dto i,Jn 2019 June Six, Edition Queer

THE RIVETERFREE

INTRODUCTION BY WEST CAMEL, EDITOR 2 rnhwrigcasml,ad and people. queer to out male, mete males those of some violence the working-class the French of experience post-industrial the Father given My Louis’s Burston’s Édouard have of Paul review foothold: that a populism feelings protectionist, son insular the queer into his insights and offers father a between picture. once bigger offer the understand to issues way And a queer Sarha. specifically Jennifer again, by reviewed here Russia, modern about book Masha in by detail Gessen fine in trends examined are nationalist and populist these reinforce and strength. gaining are harden borders those when to time a attempts at of borders, experience give across living the identities to queer definition extra their UK, Maria the in poet living poets Polish Both fellow Jastrzębska. her with in issues discussion these exactly explores Riveter and The coordinator literature (ELNet’s cultures. those between all living and – immigrants all by faced difficulties and obstacles the amplifies and clarifies highlights, but perfect fashion styling, on and view the new does a eye’ offer than me, ‘queer more the for how of is, example novel this West, the in country place a find troubled to struggle and their leave they as Albanians queer two of experiences the Statovci’s Pajtim vntedfiutrltosi relationship difficult the Even prompted have that forces The Blasiak Anna translator and Poet ihihstelnsbten between links the highlights h uuei History is Future The spouto dtr editor) production ’s Crossing olwn Following . h ild Killed Who e her , rnltdit nls was offering lens, a like English poet acts experience queer again, trans Once him. into for challenge a a translated essay finding his section. example, in poetry his on introducing reflects Lawrence Schimel something is experience decades. recent of upheavals political the by changed otherwise, been have lives and whose queer people, many the of that and experience, aesthetic Preciado’s clearer new, approach a us demands prevailing for the that essay suggests expression, her of modes queer examining in novelist, Yelena and playwright Ukrainian identities. the Moskovich, on in-between view of a and border-crossing, of us type another gives Collins, by Jacky magazine this in reviewed male, to female from transition aided logically pharmaco- a of account Preciado’s B. rsne ntefr faCatholic the a of is form and the which in ‘Timepiece’, married; presented of get structure to in order UK the to Poland Jacek’s from travel to had poem for husband his and Jacek his mother-in-law. written of ‘Timepiece’, translation the of English prize- publication first the the us offered Dehnel’s when Jacek writer Polish delighted winning was I in Riveter poetry Queer of embarrassment, another. to gender language, one or place one one from transitioning experiences our of all on view clearer a tepigt nops ue queer encompass to Attempting Junkie Testo ehv elh lota an almost wealth, a have We n htsol nops encompass should that one – nldn necuie exclusive. an including , pns/rnhPu Paul Spanish/French , ouimpopulism h The o For 3 . And West Camel – on Rosie’s special The Queer Riveter Attend For, after her final edit of magazine, Rosie said to me: ‘West, Enjoy whichever European country, culture or language you inhabit, whetherconsider you yourself onefamily, or of another tribe, or our the broader queerhuman family we aredo all members respond of, withthoughts, feelings and your fiction. own ‘queer’ poet andBlasiak. production And finally, at editor theissue, you end can Anna of read an this extract fromfirst my novel, request. the there’s only one thing missing:resident as Queer our European Editor,need we an extracthappy of to oblige… your fiction!’ I’m however you describe yourself, Lisa Kalloo, and of course our resident Thanks to all those who have This selection of queer writing, Icelandic crime writer Lilja contributors; ourRosie Riveter-in-Chief Goldsmith; our photographer out the unseen details. helped us paint this scene: our queer eyes; but we wouldto like you all enjoyilluminating the things differently, picking view, its queerness we believe, offers a broaddefined but clearly picture ofmoment. Europe’s It current is Europe seen through deficiencies speak morethan perfection universally could. have an extract from one of her novelsin the magazine – we discover flawed,compromised characters, whose lesbians represented ineven literature when – thatnegative. representation And was in her own work – we Sigurðardóttir does the same.essay, In she her discussesit how important was for her as a child to see – throws amore different universal experience. light onto the prayer, offers our readers yet another example of how ‘queering’ literature – illuminating a specifically queer issue 4 queer. revolved usually aroundsex.JohnRechywas and men, gay about books fifty before the days the In homosexual’. ‘male meaning term derogatory a time, was ‘queer’ not-so-distant a upon Once my life. of much for me concerned has question that a is this journalist, and editor author, reader, gay a As writing? about queer talk we when mean we do What WRITING? QUEER IS WHAT BY EDITORIAL fgypbihn gi,dmntd dominated again, – publishing gay age of golden 1980s the and movement post- canon. the literary queer formed pre-lib war, who writers the of oai n one ftePlr okPie.FrifrainaotPlr n h oai Polari The and Polari about information For Prizes. Book Polari www.polarisalon.com. the see of Prize founder and Polari, Out latest, his and Burston Paul ALBRTN BURSTON, PAUL

tnwl it hc okpae place took which – riots Stonewall Queer hncm h 90 a liberation gay 1970s the came Then er g hssme ue queer – summer this ago years n ayohrpbiain.H stecrtradhs faadwnigltrr ao salon literary award-winning of host and curator the is He publications. other many and eddt etoewitnb n and by written those be to tended owr enGntadmn many and Genet Jean were So h lsrIGet I Closer The steato fsxnvl nldn h HSihbssle bestseller Smith WH the including novels six of author the is US EDITOR GUEST unashamedly i oraimhsapae nte the in appeared has journalism His . o elbhvd o arw ‘Queer’ narrow. too behaved, well desperatetoo such for polite too as dismissed crisis. AIDS ‘Gay’ was the from arising activism of wave new noisy part a of as reclaimed early was the ‘queer’ In 1990s, men. gay about books by Guardian , h Times The h lc ah Path Black The , ieTime

