Queer Stories for a New Beginning
Prism & Pen stories — January 3, 2021
by James Finn
Prism & Pen felt a bit melancholy last week as the pandemic leaked into writers’ reflections on the queer experience. But Esther Spurrill-Jones and The Transgender Therapist fight back with beauty from the world of music and film, theoaknotes throws us queer style with minimalist flair, and BFoundAPen creates a vivid world of Roaring Twenties trans love.
I happen to know Brian wasn’t thinking of that glamorous decade as a reaction to the 1918 pandemic, but as I changed the Digest date to 2021 for the first time, I couldn’t help root for our own Roaring Twenties. Here’s to filling it with fabulous queer tales!
Editor’s Picks —
Creative Nonfiction
Food Fight
Alessia Autumn gives us a story of love and friendship that embodies the spirit of creative non-nonfiction. Dive in and FEEL with her.
I mean, there I was, sitting on the bed of my cramped room, trying to get some studying done. I’d spent every second with you that week, and was dangerously behind on my schoolwork. You kept distracting me. You’d walk over and bug me with one question or another, all poking and prodding. It wasn’t difficult for you to get my attention. Of course I’d rather talk to you than study. You were the most exciting and interesting thing that had ever happened to me.
Fiction
The Transman and the Preacher: A Roaring 20s Love Story
BFoundAPen’s world of jazz, speakeasies, moonshining, and protection rackets feels so real you could walk right in. But he’s got a major twist in store for you.
“Big Jimmy, get that bastard outta here.” I jerked my thumb towards the back door. The saxophone started to belt out once again from my right.
Big Jimmy snatched him from the ground with one of his monstrous hands. With everyone’s eyes on them, I slid my piece back in my pocket. I draped an arm around Minnie’s shoulders.
“You’re just too beautiful, babe,” I commented with a shake of the head.
Poetry
Cold-Blooded Heart of Gold
I don’t know how to best introduce one of Tre L. Loadholt’s poems other than to urge you to read it. But, also … click on the audio link and LISTEN!
cold-blooded — heart heavy
sweet girl turned woman
turned goddess
turned flashback to
“golden time of day.”
Art Reviews —
Share All My Sorrows
Esther Spurrill-Jones
June 23, 1969. Five days before the Stonewall riots were to begin.
A sixteen-year-old hippie girl sits down and writes a song to express her love of Jesus, and to share that love with her baby sister and with her friends at school.
When Marsha … came out as a lesbian, much of the church and the music industry she had helped to birth and build turned against her.
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Restored My Faith in Love Stories
The Transgender Therapist
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a period drama set in the 1770s, is a queer love story that is as enthralling as it is heartbreaking, not to mention one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Best of all, the film’s director, Céline Sciamma, made the intentional decision to not spend half of the narrative having the leads, Héloïse and Marianne, obsessing about how to come out or what it meant to be queer.
Creative Non Fiction Selections —
How Spotify Invaded My Queer Christmas Privacy
James Finn
As an atheist and former devout evangelical Christian who adores Christmas, I spent a lot of time with Spotify over the last few days. As much as I loved the Christmas warmth of the music that filled my home, I was shocked to learn how much Spotify knows about me.
I have tried to peg when my battle with gender dysphoria actually began. It still seems so new to me but it’s clearly not. Like measuring our epochs with B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin for “in the year of the Lord” referring to the birth of Jesus Christ), I have divided my life into Pre-Awareness and Post-Awareness periods.
When Not Choosing a Label Gives Them Hope
Sean Bennett
A person’s identity is a product of their internal feelings, not their external behaviours. They decide what they identify as and it is our role to accept them in their entirety. It is not anybody’s place to hope that they change or grow to be one thing over another. They are who they are, and what that means is nobodies business but their own.
2020 Was My Queerest Year Yet
Danny Jackson H.
For a while, I was almost certain that this label was the right one for me. Still, something felt off. Although the word “lesbian” wasn’t quite as feminine as the word “woman,” to me it sort of implied womanhood to a degree that made me uncomfortable. But I pushed those feelings aside for a few months.
