Here's a Handy P & P Flow Chart

My thanks to Mike Mazza for sharing this diagram listing all the characters (and their relationships) in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which we discussed last night as our quarterly non-LGBTQ book. And, of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to share this iconic image from the 2005 BBC adaptation. (OK, I didn't even try to resist...:-)

More of Less

As we get ready to nominate books for our 2023 reading list, several of you have already flagged two new novels. Andrew Holleran's The Kingdom of Sand came out in June, to wide acclaim; here's the New York Times review. And Andrew Sean Greer's Less Is Lost, the eagerly anticipated sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lost (which we discussed in January 2019) drops on Sept. 20. This NYT profile of Greer gives readers a detailed preview of the book; it certainly sounds like a hoot (and a holler)!

Deciphering the Code

In anticipation of our upcoming discussion (this Wednesday) of Rodger Streitmatter's Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples, I wanted to highlight the couple portrayed in Chapter 6: J.S. Leyendecker and Charles Beach. Unlike some of the other figures Streitmatter profiles, I had actually heard of them before, thanks to a truly moving 2021 documentary, "Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker," that I highly recommend. (I streamed it on the Paramount app.) 

Leyendecker and Beach were also included in the National Portrait Gallery's 2010 exhibition, "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," as were Janet Flanner and Solita Solano (Chapter 8) and Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns (Chapter 13). Here is a link to the handsome catalog. 

It's (a) Library Thing

Grant Thompson was kind enough to share this roundup of "Pre-1969 LGBTQ Literature" from the Library Thing blog, containing 100 titles. While acknowledging the "wealth of Pride reading lists that highlight some of the great books of today," the creators of this Pride Month list want to "draw attention to LBGTQ books from an earlier period." As with all such compilations, it is necessarily idiosyncratic, and one can certainly quibble both with what made the list and what didn't. But as we prepare to nominate books for our own reading list (stay tuned for more details on that annual exercise), this is a useful resource. 

More LGBTQ poets to get to know, Part III

It turns out that the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter has featured almost as many LGBTQ poems during August as it did back in June (go figure!), so I'm devoting this posting to them. Enjoy!

Give Me a Boat that Can Carry Two            by Rajiv Mohabir

Rose Song                                                    by Anne Reeve Aldrich

At Sainte-Marguerite                                    by Trumbell Stickney

Not                                                                by Stephanie Cawley

The Sunset and the 

Purple-Flowered Tree                             by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

awaiting a carriage, any                                by Bernard Ferguson

Fracture                                                        by Ellen Bass

house hunting as an act of faith                    by t'ai freedom ford

The Depths of the Grass                                by Michael Field

More LGBTQ poets to get to know, Part II

And here are LGBTQ poems (not all by LGBTQ authors, I should note) which the American Academy of Poetry's Poem-a-Day newsletter featured during June and July. Enjoy!

One Girl                                                    by Sappho

our general banality                                by fahama ife

Mentally missturbed                                by Ava Hofmann

My Love                                                    by Bruce Nugent

I Want                                                        by Jordan Jace

[subterranean / dreaming grace roots]        by Nat Raha

The Pool                                                    by Bryher

Do not trust the eraser                                by Rosamond S. King

I Never Felt Comfortable in My Old Skin    by Xan Phillips

stilettos in a rifle range                                by Tyrone Williams

More LGBTQ poets to get to know, Part I

Here is the first of three catch-up installments in my ongoing series of postings here spotlighting LGBTQ poets whose work the American Academy of Poetry has featured via its Poem-a-Day newsletter (as well as a smattering of straight poets who have addressed such themes in their work). These poems were featured in the spring; the next two installments will cover summer poems. Enjoy!

Good Grief                                                    by KB Brookins 

in our chant of the creation of the world     by leilani portillo

The Viole(n)t Cat                                        by Dan Taulapapa McMullin

Hinemoana                                                  by Essa May Ranapiri

Voyages V                                                    by Hart Crane

Of a Certain Friendship                                by Elsa Gidlow

Klangfarbenmelodie                                    by Manuel Arturo Abreu

Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula'                            by Chase Berggrun

sky hammer                                                by Julian Talamantez Brolaski

A Shropshire Lad, XXX                            by A.E. Housman