ie time, alBrtn©Kytn FitzGerald-Morris Krystyna © Burston Paul 5 Paul Burston This year we introduced a second These days, more people are now than it has beenplease read in on decades. and judge But for yourself. become more visible.is Certainly, this reflected insubmitted the for the rangetrans and Prize, of self-identified queer with writers books moreentering today thantwelve-year history. in the Prize’s prize for writers at anycareer, stage of and their againvariety of the submissions are volumeimpressive. extremely It’s and tempting tothat conclude queer writing is in better shape the writer’s sexuality.authors Many write LGBT+ booksin without the way much that’s of fine. But queer we felt content itto was – our shine duty and ado spotlight explore LGBT+ on livesstruggle to those – get published and as who a often result. embracing queer as anhas partly identity. come This about as trans politicshave gained ground andgender a identities and variety sexualities of have and themes were just as important as When we launched The Polari So where does this leave the Queer activists took to the was decided that LGBT+ characters First Book Prize in 2011,lengthy there discussions were about what kindsof books should be eligible. Finally it a new‘queer’ ‘inclusive’ can feel a lot term. like erasure. For them, don’t. Some lesbianshave little feel enough representation that as it is, they without being subsumed under established LGBT+Some literary of the writers talent. who’ve appearedat Polari identify as queer. Others notion of the2007 I’ve queer run Polari, writer?providing a a platform literary for Since emerging salon and interpreting the world, an alternativeperspective open to all. lesbians and gay men.anyone could Anything be queer and – gay, straight,male or female. Queer was a way of Butler, queer theory posited thethat idea queer culture didn’t simply meanculture produced by and about streets andacademia. queer Spearheaded by people theory like the invaded American gender theorist Judith was defiantlyembracing and wilfully disruptive. in your face, all 6 rmFrom From From From Voices of Plurality A Poetry European Queer Lala of Review Riveting Popescu’s Lucy Non-Practising the Hours for the of Lithurgy Minor a or Timepiece, Kovacik Karen translator the by Introduction Non-Practising. the Hours for the of Liturgy Minor a or Timepiece, Dehnel Jacek Poems Jastrzębska Maria by From Poets Polish Two Between Conversation A Inside: and Outside Statovci Pajtim From ai atzbk naBlasiak Anna & Jastrzębska Maria Crossing of Review Riveting Camel’s West From Writing Moskovich Yelena Queer by in Expression Eloquence: New a for Time Moskovich Yelena Burston Paul by Writing? Queer is What b Introduction CONTENTS y Wes yJckDehnel Jacek by h reSoyo obyHtadIngénue and Hat Cowboy of Story True The Virtuoso h oni Pill a is Moon The hu(o)me*∞(à) Ser Acts Impure Unspoken the Tracing Crossing yAn Blasiak Anna by t Camel yPji Statovci Pajtim by yYln Moskovich Yelena by yPji Statovci Pajtim by ...... 4 yÁgl Néstore Ángelo by yLwec Schimel Lawrence by yJckDehnel Jacek by ...... 7 ...... 33 ...... 21 yInBrúe Raventós Bermúdez Ian by yAšaKazili Aušra by ...... 22 ...... 16 ...... 14 .... yMlnSelj Milan by ...... 11 ...... 9 ...... 39 ū ...... 25 nait ...... 38 ...... 35 ė ...... 42 ...... 23 41 1 sfaBán Zsófia Infidels of Review Riveting Popescu’s Lucy Crimson of Review Riveting Phillips’ Ursula Stories Other & Greta with Games of Review Riveting Blasiak’s Anna Novellas Two – Childhood of Review Riveting Singh’s Gurmeet Father My Killed Who of Review Riveting Burston’s Paul Junkie Testo of Review Riveting Collins’ Jacky Reviews Riveting More Trap of Review Riveting Easterman’s Max From Sigurðardóttir Lilja io Froehling Simon Grownups for Reader A School: Night of Review Riveting Levi’s Jonathan Bán Zsófia by From yRseGoldsmith Rosie by Afterword From h uuei itr:HwTtltraimCamdRussia Claimed Totalitarianism How History: is Future The of Review Riveting Sarha’s Jennifer Sigurðardóttir Lilja by History in Chapter a Writing etCamel West Vignettes yby Trap ih col edrfrGrownups for Reader A School: Night Attend yMsaGessen Masha by yAdla Taïa Abdellah by ij Sigurðardóttir Lilja yNva Korneliussen Niviaq by ySmnFroehling Simon by yby yPu Preciado B Paul by yWs Camel West by ij Sigurðardóttir Lilja ...... 63 ...... 74 yÉoadLouis Édouard by ...... 44 ...... 61 ...... 53 yGrr Reve Gerard by ...... 49 ...... 71 ...... 68 ...... 51 ySzn Tratnik Suzana by ...... 59 ...... 46 yZói Bán Zsófia by ...... 54 ...... 56 66 58 7 , and in 3:AM Magazine and was published by Serpent's Tail in forms of pleasure, Parnok also -century Russia, as well as th Paris Review , mischievously comparing poeticprosaic and raises the issue ofdelight. blatancy Whereas in the one’sseen as loud or uncultured, lacking authentic kisser isdepth inpoetry their reader practice, is seenrestrained, the as lacking melodically silent experience the capacity thesomething to sublime. quite queer in There finding just is TIME FOR A NEW ELOQUENCE: also extendliterature: to where queer andone’s how presence to in affirm sensualityexpression. It isa a through question lyrical of self- both and political nature. By The Natashas

EXPRESSION IN QUEER WRITING New Statesman . was born in the former USSR and emigrated to Wisconsin with her family Mixt(e) Magazine Canada, France, and Sweden. Her2016. first She novel has French also for written for the Yelena Moskovich as Jewish refugees in 1991. Her plays and performances have been produced in the US,

Although Parnok’s quote mayaphoristic wink be at an a badit kisser, lies within a weightier reflection that might lovers in apredecessors unique in style the thatcombining everyday language ‘Golden was and playfulness Era’ both with intense passions. independent of of 19 her Romantic ‘I pardon all your sins, but twokiss I aloud’, can’t abide: wrote you Sophia read Parnok, poems the inin 1931. silence A poet and queer daring of writer known her time, she as wrote about openly her (female) the Russian Sappho, eeaMsoih©IesManai Inès © Moskovich Yelena 8 ouim esrhp ainlsi nationalistic censorship, populism, community. cultivate queer global the across to persistence and incited unity of helped sense a Union, which cultural fluidity, and Soviet immigration significant the Curtain Iron the and of century, fall 20th the the of including the end the and at East West the artistic between occurred that changes or demeanor. structural the bohemian a However, social or or affluence, with symbolized, or cloaked implicit strictly be to time, had sentiment homosexual Parnok’s when since evolved greatly sensitive. is demonstrative the where also but (absolutely), political is personal part the where in Steinem, Gloria expression, la à of tenor right the o,tog,tecretrs n in rise current the though, Now, has literature in presence Queer confidence lyrical abandon. and mouth-watering volume, compassionate conjure narratives we reference, of as of points our now are unforgiveable sins over 21st different a this queer of gratitude, century been our has deserve they and us, work. literature served has and important queer creative their their their While and in privacy around identities maintain discretion to fought lyricism. and form both of terms precision in acuteness and such needed before never has West the and East the human across writing for queer that mean rights, disregard and isolation GT rtr aehsoial historically have writers LGBT+ n and eiiie ehp Parnok’s Perhaps legitimize. lqec olbu labour to eloquence rtr a ae have may writers eeaMoskovich Yelena 9 )

