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Queer

A herd of reindeer attached to a sled at sunset
Photo by Hans-Jurgen Mager on Unsplash
Polar Fire
By Moa Backe Åstot
Are there homosexual reindeer herders?
Translated from Swedish by B. J. Woodstein
Etching of The Rape of Caenis from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' by Antonio Tempesta
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
poets per square foot
By Raquel Salas Rivera
we take to the poem, a miracle with no church, with no witness.
Translated from Spanish by the author
MultimediaMultilingual
A burning match against a blue background
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
Embers Fed
By Xavier Valcárcel
My mother and I will burn it all.
Translated from Spanish by Raquel Salas Rivera
Dramatic clouds over a mountain and ocean in Puerto Rico
Photo by Rick Lipsett on Unsplash
Onto Dust We Shall Come
By Manuel Ramos Otero
I return to the world as I depart, / having birthed another phantom, / a dweller of nebulous coasts, / a brief enemy of metaphors.
Translated from Spanish by Cristina Pérez Díaz
A silver Vespa parked on a cobblestone road
Photo by Enrico Carnemolla on Unsplash
Uncle Andrea
By Antonio Calgan
Hypocrite that I am, I never acknowledged my true self out of cowardice, out of fear of being misunderstood, and, more than anything else, because I thought if they knew what I was, they’d despise me.
Translated from Italian by Wendell Ricketts
A rooftop in Riyadh
Photo by Rashyd . on Unsplash
Hi Maryam, It’s Arwa
By Areej Gamal
The world appeared in stages with each rung of the ladder I climbed.
Translated from Arabic by Addie Leak
Multilingual
Mirror over Water at Sunset
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
We Only Live Twice
By Adel Tincelin
The transworld was so beautiful, so vast! There was so much to explore!
Translated from French by Evan McGorray
Multimedia
Portrait of Arinze Ifeakandu and Book Cover
Photo copyright © Bec Stupak Diop for Black Rock Senegal
A Complicated Relationship with Home
By Ucheoma Onwutuebe
Homophobia is everywhere. I didn't realize I would grapple with it upon leaving Nigeria.
A hand hovering over a pill organizer filled with multicolored pills
Photo by Laurynas Mereckas on Unsplash
Boulder
By Eva Baltasar
In this excerpt from Eva Baltasar's novel of the same name, which is shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize, the narrator unwillingly goes along with her partner's plans for assisted reproduction.
Translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches
Tribades
By Nazlı Karabıyıkoğlu
Whatever you do in Turkey, you do it alone.
Translated from Turkish by Ralph Hubbell
Reckonings: The Queer Issue XII
By Susan Harris
This year we celebrate Pride Month with seven pieces depicting Queer characters confronting decisive moments.
A dark door cracked open to reveal bright red light
Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash
Yun-Fan: Singing the Variety of Queer Life
By Wanning Chen
When I was twenty-three, I met my first girlfriend, who then went off with a man after just four months—and eventually married him.
Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
A Night in Timimoun
By Nina Bouraoui
It's your skin I feel sliding beneath my soapy palms.
Translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
In the Shadows
By Olivia M. Coetzee
The rhythmic flow of Shadow Heights was something she often missed and longed for while she was in Joburg.
Translated from Kaaps by the author
Gustavo
By Javier Stanziola
My departure had nothing to do with you or your brother.
Translated from Spanish by Alexander Aguayo
Cereté, Córdoba
By Raúl Gómez Jattin
I love you all even more in exile
Translated from Spanish by Katherine M. Hedeen & Olivia Lott
Solo Dance
By Li Kotomi
From that day on, her memories of Danchen were frozen.
Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce
Theo
By Fahmi Mustaffa
I'm not like you, Pak.
Translated from Malay by Adriana Nordin Manan
In Human-Made Society
By Eva Rún Snorradóttir
In order to get a visa, they had to explain to him how two women went about having sex.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
Stress
By Antón Lopo
I suspect something in Kinue / reminds him of his own life.
Translated from Galician by Erín Moure
[When I was born my mother]
By Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto
I practiced the art of clairvoyance, / became a sorceress, a witch, a woman
Translated from Italian by Danielle Pieratti
Multilingual
The top of a medical IV pole with an IV bag
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
Letter to the Father
By Ricardo Domeneck
In echoes of the Kafka text from which this poem takes its name, a queer man longs to confront his homophobic father for a lifetime of injury in this poem by Berlin-based writer and artist Ricardo Domeneck.
Translated from Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan
In Praise of the Nude Body
By Mutsuo Takahashi
They’re as naked as the day they were born
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
Gifts
By Mutsuo Takahashi
The wisdom gathered from those wanderings is far deeper / Than that of ancient Greece
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
Post-Op
By Mariana Spada
somewhere in between the promise and the certainty of rain / the bounds of things / —all things, including you— / are blurred
Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
The Right to Identity: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
The characters in the works presented here demand recognition of the full spectrum of Queer experience in often hostile environments.
