COVER FEATURE

Queer Lit in the 21st Century

For guest editor George Henson, it’s been a long journey from reading The Front Runner in 1977 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, to writing about queer lit for World Literature Today. But just as he has found his place here, the writers featured in this issue have taken their place alongside a long list of notable world authors.

  • Achy Obejas
    The first time I saw your father,I stared back into the pool at your reflectionwhile he waded through,the water moving in gentle circles away from us. The first time, I thought it was the Nilewe’d dip…
  • Abdellah Taïa
    On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, the narrator recounts three near-death experiences and his journey from Morocco to France. With nods toward Dostoevsky and Genet (echoing the Lazarus scene be…
  • Daniel Simon
    Daniel Simon  The themes of “Turning Thirty” have an archetypal feel to them—sickness, death, rebirth, forbidden love, truth, happiness, naming, freedom, madness, fear, solitude. Do y…
  • George Henson
    For guest editor George Henson, it’s been a long journey from reading The Front Runner in 1977 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, to writing about queer lit for World Literature Today. But ju…
  • Samiya Bashir
      White Body Radiation Every day adjustments   before give upbefore make do   start where a clothespin clips a nose and breath is held until – What is a thing of beautyif it isn’t us? And if a body i…
  • Daniel Simon
    When does a life bend toward freedom? grasp its direction? Adrienne Rich, “Inscriptions,” 1991–95 In an essay on “The Homoerotics of Travel,” Ruth Vanita proposes mobility as a def…
  • John Weir
    Photo by Eric van Wijk A writer-activist leaves his Brooklyn apartment and goes to Manhattan for a Queer Nation protest at the Russian consulate carrying his laptop, Charles Dic…
  • ko ko thett
    Photo by Takeshi+81/Flickr §          Leaves and twigs on the ground Do I have to know the name of that tall tree to free-fall from her canopy? In my language there are 1,500 synonyms for penis, and…
  • Edward Pasewicz
    Photo by Bill Barber/Flickr Essay on Caution Unmatched is freedom from ties,he says, giving me a dark blue plum.  I have frayed shoelaces and there is shameattached to these shoelaces, great shame. I…