VIRTUOSO FROM (SERPENT’S TAIL, 2019 * * YELENA MOSKOVICH BY , the diseases that climb into your body and putrefy the awful is going to die.’She took a breath and I kept looking at her, so she it and took it. We were anonymous pillars, standing the test of time. ‘It’s awful, I knew what it was. My index finger was high and snug in my nostril, ‘It’s not what you think,’ she said and began to feign rubbing a stain out I climbed out from under the table and stood there, wanting to run grabbing at something promising. She slapped my hand away from my face organs. You think it can’t happen, orright to someone up else, inside or later, you, butwheezing it for deep swells mercy—’ then inside she just stopped and talking. makes room for itself until you’re began to heat up, then shesparking grabbed the her fabric skirt against again itself. and began rubbing, like of her dress, then stopped and lookedyour up father at me and said, ‘If yousaid, must ‘He know, is ill and he’s going to die young and I will be left all alone.’ Her eyes turned around. Her eyes flashed. I reached Ifollowedmymamkaintothesharedkitchenandstoodbehindheruntilshe around their legs like the Malá Narcis thatme, I was. I I could could have feel even it given swelling up myJanka in pee trick climbed a out go, but and that stunt stood was next old news. to me. She pulled out her hand and plugged in the strobe light that Slavekaround had the thick got rays of him, white and and yellow everyone and swivelled green and blue. old to sit under the table onwith New Year’s Eve. their All own the adults bodies, were they so involved danced with closed eyes, then Slavek’s papka a little harder as the snow dusted down thesitting under black the table, sky. our Janka heads and touching the I top when were we both sat upwe straight, hunched so and chatted and snubbed at anyone who told us that we were too yeah I bragged a little. Then Jana got hers soon enough,and right on our her birthday, country, the formerburst Czechoslovakia, and split. cracked I our told nation in Jana two, her ha ovaries ha. That New Year, people danced Fuck, we were teens and it was tough. I got my period before Jana despite being as flat and skinny as birch a tree, so 10 eeaMoskovich Yelena ha ftm.Siltewrdkp nfligaduflig raigisl hs this itself creasing grave unfolding, and folding a on bought kept world We the sick. Still time. was of ahead who papka my Like know. did we things, Other happen. would what knowing not even, miraculous wonder, of full got Politics dance come to Janka told and finger me. my with off blood resurrec- the being I licked bodies fire. like gun in danced propelled ted Everyone then room. door, the into the were holes that of colours tearing strobe-light sides the inside her the dancing bent was holding and She forwards ass, time. herself same her the shook at and name her knees shouted men two stopped, she weird.’ be don’t … collarbone. her into bumped forehead my grab, frantic a with chest hairs. nose some and you! to death explaining woman!’ a I’m almost you’re when Zorka, nebi, nose na Bože your pick ‘Don’t screamed, and httewoetm.Jnastnu a tog eebr huh, thought, strong, it, I remember mouth. remember. I my then. in I strength her strong, all keeps was she doing where that’s tongue were so Janka’s wow, we Maybe time. kissing. whole already the were that we eyes, my opened I When us of all to belongs that keychain. one a big like one, the small History, my with and do to what know don’t I friend. best my was She Janka. solid, was She it make to how know don’t us. I for was, right. it not get how like I that’s sound Jana, like describing it, myself about hear off I pissed when sorta Or right. it telling not I’m Maybe my on scars past. myself the snuck I off checkpoints guarded showing like Janka, was to body I yeah agreements, borders, that, or way h e oo eadwle aktwrstepry ttedowy doorway, the At party. the towards back walked and me of go let She love my please, please, ‘Please, voice, silky her in murmuring began She me. hug to trying was she Yeah, blood My of ring a out pulled and nostril, my of inside the scraped nail My ak okda yfne,te tm ae hnple eit e her into me pulled then face, my at then finger, my at looked mamka

* * * *

Moskovich Yelena 11 ) won the , published by Crossing DAVID HACKSTON (PUSHKIN PRESS, 2019 My Cat Yugoslavia of how to myshoulders, jaw hold tight, as though my chest and I am a man twenty-two-year-old who at timesmen behaves of my like my imagination: the name could beGideon, Anton whatever pleases my or ear at Adam any given moment. I or am French or German or Greek, andAlbanian, but I walk never in a particular way, the way my father taught me to walk, to follow his flat- example, footed and with a wide gait, aware

CROSSING FROM TRANSLATED FROM THE FINNISH BY is a Finnish-Kosovan novelist. He moved from Kosovo to Finland with side. Literature Prize in 2016 and Statovci also won the 2018 Helsinki Writer of Pushkin Press, won the prestigiousToisinkoinen Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. the Year Award. Pajtim Statovci his family when he was two years old. His first novel,

into part flames, becoming of that continuum a started at the moment we were told that woman was born of man’s rib, not asat a his lefthand man but to live him, alongside waiter brings me the bill and ask doesn’t why I’m eating alone, the woman inside me When smolders. I look for flaws in my dish and send it back towhen the or I kitchen walk into a store and the me, approach assistants she bursts once again to ensure nobody trespasses on mywithin territory. me At burns times on like a this pyre. When the I’m sitting woman at a café or a and restaurant the atmSaoc ek Holmström Pekka © Statovci Pajtim 12 ntemesrmta nuswe orle r noee.Ibleethat believe I uncovered. are lies your up when caught ensues being avoid that to maelstrom lies the new in with told already you’ve lies the up cover the remain to has Nobody jigsaw. a mouth. ourselves like together put can my we born; opening were they person by my simply name, my all and birth, nationality my of choose gender, place my choose can choose I I can am, world. I the what to restored finally is order answer an them given I’ve once and construct me, to eager as answer, are they too, to them happy to game are a they were all, this though and at am, them I think answer they don’t what I them Sometimes ask woman. I sometimes a I’m say I sometimes man, a them- directly: among me ask whisper or selves they and fingernail, their beneath splinter a like them wayortheother,sittingonpublictransportandinrestaurants,cafés,itirritates people one know don’t then an they disconcerting that and on it find outside, assumptions, they pull making step start I and when cape, begins formless game a garment, the androgynous Sometimes me. suits and start it can whenever I that stop up dress of game quality, the greatest my is This woman. a come have they though as stature. air equal of the challenger into a hands with so face-to-face their that times raise at and at and voice, gruff me, up low, a shut at in they them whistle at curses and me out inside shout man step the men that and much Italian restaurant the where leave street, I the so my onto and wearing, woman, I’m would a what behaviour for such at inappropriate that see I look be I flats, dark-brown when and but dress summer him, black follow to of wants sum correct me the cursory within out a pull with kitchen and the if handbag into as my disappears me in then money, watches rummage he I check as the child cooked me a is brings were the meat he I the when food me and asked, tells the I but about way kitchen the the complaint just to same back it the take not make does and waiter restaurant, dish, same the same into go the I When order town. all, the at around not walk burn, I not as does me me joins within but man be the to moment lenses that contact at blue and of set again, dab a born brows, in put my cheeks lashes, my in my coif fill and dust mascara eyes, some foundation, my on with around eyeliner face ground. etch my the carefully paint powder, touching I with not men, heels with my argue never moving, I mother the my move I remember and irrelevant, I is name way the Anastasia, or Amina am I pleases. she u o aet rpr oref olv omn ie,yuhv o to have you lives, many so live To yourself. prepare to have you But like look sometimes can who but woman a be cannot who man a am I however behaves who woman twenty-two-year-old a am I Sometimes r o a rawmn woman? a or man a you Are oeie elte m am I them tell Sometimes I hn you Thank h a man The . 13 . Paj�m Statovci At the Edge of Light Translated by David Hackston and Maria Peura’s My Cat Yugoslavia is a British translator of Finnish and Swedish literature and drama. , Pajtim Statovci’s In the evenings I sometimes hold my hands out before me, clasp them At my weakest moments I feel a crushing sense of sorrow, because Notable recent publications include Kati Hiekkapelto’sThe Anna Midwife Fekete series, Katja Kettu’sIn 2007 he was awarded the Finnish State Prize for Translation. David Hackston speaking at a higher pitch orthat dressing it’s differently, not telling lying lies at in all. such It’son a just wanting way things a and way never of on being. what That’s might why happen once it’s you’ve best got to them. focus impactthebreadthofashoulder,theamountofbodyhair,thesizeofafoot,one’s talent and choiceacquired— a of new profession. way of Everything walking, else a can new body be language, learned, you can practice though I don’t even believe indesire to God. look I a do, particular way however, and believe behave that in a a certain person’s manner can directly together, and pray, because everybody in Rome prays andthem asks resolve God difficult to situations. help thing A like thatso can catch I on so pray easily, and that I might wake up the next morning in a different life, even itself. If death were a sensation, it would beill-fitting this: clothes, invisibility, living walking your in life shoes in that pinch. not in any way, but someone else, anyone else. I know I mean nothing to other people, I am nobody, and this is like death people think of me, never invitethem with the food neighbours I for could dinner never afford simply for to myself. I feed would not be an Albanian, I swore I would never become like them, I would never care what other people in my country grow old beyond their years and die so young ThroughoutmychildhoodIhatedthisaboutmyparents,despiseditlikethesting of an atopic rash or the feeling of being consumed with anxiety, and with almost military precision: there is no falsehood, noabout story they themselves won’t to tell maintain the façade andhonour ensure that remain their dignity and intact and untarnished until they are in their graves. precisely because of theirshields lies. her They newly hide born child their and faces avoid being the seen way in a an mother unflattering light

