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Queer

A close up of the corner of stacked papers and folders on a table.
Photo by Isaac Bowen on Flickr licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Myth of Gravity: A Small Act of Social Defiance
By Xavier Stanziola
In this excerpt from Panamanian playwright Xavier Stanziola’s The Myth of Gravity, a lesbian couple fight social prejudice and petty bureaucracy to regain custody of their adopted son.
Translated from Spanish by Alexander Aguayo
Brazilian writer Stênio Gardel on the left and translator Bruna Dantas Lobato on the right finalists...
The National Book Award Interviews: Bruna Dantas Lobato and Stênio Gardel
By Words Without Borders
“This was just being at the right place at the right time,” says translator Bruna Dantas Lobato.
Multimedia
Image of translator Anton Hur and writer Bora Chung semifinalists for the 2023 National Book Award
The National Book Award Interviews: Anton Hur and Bora Chung
By Words Without Borders
“It was fate that I translated this book,” says National Book Award semifinalist Anton Hur.
Multimedia
An image of a collection of eggs of various sizes.
"Animals of the Past” by Frederic A. Lucas. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Doppelgänger
By Xavier Valcárcel
she packed my suitcase and said go.
Translated from Spanish by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Multimedia
Bright green fabric
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash
Man of Satin
By Souhaib Ayoub
He smoked incessantly. I watched him with a silent longing.
Translated from Arabic by Sharon Grosso
Black, gray, and white storm clouds
Photo by Harshit Sharma on Unsplash
A Second of Stillness
By Jintu Gitarth
Under a boundless sky stretching across the horizon, enveloped in a silence spanning miles, Diganta sat beside his favorite person.
Translated from Assamese by Harsita Hiya
Multilingual
Two men's shadows
Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero on Unsplash
A Kiss between Boys
By Victor Heringer
They all eyeballed one another, weighing up the possibility of a mass brawl.
Translated from Portuguese by James Young
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 Roque 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 Roque 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
A woman's mouth, chin, and neck
Photo by Pan Yunbo on Unsplash
Ligature Marks
By Lee Hyemi
The interplay of night and day. Deception and falsity.
Translated from Korean by Soje
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
Having a kid is the same as enrolling in a lifetime plan of suffering.
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 landscape of dunes in Timimoun under a blue sky
Chettouh Nabil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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 Xavier 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
The ruins of a running track after the Chi-Chi earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999.
Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons
Solo Dance
By Li Kotomi
From that day on, her memories of Danchen were frozen.
Translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce
Multimedia
Theo
By Fahmi Mustaffa
I'm not like you, Pak.
Translated from Malay by Adriana Nordin Manan
Medical tools hang on the wall in a doctor's office.
Unsplash
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
Renfe’s Middle Distance train sits on the tracks at a station in Vigo, Galicia.
Flickr
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
I ask myself / if mother's ban / against confessing / . . . is still in place
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
A rainy window pane looks out onto a neighborhood.
Minesshubham, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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.
A person holds a lit cigarette in front of pursed lips.
Photo by Dimitri Bong on Unsplash, Unsplash
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 from Spanish 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
Learn
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