deepdown, I think I knew that I was attracted to girls as well asguys but I refused to admit it, even to myself. Plus, I grewup in a rather rural area where it was not okay to be gayin any form. So…
A Recipe for a Mixed Marriage Cocktail:Shake, Stir, Laugh
By Debbie Block-Schwenk “I want to be a gay pop star for a week and then come backand tell you my adventures.” This is an actual line from abreakfast conversation at my house. I was telling Kevin aboutMika, the British pop star who—over the past few years—hasgone from “don’t label me” to “I guess you…
When I Didn’t Know
By Debbie Block-Schwenk I was always a late bloomer….. The villains in the cartoons I watched as a child always ties up the women, So I imagined tying them up, too. All I knew of the word, “queer” was that it meant “different” when I shouted “I’m queer!” in the mall. (Was I 8? 9?…
From your editor
Dearest Readers, The theme of this Winter 2012 issue is “When I Knew.” Readers were asked: “When did you know you were bisexual (or queer, or pansexual, or fluid, orjust definitely not straight)? Did you have an ‘aha!’ moment? Was there a pivotal event or conversation after which it all made sense? Or was yours…
Book Review: Beleaguered Oases by Ann Tweedy
By Lena Judith Drake When I received my review copy of Ann Tweedy’s Beleaguered Oases, I sincerely hoped that I would enjoy the poetry, because did not wantto write a scathing critique. I was not disappointed. In fact, I devoured these beleaguered poems while furiously taking notes about my future reviewon the back of the…
Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra, 2009)
Reviewed by Debbie Block-Schwenk “From every terrace and corner grin gargoyles through whichold rainwater spurts in sprays and splashes, only to be caughtin long pools at the base of each tower. The little faces are miceand hedgehogs and opossums, foxes and rats and blind, nosingmoles. Their faces contort as all gargoyles do, peering fromwithin curling…
Frost Moon, Book One: The SkinDancer series, by Anthony Francis (Bell Bridge Books, 2010)
Reviewed by Lara Zielinsky Dakota Frost is the Southeast’s most famous magicaltattoo artist. Also a Skin Dancer, she can make the tattooson her body writhe and even do magical battle. Whenold friends of her father’s on the Atlanta P.D. and federalinvestigators from the Department of ExtraordinaryInvestigations ask her to help them track down a serialkiller…
From your editor
For this issue, you were invited to talkabout your bodies: Body image. Genderedbodies. Bodies and health. Changing bodies.Bodies converging and merging. Bodies asobjects and/or subjects of attraction. Sexualityand the body. And you did. The submissions camepouring in. For every piece that I was able tosqueeze in, there was another I was forced toput aside for…
“Map” by Audrey Beth Stein
Reviewed by Lara Zielinsky Regardless of the age at which a person comes out, the searchfor identity brings out traits often associated with youth—awkwardness, uncertainty, and end-all, be-all feelings. This “everyone goes through something like this”message permeates each event of Audrey Beth Stein’s veryrelevant memoir Map. In 1996, through an online romance with another youngwoman,…