14 esnh et nteWs West the in meets he new each person offers narrator same This the find we dissembling: – published narrator review is this which alongside from extract an – of chapter first very identity the In narrator. true our in, the and creep about to York however, begins New Doubt other Madrid, Helsinki. travels the Rome, he as escape; to narrator our their best following start and plan then and he to up grow as Agim Tirana friend past in parallel tracing events two one relates threads: narrative who view of Bujar, told point of is first-person first novel for the the the from lives that West, is new the impression in make themselves to queer home two their country escape of they as lives Albanians the Following queer immigrants as as us, of non-Europeans, people. each indigenous and of as that Europeans and identity broadly about people, more mystery straight and a is protagonist people, novel the subtle of and that assured – this of heart the At REVIEW RIVETING BY TRANSLATED BY CROSSING hnvri ut me.’ suits it stop whenever of and start can I game that my up dress the is This quality, woman. greatest be a like cannot look who sometimes can who but man woman a a am ‘I ATMSTATOVCI PAJTIM AI AKTN HACKSTON DAVID YBY ETCAMEL WEST PSKNPES 2019) PRESS, (PUSHKIN h arcamt erltd related be to order to in gangster claim powerful when a to lead pair the who, takes the identities, example, new for talent the assuming has for who Bujar, not Agim, as man. a presents as sometimes import- he woman, a Most sometimes actor, singer. an antly, a He’s Spanish, student, Turkish. a sometimes once, and he Sometimes Italian; is. where he he’s of who from, account comes different a h stastoigfo ae male he story her from himself: to hearing ponders and transitioning female, Tanja, to meets is – Agim? it who Is Bujar? it – is narrator our changes Finland, In folktales transitions. him, tells Albanian persona of father the Bujar’s In fluid. tale? is the of who part Bujar this not us day suggest and telling Agim named present is it Does isn’t the that in narrator female. that the early as fact an the from Adriatic. presents who, the Agim age, cross is to it And boat a buy aki iaa oee,i s is it however, Tirana, in Back hogotThroughout r e iei eiso of series a is life – key are Crossing

dniyi is identity

Statovci Pajtim 15 West Camel deepens and Crossing What we realise as the novel However, we are not offered broadens thesuggesting discussion, that there perhapsbe is solved, no and issue doing togent so and in moving an way. intelli- key to our narrator’s true identity? progresses isBujar that and Agim we togetherdeparture after never from their Albania, seethis and moment that in –title the ‘crossing’ – we ofthe the will book’s find central mystery. the solution toany tritedebate ‘solution’ toInstead about the gender wider identity. of his origins. Is this difference the to prove why.’ use aa foreign woman’s name,say so I and name nobody can will simply ask or me clothing? … Whybody can’t present every- way themselves they the want to? If I want to ‘Why can’t youto simply decide beby wearing a men’s or man women’s or woman gender but in terms of nationality, is different from our narrator’s,is who clear mutability his queerness – not lies just in in his terms of wears his mother’sassume an clothes identity, notis but female, to because not he male. This experience But back in Tirana, Agim claims he

16

USD N INSIDE: AND OUTSIDE e xlctyBei om eety n hr ilpoal emore. be probably will there And recently. poems Brexit explicitly few a queer Polish UK. the poets in English), they discuss similarities the differences and between their experienceswomen poets, following are queer. the both are In conversation as (which they hold in four. Anna Blasiakof from Poland 2003, twenty-nine. arrived UK age in the in Both Maria Jastrzębska age the 1950s the at POETS Poland in born arrived in was but UK the in POLISH TWO BETWEEN CONVERSATION A MJ quite written have this I in socially. happening result, a things are as there those and, course all politically Of this, Poland, such. like in as and think it country use me to made it need have that I that see and triggers to tool, political beginning useful am a I be but can planning, and pre-thinking much too without Blasiak Anna Jastrzębska Maria n rit o.We yfrtcleto aeot er g collaboration a – ago years out, came collection first my When too. artists and ihRseGlsih h a okdi uem n ai tto n rte nat art, on written and station radio a and museums . in worked theatre. has and film She Goldsmith. Rosie with AnnaBlasiak Bargielska’s Justyna translated She Ingénue South. Writing B Queer co-founded Jastrzębska Maria el ’eawy huh eaealacutbe hc en swies writers as means which accountable, all are we thought always I’ve Well, : Soetc 07.Hrms eetcleto s is collection recent most Her 2017). (Smokestack o bu o Maria? you about How Cnao rs/iurc ih21) h ie nBrighton. in lives She 2018). Fish Press/Liquorice (Cinnamon snrhsoinpeadrnltrSeushErpaLtrtrNtokisanarthistorian,poetandtranslator.SherunstheEuropeanLiteratureNetwork oeadmr o h le e.Iwieqieitiiey intuitively, quite write I get. I older the so, more and More : a oeio f of co-editor was na oyusewiiga oiia act? political a as writing see you do Anna, : ue nBrighton in Queer h reSoyo obyHtad and Hat Cowboy of Story True The NwWiigSuh21)ad and 2014) South Writing (New h ra ln Plan Great The 17

Anna Blasiak © Lisa Kalloo ,thereis The True Story of Cowboy Hat and Ingenue I knew English people around me couldn’t see my world, couldn’t I’ve heard many stories about Polish queer people moving to the UK because What about you? You came to England as an adult and then you came out.