Elfiye
By Nazlı Karabıyıkoğlu
They looked at me like I was sick.
Translated from Turkish by Ralph Hubbell
The Man with a Thousand Names
By R. Joseph Dazo
Aren’t you the one with the tattoos?
Translated from Cebuano by John Bengan
Multilingual
Ricardo and Vânia
By Chico Felitti
She can't count how many times she had silicone applied to her body.
Translated from Portuguese by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
Eight Meters
By Juan Carlos Cortázar
The señora is not going to back down.
Translated from Spanish by Jennifer Shyue
Six Musical Moments by Schubert
By Natalia Rubanova
She smelled of Schubert.
Translated from Russian by Rachael Daum
Gay Giant
By Gabriel Ebensperger
Have you ever had the feeling that even if you wanted to, you'd never blend in?
Translated by Kelley D. Salas
Urdu Feminist Writing: New Approaches
By Asad Alvi, Amna Chaudhry, Mehak Faisal Khan, Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb, Geeta Patel & Haider Shahbaz
A dispiriting narrowness has defined canons of Urdu feminist writing from previous decades.
Sappho’s Ephemera
By Miraji
Her sagacity immortalized even her scattered, sporadic axioms.
Translated from Urdu by Geeta Patel
The Cupboard with Strawberry Jam
By Lee Hyemi
If I had a spare season, I would’ve rushed to whisper vulgar words
Translated from Korean by Soje
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The Queer “I”: The Tenth Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
All the pieces are told in the first person, lending intimacy and immediacy to the events they describe.
Customer
By Lee Jong San
I heard that their overflowing hormones made them dangerously seductive.
Translated from Korean by Victoria Caudle
College Folk
By Kim Bong-gon
Caught off guard, we were laughably weak.
Translated from Korean by Kyoung-lee Park
Korean Literature Is Stepping Out
By Anton Hur
Now, thanks to our authors, we’re ready to step forth into the sun.
Bruises
By Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro
It's not very clear to me if he was asking for help or wanting me to leave them alone.
Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel
The Lost Language of Crane Operators
By Matteo B. Bianchi
Perhaps I’m not ready yet to plan out my entire future, but right now these are the arms I need around me.
Translated from Italian by Wendell Ricketts
Scissors, Shining
By Lu Min
Oh, Master Song, who would have guessed your heart was hard as steel?
Translated from Chinese by Michael Day
Multimedia
So Long, Luise
By Céline Minard
This night sealed, consecrated, my future as a writer absolutely.
Translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Abel’s Autobiography
By Kári Tulinius
I had two choices: I could wrest back control of my life or I could die.
Translated from Icelandic by Larissa Kyzer
MultimediaMultilingual
Search: Porn
By Stefan Bošković
I guzzle the wine and ask him if he likes women now.
Translated from Montenegrin by Will Firth
About My Daughter
By Kim Hye-jin
These kids could be just clever, fancy thugs.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta, Part III
By Sang Young Park
We were five minutes out on our jeep when the sound of an explosion big enough to shake the car resounded from behind us.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta, Part II
By Sang Young Park
I knew better than anyone else that Oh was not gay, that he was just using these rumors.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta
By Sang Young Park
I went to Iraq to make a queer film the likes of which the world had never seen.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
Multimedia
Beyond Queer: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
The contributors to our Queer issues produce narratives that elude facile compartmentalization.
While He Was Sitting There
By Mortada Gzar
He’s the third white soldier I’ve met this month.
Translated from Arabic by Claire C. Jacobson
From “Foucault in Warsaw”
By Remigiusz Ryziński
Why was he the one with the keys to Michel Foucault’s apartment?
Translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye
Dori and Jina
By Choi Jin-young
I didn’t know Dori’s wounds, and Dori didn’t know mine—perhaps that’s why we could see each other as we were in that moment.
Translated from Korean by Soje
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Nihilism
By Nhã Thuyên
I can’t stand that one the way someone with a chronic sinus infection can’t stand abnormal shifts in weather.
Translated from Vietnamese by Kaitlin Rees
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Mina
By Sahar Mandour
One day this violation will be in the past, consigned to oblivion, long forgotten.
Translated from Arabic by Alice Guthrie
The Light Never Reaches Here
By Tina Åmodt
In the wilderness, you live in a simple house, you wake to your beloved’s face, you almost exclusively hear her voice.
Translated from Norwegian by Kerri Pierce
Belly Up
By Prabda Yoon
'Mantique thought today at sunrise would be a good time to kill herself.
Translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul
The Lagoon
By Abilio Estévez
The present, very often, takes its definitive shape in the past.
Translated from Spanish by David Lisenby
Multilingual
Bahaa and Shareef Escape to New York
By Ezzedine Fishere
They didn’t get any satisfaction from coming out.
Translated from Arabic by Jonathan Smolin
Multilingual
Muzaffer and Bananas
By Yalçın Tosun
We were both quite fat, but Ali’s body carried more promise than mine.
Translated from Turkish by Abby Comstock-Gay