How to Marie Kondo Your Gender in 2021
theoaknotes
I began practicing minimalism, trying to live a more meaningful life by eliminating nonessentials, in late 2018. A Matt D’Avella video popped up in my YouTube recommended section, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Trying to marry minimalism with my genderqueer, nonbinary fashion sense has been challenging (and is by no means over), but I’m happy with where I’ve landed for the moment.
I Came Out as Trans, Then Lost My Wife to Illness
Rachel Brindell
After coming out as Transgender three years ago my world was in complete turmoil. I was sixty years old at the time and while coming out is hard enough, I also had to face losing my wife of thirty years to illness.
No, It’s Not OK to Be a Gay White Man
James Finn
Last week I came face to face with tremendous pushback to the reality of the gay male experience. Dozens of straight/cis people insisted to me that being gay is no big deal, that gay white men don’t face oppression. A respected transgender columnist recently seemed to imply as much casually in an article on Medium while rightfully criticizing a conservative gay writer who has never been part of the struggle for queer equality.
Fiction Finds —
Our Last Moments
Allen R. Marquez
I lost him the moment he stepped into that shower booth. I stood by the sink ashamed, listening to water smack against his body. My stomach clenched. I heard his blue-green swim shorts slosh over the partition. I didn’t dare tear my eyes away from the faucet. Leaving didn’t seem like an option at the time. He was my best friend and he kept talking to me. I realized he’d left the towel by me.
Master Classes —
You Deserve More Eyes on Your Stories: Here’s How
I slipped a tutorial into our Master Classes tab last week, although it’s about promoting writing rather than the art of writing that David Wade Chambers usually enlightens us with.
I hope all P&P writers will have a look at this, because it contains valuable information about photos and titles that will get more eyes on your work and help grow our publication.
That’s all for today. Heres’s to roaring into the 20s! And writers? New prompt later today. On your marks!
— Jim
Esther Spurrill-Jones, BFoundAPen, Zayn Singh, Ainsley L, Kathy Lee Tolleth, Brian Pelletier, Fred Shirley, Ikedi Oghenetega, neil chapman, David Wade Chambers, Artemis Shishir, alto, Sean Stephane Martin, Gabriela Penelope Carolus, Lois Shearing, b.henriques, Carl Rebeiro 🏳️🌈, Rodney Frazier, Simon, Carl Rebeiro, Brian Fehler, Deneishia Jacobpito, Chris Hedges, Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle, Kathy Lee Tolleth, Brian Pelletier, Alex David Bevan, Ikedi Oghenetega, David Wade Chambers, Sean Stephane Martin, Gabriela Penelope Carolus, Lois Shearing, Valentine Wiggin, b.henriques, Carl Rebeiro, Rodney Frazier, Simon Z. Brian Fehler, Cassie Brighter, Deneishia Jacobpito, Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle, James Patrick Nelson, Brigid Maloney, Gabriela, Presley Thomas, Evan McCoy, Loren Olson, Ken Wilson, Chandler Myer, NaNa’sworld, Arabelle J., Liam Heitmann-Ryce, Edis Rune, Prickly Pam, Dawn McGrath, Jonathan | sex & theology, Tabitha Lowndes, Emma Nwosisi, Melissa Speed, Dr. Thomas J. West, Till Kaeslin, Dave Smurthwaite, Ellie Rebecca, Zoey Milford, Edris Quinn C., Dennett, Michael Constable, Jim Martens, Stephen Foster, Kravitz M. Kristen Nadel, William Kuhn, Denisa Bogdan, MSci, Rafaela Mempin, Tre L. Loadholt, theoaknotes, Rachel Brindell, Elle Fredine, Jess Darnell, Emma Holiday, Gabe Evaristo, Joshua Mackey, Steve Alexander, Stevie Wilkinson, Andy Killoran, Nick Bundarin, ElMehdi El Azhary, Bradley Wester, Stella Luna (they/she?), Chuy G. Gonzalez, MS, Aaron W. Marrs, Zada Kent, Tima Loku, Cam, The Transgender Therapist, Sean Bennett, Ty Bo Yule, Abbie Drake, Alessia Autumn, Allen R. Marquez