: : I don’t think they should be in opposition. There is your conscious intention : : You grew up a Pole in Britain, feeling different. Another layer of being :Inyourmostrecentbook, ai atzbk eoa Price Deborah © Jastrzębska Maria they felt repressed in Poland, but that isn’t my story. Not justwhen because I I wasn’t out was still in Poland. It’s a complete coincidence that I came out while in Does that influence your creativity? AB When I came out, that added a wholeEnglish other layer. society I was but different not also only different withinthe margins within of Polish the margins… society. It was the margins of under pressure to assimilate andwrittenalotaboutgrowingup,butIdidn’tsetoutto–itjusthappenedthatway. I was bullied for being a foreign child. I’ve different is being queer. How did and how does this informMJ your writing? understand my language, our customs. Tosome extent that put us at odds; I felt bashes it on the head, it stifles the creativity. AB MJ and then there is some othergot to process make – room call for it that other intuitive process, or because unconscious. if You’ve the authorial intention just AB a lot of playfulness and a lot of political engagement. with visual artist Jolabecause, Ścicińska she said, – quote, my it mother was ‘lesbijska refused propaganda’. to And at go the to same the time launch, wasn’t feminist enough –there not is a enough tension about there. I women/lesbiansness. also That’s for want something I’m to them! enjoying leave more room But and more. for imagination and playful- my local feminist bookshop in London refused to stock it, because, they said, it 18 t ’egn hog tafwtmsi ylf.AdIlv t o’ aet elta that feel to have don’t I it. love I And life. my in times few a it it use through gone can I’ve you it. think I And undo can’t in. you and done, anyway. be It’s it, about to do creatively. can position interesting There’s you nothing an also hard, it’s be can but That course, there. leg of one here, leg one always It’s in. up ended you place the to belong don’t you and from came you where place the to belong don’t You placed. AB contexts Polish and UK the both within from things at the looking also in foreigner and a UK, as outside, the from things at looking are you inside, and outside MJ queerness. of sign any find to hard very look to have would you writing my read England.IthinkitwasjustmytimeandIhappenedtobeinEngland.Oftenwhenyou sta es fntol naiiga nbtenpae u lownigt to another. wanting to shore also one but from across place, them take in-between to or an it inhabiting into people only other invite not There airing. of an of sense enough getting that it’s like is feel doesn’t just me of side queer contexts Polish the I’m in – and me points, to happen reference will English thing very same with the Then all frustrated. immediately English, but in home, all at feel it’s I time event same lesbian the a at At look? a have you don’t the round why just you, is from this this corner them: hear to can’t say to and want see you can’t So about. people know you which that world in other world It’s myself. one in help are can’t you I translator. that cultural sense this a been always have literary I as but work so both – I translators communicate, and You to me. managing to not important hugely worlds became different the communication of at aware yet was and I visible up writing.Growing palpable, I’m my informs much – in you, very and foot Like me particularly fascinates That on nonsense. binary. sheer and, time cross false same can borders, a you by it’s borders think with fascinated I Europe, and English? about or passionate Polish people When you absolutely here. the paradox are or a one is me, in There to cent not. are per say we 100 and not are are we we Or that culture. means other it but our cent, to per committed 100 or excited cultures be can to We have outsiders. we snooty that be mean ourselves, distance necessarily doesn’t It creativity. for ground fertile always MJ create scratch, from start else, somewhere belonging again. go not of layer and another reason. bags big my very pack rather a would is I that although situation, political current the of because just to belonging rather or belonging, afewplaces,afewboxesatthesametime.IwouldneverevergobacktoPoland.Not not of feeling this have to great actually It’s box. have to have don’t I place, one to belong I eiv htwe o oefo n lc oaohryuaefrvrmis- forever are you another to place one from move you when that believe I : : e,w nai nbtenpae n en ewe eeadesweei is elsewhere and here between being and places in-between inhabit we Yes, : e hnIra orper e h es htyuaegapigwt en being with grappling are you that sense the get I poetry your read I when Yet n communityone o’ aet i nooe one into fit to have don’t I ,

.

blasiak Anna & bska jastrz Maria Ę 19 out. I go there with my partner, out I’m not sure if my story is Maybe it representative. isn’t, but it is my story. I’ve Anna, you said you would never want to go back to Poland, but you visit I’m not saying all the battles were won, but there have been huge steps : When I go to Poland, everyone sees me as English, of course. Now, with the : : I can understand the feeling of disconnection, of being with one group and that they more happen and more often nowadays. but we’ve never had any but Catholic family, traditional, when unpleasant experiences. I I came out, come it was from all, ‘if a youhappy’.I are guess I very we happy, was Of lucky. just I are course, religious, incredibly know that nasty things happen, AB innever homophobia experienced Poland, not before I left Poland, when I wasin still the nor closet, when after, I came out. And I am regularly. What’s that like for you? essential, because it’s contact with the language, with mySo roots, it’s with my also culture. very enriching. Iand come close back friends there. absolutely That’s exhausted, irreplaceable. but I have family They’ve been fighting for so longstarted and to just at get the easier, point this whenwant backlash things to has go might through come have this and all over they again’.Going to just Poland thought, is difficult, ‘we but don’t for me it’s forwards within my life. In Poland it’s goneto backwards. That Poland makes with it hard my going partner, forthere. example. I Our civil know partnership lesbians isn’t recognized who’ve left Poland because they’ve just had enough. uryLre hs eevr motn rtr to writers These were me. Lorde. veryAudrey important activismwetookpartinthen.Andthroughliteratureaswell.AtthattimeIwaslooking very much to the Americans forreading queer people writing like – Michelle for Cliff, Irena political writing Klepfisz, Toni generally – Morrison, James Baldwin, eba.Ilesbian. know women who to this day won’t tell a soulthey about have a had. lesbian relationship It was a very harshthrough world the back then. Women’s In Liberation Movement, the the UK Gay it began Liberation to Front, through change come out. And this ispockets still of the the case, UK. whether for for of struggled custody hospitals being lesbian, they because their were Gay children in men Chechnya or faced Brunei, prison, or women even were sent to psychiatric isolated as a lesbian than II do was here. growing It takes up, me when back it to was how a things nightmare were when to be LBGT+. It was very scary to and the other one or ones need to be quietMJ or are simply hushed. swing to the extreme right and fundamentalist Christian politics, I feel more AB and thinking of allrepresented those within other the group, things, that or only part feeling of that your personality you belongs are here only partially 20 motnl,t edPls ok.BtIra o nEgihto loalti in lot a also too, indiscriminately. English and in voraciously quite lot read a I read languages. more other even I from and, But translation possible books. as much panic. Polish as read huge Polish speak to caused my to importantly, when is that it moment And with this dealing me. of had from way I My away conscious ago a slipping years make started few I a language languages. because Polish the Polish, between in lost read get in. to I book effort think. particular and fluid. a stop quite read I to it’s language have reading, which I to remember comes even it don’t When I Polish. often Quite in writing stop to going ever AB days? these English MJ on ifrn,ta ’ odr o xml.Te hn mhvn n an having am I think They example. for change! must louder, something so someone, I’m with argument that different, sound I MJ AB altogether. opens language It rethink which languages. you makes the language and up possibilities mix that new odd you up Ponglish, where the with, in familiar in are written slipping here families just I’ve Polish not differently. It’s thinking way. started but organic I’ve word, Recently more English. a of in limits multilingually, the word with particular a writing frustration was a find there feel couldn’t book I I because because last only but my Not through. In way enough. the isn’t all Spanish it language, dominant my absolutely MJ Or text. Blended. particular confused. very this all It’s for language. other, wrong appropriate the the more in to things be dream switch I to then seems and other language one the in because something some- writing – writing start my I in across times comes also languages the between confusion This

oyubleeta agaeidctsacranmnaiy mentality? certain a indicates language that believe you Do : I’m think don’t I but English, in more and more – languages both in write I : etil.We pa oih ynnPls red aeawy ad said always have friends non-Polish my Polish, speak I When Certainly. : is English Although enough. represented feeling not with do to that’s think I : in more writing also you are or Polish, in primarily it is write, you When :

ai,yuotnppe orEgihpeswt oihwrs… words Polish with poems English your pepper often you Maria,

nablasiak Anna & bska jastrz Maria Ę 21 – Stud Maria Jastrzębska Oh take no notice There’s something (LIQUORICE FISH BOOKS, 2018) What did you ever do to a lace glove is removed I hate to see a woman as f submission to the hegemony but I , Dame Blanche begins under the , a second voice on her other side Claribel had done, after they left her face down electrifying yet autonomous on her own, if I had a she said, raising the animal’s head onto her thigh MARIA JASTRZĘBSKA , Stud grumbles, you a Slow Comfortable Screw up Against the Wall? BY

THE TRUE STORY OF COWBOY HAT AND INGÉNUE, knife tucked into ahadn’t noticed pocket when of they hertaken tipped saddlebag, her the contents water which out. and theyanybody? They’d her money. before she cut its throat. in the sand,times, was deliberately avoiding kill the head thewhimpering or heart and mule. so twitching that They on itto its had lay terrify side. her shot but They kept had it her alive done for many this sport. There was a small I’ve been meaning tostarry say sky once they’re outstill of round earshot campfires. of She thelouder stops, now small than groups hearing a buffalo’s. Ingénue’s snores woman half as beautiful I’d never leave her side. At closing time,Blanche disregarding swings all Ingénue,shoulder and their fireman’s sets protests, lift off across Dame style, the over fields. one wearing the trappings o could care less. Angel,and by a the hand way, heldIf out. these Dame two Blanche get any leansthe more across ironic, same the they’ll iron bar: themselves out.pauses All – Someone in creakinghas slid leathers onto the bar and stoolof beside jangling Ingénue. Stud. Stud’s belt harmless purrs. chains Stud’s exploring the dominant discourse. Thinks I’m FROM The first thing Can I offer POEMS BY ANNA BLASIAK TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BYMARIA JASTRZĘBSKA, MARTA DZIUROSZ AND THE AUTHOR

*** ***

Łuk wycięcia zaplecka – Headboard carved into a bow –

twoje ciało. your body. Małżowinowa brodawka. Auricular nipple.

Rocaille urastał w palce tkliwe. Rocaille growing into tender fingers. Blasiak Anna and Jastrzębska Maria by Translated

Czułam je I felt them leżąc w łóżku. lying in bed. Chcę tu zawsze I always want to sleep spać. here.

ZBIORY HARVEST

Miąższ truskawek Sun-drenched nagrzanych słońcem the flesh of strawberries był jak krew. was like blood Zlizywałam łapczywie. I licked greedily.

Zaraz przyjdą wiśnie. Cherries next. rnltdb at Dziurosz Marta by Translated

EMIGRACJA EMIGRATION .

Uciekłam przed domem. I escaped home. Dogonił. It caught up.

Anna Blasiak .

Marta Dziurosz is a Polish literary translator and interpreter, and a literary curator. She was Free Word Centre’s Translator in Residence 2015–16. Her writing and translations have been published in the New Statesman, PEN Atlas and elsewhere. She recently co-translated the collected works of Janusz Korczak and Renia Spiegel’s Diary (Penguin Random House). 22 23 Book of KAREN KOVACIK . Yet Rilke’s ‘Requiem’, however Dehnel’s ‘Timepiece’, by contrast, FOR THE NON-PRACTISING never loses sight ofances, the quirks, and daily pleasures of living annoy- in Warsaw with Piotrsnoring neighbour, Tarczyński: the dirty the elevator, for the dead)1905, for had his published his poem,Hours own and, in intimate inModersohn-Becker its (‘Come into directcandlelight. the I’m speech notthe afraid dead to in / the to face’),her ultimately to look return asks to the grave becausepoet the sees deathas athat, perfected like realm art, exists outside thedemands of messy life. the awkwardnessseems of to grief,breaks exhaust out which itself again’. Rilke,uses and like a Dehnel, liturgical then title (from the Mass INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR,

TIMEPIECE, OR A MINOR LITURGY OF THE HOURS While translating this poem, in blank verse, which, ashas Robert noted, Hass ‘proceeds in bursts: it has addressed toModersohn-Becker after the herin childbirth. painter death It’s a long Paula poem written I foundspecifically myself his ‘Requiem for thinking Friend’, a of Rilke, morning till night and torelationship with sanction Piotr by his enshrining it in cadence and language. sanctify the day and all human activity.’ Jacek’s secular Hours allowsimagine him to Barbara’s presence from the day? According toConstitution of the the Apostolic Catholic‘The Church, purpose of the Divine Office is to Why the formHours, of the also liturgyOffice, known prayed of seven times throughout the as the Divine Matins, Terce, Sext, andoriginal so Polish on employs – the into classicalwhich in meter twelve translation of rhymed I’ve adapted couplets the to each. thirteen-syllable a line, relaxed The iambic pentameter. mother was diagnosed with cancer, andher because he anxiety, didn’t want he toaddressed to add Barbara, to never casts the seven revealed sections of the his traditional prayer – sexuality to her. Jacek’s poem, Practising’ was composed in Maytwenty-six, and just June after ofmother the 2006, of when death, the Jacek’s in poet boyfriend, was 2005, Piotr. of Just Barbara as Tarczyńska, Piotr the was coming out, his Jacek Dehnel’s ‘Timepiece, or a Minor Liturgy of the Hours for the Non- 24 as oet LoigfrRle” Rilke.” for “Looking Robert. Hass, References: same-sex ended States: that against United the in marriage case prohibition Obergefell the the in Hodges, v. words Kennedy’s Anthony to Justice Court call Supreme mind sometimes I’d poem, this married with wrestled were I months the During Piotr London. and Last Jacek pervasive. is together, years fifteen November, after people against LGBT+ discrimination and Poland, large. in allowed at not still culture is marriage the Same-sex to finally, and, family, to to then sometimes and self, friends the close to first layers: many him love. making on they’re when spies Piotr and she their if asking into the even her lives, to invites return Dehnel an to grave, Barbara or urging Instead of stranger dead. the from wandering back ancestor practice a feast the the at for plate also empty an setting is of of resonance There a bear death. all – fruit and dried poppyseed, the mushrooms, – of foods traditional the rituals where cheeks vigil, the Christmas his out shaving, puffs before Piotr way the breelv ogs 3 ..27.SpeeCuto h ntdSae.21.SpeeCutCleto.LglIfrainIs. onl .LwSho.Wb 9 19 Web. School. Maria. Law Rainer U. Rilke, Cornell Inst., Information Legal Collection. Adrienne. Court Rich, Supreme 2015. States. United the of 2019. Court Mar. Supreme 2071. U.S. 135 Hodges, v. Obergefell esn mn tes ay many this others, For among law. criminal reason, the Western in embodied most often belief a in nations, itself the by state immoral as condemned century, been had mid-20th long intimacy same-sex the ‘Until h rcieo oigoths has out coming of practice The olce om:1950-2012 Poems: Collected h eetdPeso anrMraRilke Maria Rainer of Poems Selected The wnit-etr laue:Poeo Poetry on Prose Pleasures: Twentieth-Century otn 2016. Norton, . d n rn.SehnMthl.Vnae 1982. Vintage, Mitchell. Stephen trans. and Ed. . nin coPes 94 p 226-268. pp. 1984, Press, Ecco . esnl o uliaiigo same- of imagining full as a well for as personal, course, political out of coming makes dimension, cultural prayer. Catholic This the even and rituals, holiday inherited the generations, previous the from in home objects the Dehnel-Tarczyński forms, grammar polite intricate and language’s the to references its with Polish, is specifically poem also and The cosmopolitan simultaneously liturgical. and legal, familial, literary legacies at with couple – the heart of its imagining full a than Poems of sonnet first the observed in canon, literary the lesbian into writing love Rich, Adrienne as Or, o ikPoetryTom Prize, Wick and Curtain, Velvet the Beyond include books poetry. Her Polish translator contemporary and poet of a Karen Kovacik is to warm citizens. its to all of embrace and fuller a fetters its timeworn break to society a requires love sex eanunspoken.’ remain to had hearts their in was what of couples same-sex by truthful declaration A their identity. distinct in own homo- dignity have deem to sexuals not did persons Tmpee ead ohn es less nothing demands ‘Timepiece’ N n a mgndu. us.’ imagined has one ‘No : io n I Nixon and inro h tnad and Stan the of winner wnyOeLv Love Twenty-One Metropolis Burning ae Kovacik Karen . , TIMEPIECE, OR A MINOR LITURGY OF THE HOURS FOR THE NON-PRACTISING BY JACEK DEHNEL TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY KAREN KOVACIK

The Queer Riveter is honoured to publish this exclusive – the English translation of prize-winning Polish author and poet Jacek Dehnel’s ‘Timepiece'. With thanks to Jacek and his translator Karen Kovacik.

In memoriam B.T.

They’re a little afraid to approach because they see us differently: we live in metal cages, buttressed by rebar, with pipes for gas and water, and we’re piled on top of each other, floor after floor. Jacek Dehnel © Cezary Rucki There are so many of them, and justafewofus–buttheyenvyus for having the remarkable gadget that makes everything easier: a body. —B.M., during a seance Matins

The sunny days are here. By five, the light’s been up for hours. What’s grey turns pink and white – the streets revamped as for some delegation: scrubbed clean, seen fresh; all cause for lamentation – the guy in #2 who snored; the trolley’s blare, rude porter, dirty lift – has disappeared.

Jacek Dehnel, born in 1980, is an award-winning poet, novelist and translator. Two of his novels are available in English: Saturn and Lala, both translated by Antonia Lloyd- Jones. Aperture, a poetry collection selected and translated by Karen Kovacik, was a PEN America Award finalist. He lives in Warsaw with his husband Piotr Tarczyński,

with whom he is also a co-author of three crime novels. The first volume, Mrs Mohr Goes 25 Missing was recently published in English. 26

Da ahr yyu ev’ Ms Reverend’, ‘Most leave’, your by Father, ‘Dear stand? still forms polite do are, you Where obvious.) situation’s (Our everything. is, well, us divides what since lived, still you if ‘Mum’ say not I’d probably. latter, The ‘ma’am’? or ‘you’ use I should writing, When Prime plate. unwashed an on feast funeral a pat from butter or box, a scraping spade nails, of cannonade a like strikes death think: you now And sheds. mildewed a junkyard, fields, fallow through bed gravel a atop diverge tracks as said gets matins different a window the Out feint. and lunge, pivot, shadow and light where train and platform there’s taxi, the leaving After absolute. order’s where kingdom Entropy, to fleet its aboard everyone transporting end, on years for ocean the crossing frigate, zeppelin, a a like death’s times: these at thinks One roux. a as thick and sticky porthole, the through pours light of brine a as even on and on stays who captain, the sun, driver of the ocean an in craft tiny a cab’s The light. excess from bough frost-tipped a as woozy upright, stands actually – ‘rises’ morning The

Dehnel Jacek 27 spreading like tumours. And all those other lines: air routes, the treks of reptiles, and nearby of streets from time to time with red roof tiles silver lines of rails beside a band of blue like on a map. Forests all around, and isles Terce What’s visible up there? Train cars in a queue, close around your face in Photoshop. as death? Is that all right? Especially as I see his tears for you when he crops about things so personal, so close to us to reach you, ask you, beg your pardon,May grieve? I ask the mother of the man I love ofatoddler–callitthesoul?Anddoyouhearthat voice, trying to pierce through silent spheres Is there some core of being that won’tA quit? particle, scrap – trinket clutched in the fist What goes to maggots, larva, centipedes? And what remains on heaven’s balance sheet? of nudists? What’s left of us? A scent,A a shade name? of skin? What gives itself to flame? at a communal bath, where speakers pipe flat trumpet hymns? A crowded afterlife ‘The Honorable’, ‘Your Grace’. Is it like in art –some yet unresurrected mass of body parts 28

rmbet n oc.O ertak nso. snow. in tracks deer Or touch. and breath notes from clear flute’s the or knock a to response water, in wetness the wood, the in grain the you’re deeper, and closer Both naïveté! What life. of dash and dot each cars, haystacks, at glance below they’ll then and now And grass? ambrosial of blades on chewing and legs their dangling clouds, the in peephole a around sit they – well a like – centre the at and about, stroll they cool, morning’s the in That, fields? heaven’s in clan blissful some like live dead loved our sentiment that this comes whence – there’ ‘up wait, But, do. I know you that and exist you too, believing present, I’m lines, these in And pair. the fête to feasts wedding at rounds the making Salt again. back and school to route child’s The path). solitary fox’s the there wolves’, the (here tracks hatched predators’ plus ants, of ranks dashed i or n ie iecytl oetechimes: the come crystal, Like mine. and – yours – surnames: his both with card the door, our on and heat, the from oasis street, an our stairwell reach the I then But clock. your of beat the out make can’t I – schedules bus of towers, roster sterile of city – headed I’m where Here, Sext

Dehnel Jacek 29 of his good profile. Do you see it?Here, Or within him? arm’s reach, just at the rim and works, sun falling on the copper wisp Beyond cut poplars, one can see the crack on the house across the way. And your son sits None Ding dong ding. Three o’clock, the air feels thick. (I’m just one person in a longer recitation). like ‘love’ declined from one case to the next or the verb ‘to love’ in a new conjugation And him. From you there’s him, sweet remnant, at the monogram) belonged to Count V.L. –all legacies from testaments and wills. for drapes from former tenants, and the clock, your father’s once, which earlier (look Your son paging through my granny’s books and saying things my exes said; brass hooks as time elapses: trickster knows what’s what. Strange, this inheritance. A cycling that won’t quit. punctually at three a.m., then half past four and 5:15. We sleep, and it keeps guard above my desk, this clock that strangers owned in other times; it wakes at night and sounds ding ding, ding dong, ding ding, and onStrange, to this twelve. inheritance. It clangs on a shelf 30

lc h otepuigsln,nvrfast. never silent, pouring bottle the black glass, blackest of goblets in wine the Black hue. midnight of feast this in rye cockspur plus fruit, dried from compote and chanterelles, poppy, Have cup. the beside plate empty your is us: this with dine and sit well, here, you’re Since Vespers gait. muffled a smile, a gaze, averted shut, Doors life? in like just privacy of bounds are there maybe Or love? make couch? we the When on there nap a takes or shaving while wide out cheeks his Puffs coffee? brews he Outside? When home? At dawn? or night, at now, Just him? at look you do When more. some sits writes He and have. don’t you which hand, warm a of reach the within everything, see seat you a where in But stage. the strut living the where ticket lesser A speak. to right the without visit a than more Nothing films. horror of domains cheap the crinolines, rustling or chains of shaking No quilts. under shivering and fright from trembling No course. of midnight, Not night. at only as Such hours? visiting of rounds by approach, can you how of rules by bound you are Or windowpane. and desk of

Dehnel Jacek 31 of muscle? Is this omen a primer ofafter pain loss? Some Sunday school lesson when something in the chest constricts that bunch of tailor’s shears. Whence comes this sudden fear while in a train or washing up from lunch, Compline A shiver down the spine. Like the cold whirr and those to whom we’ll will tray, bed, and tub. though linger, dear one. You showed up too soon. Next to your plate lie other ones for us Sit with them, dine – we’re in the next room So sit with them and sup – time’swe’ve not aeons of to the arrange essence: our mutual presence. they lived, gave birth, and died silently aslike plants it – or not, they too are members of your clan. all those unrecalled who passed without a trace, who had, in truth, no bad luck or uncommon grace: the wrinkled great-grandmas, the aunts who went mad, the uncle with V.D. and swarms of pale lads, the one killed in the war on aGram’s cousin Breslau from stoop, scarlet fever after strep, Meet these shot through the lung, those deadsome of struck TB, down by stroke or an unknown disease, Black honey and poppy on platters black asand lead, around the table, conversations of the dead. 32

rnltdb ae oai Kovacik Karen by Translated Dehnel Jacek honey. us feeds still that hand the of lack, stunning absence, sudden the feel we’d lock, a of clicking the like span, that in oilcloth, and hot the on fruit the to slowly so skulk would wasp a holiday, our us on to that sent you note the in omen us. the help Is can one no or nothing And liver. or pancreas the to kudzu like shoots out sends ear, the above lump mere no tumour, child’s Or debris. with strewn earth, scorched red, of site a up winds Michigan from A60 flight Or Antilles. from return not does sister someone’s when surprise by us take won’t disaster So hedge? a as Or tenderness? With death? of banns these at notice give you do friends, close and family, neighbours, Departed wafers? from pills bitter of punishments and covers stained in workbooks With suffering? on

óżLsn-asw a 2006–6June2006 May 9 Łódż-Leszno-Warsaw,

Dehnel Jacek 33 is by Lala Lala We are Leonard Romusia, LUCY POPESCU (ONEWORLD, 2018) JACEK DEHNEL BY BY and takes over the Dehnel interrupts Lala’s published in 2006). In the

LALA Astonishingly, Dehnel (born in Early on, we learn that RIVETING REVIEW had started toloss. suffer from Suddenly memoryless the about focus memorysaying and becomes more about goodbye to a loved one. of past lives,about before learning eachtheir more of place in these the wider people narrative. 1980) and startedgrandmother’s writing stories whenfourteen he down and was had his completedthe time he wasoriginally twenty-four (it wasfinal section, recollections narrative, because, tragically, she Grandpapa Leonard,faced Lala’s the father, tsaristowned firing theUkraine; squad and that firstwas Grandmama orphaned automobile Wanda asgrew up a in in a young conventrescued before girl her and andand made that his another fortune;had relation, galloping consumption. given snapshots of history, fragments northern Polishmost city, fascinating’. she was the ANTONIA LLOYD-JONES is made Lala On the first page, Dehnel tells TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY a conclusion but,the for Dehnel, antiquities ‘of all to be seen in my repeat herself, tothoughts lose track of andcertain her details. to She rarely draws misremember to places and bodies,ceased most to exist ofLala which long has a ago.’ tendency Indeed, to ramble, to and his granny’s:as ‘the usual, story begins, inthere, pieces, now in here, now all sorts of different small and light, it’sher hard with to our connect memory’.up of reminiscences, both Dehnel’s finaldays,likethedollsheisnamedafter, ‘muffledknitted in rugs waistcoats, and so baggy very thin, us he isend, beginning witheponymous at his his Lala, grandmother, story’s sitting the out her the 20thshape century today’s that Poland. helped to Accounts of personalof fortunes, and loves against won some and of lost, the moments are of set Dehnel’s family talesin begin the 1860s in Kiev andthan encompass one more hundred and fifty years. narrative is intricate,frustratingly elusive. rambling and, like memory itself, sometimes events, and featuresdescribed as a a novel. family It is tree based on and fact, but endnotes. is crafted And like fiction. yet The Stylistically, Jaceka Dehnel’s memoir, family includes saga real is people and a their hybrid. portraits, It covers reads historical like 34 luiaetepltcl enls Dehnel’s then political. the Nazis, illuminate the Here, memorable. occupation under the under first lived when theme periods a The Lala it. on with sticks alights and Dehnel when narrative. rich already to an is what convinced, donating enhances entirely repetition such animals, that however, not or feeding for I’m charity’. as plants caring act watering hungry, s virtuous the and the is of wise and sort itself, is in things beautiful wise beautiful of and ‘repetition Dehnel the that sentences. suggests his with expansive up keep reader to long, hard the work lyrical to and has overlap his memories in clear landscape. But and family is of descriptions this and the and dream.’ with the untidy, of poetics inventiveness order and linguistic traditional amorphous replacing is fiction often Polish ‘Modern Polish observed: contemporary the in of Writing literature. trait to a appears be creativity of rambling unrestrained’. This of punchlines; fond thickets and words whole and into shoots similarly out proliferating ‘putting is digression, Dehnel h oe’ ie oet r are moments finer novel’s The poet acclaimed an is Dehnel Lala omnss–aepriual particularly are – communists sacalnignvl– – novel challenging a is esnlanecdotes personal TLS , enlDehnel m ame – hti ohpiaeadpbi.Hs His space public. and a private both inhabits final is that novel’s Dehnel mental the pages, Lala’s in about writing deterioration in explicitly And so family’s them. to one response examining by events into insight extraordinary Dehnel’s Lloyd-Jones, to relocated city’. was he another he if serious, really the and blew department, another time or timber side every selling … the activities felling, on swindles tree and hunting illegal plots dubious all of out ‘sniffed sorts he into him because got trouble first genuine honesty in his But community place’. the a of good the himself and communist Forests State thought the for worked husband, second Lala’s grandfather, eues a ulse nJn 2018. June in published was refugees, various Home Call for and books the reviews including publications Popescu Lucy evoc- past. striking turbulent a Poland’s and of ation life celebration a Lala’s as of serves thus novel e Humanist New lqetytasae yAtna Antonia by translated Eloquently ouigo h xeine fyug young of experiences the on focusing , eas h laspt put always ‘he because hsl nsmtig something on whistle ewstaserdt to transferred was he e nhlg, anthology, Her . n rfteig profiteering; and iaca Times Financial aaLala uyPopescu Lucy onr o to Country A itrclhistorical fesa an offers

,

L TLS

Dehnel Jacek 35 I Offer My Destruction of GUEST POETRY EDITOR A PLURALITY OF VOICES There are poets whose work by Elsa Cross (Shearsman), and strives to create a queerdismantle language, to patriarchalnormative norms and all the way hetero- the down to linguistic level. Therewhose are content others maywhile working be within traditional poetic queer forms even and language. These questions, and how poets respond towidely them, vary between countries and considered a ‘gay poem’ justthe because authorpossessed is gay ofsensibility), even (and if a the therefore content special/differentpoem of does the not concernConversely, gay identity? wouldqueer a identity but poem writtenwho by about does a poet notcontent self-identify be considered with a ‘queer poem’; the or wouldcultural appropriation? that be a form of Bomarazo LAWRENCE SCHIMEL, BY is a bilingual author and translator originally from New York, now living by Johanny Vazquez Paz (Akashic). by Luis Panini (Pleiades Press),

genres. He hasthe translated Lover more thanHeart thirty as poetry a collections, Target most recently Lawrence Schimel in Madrid. He has published more than 100 books as author or anthologist, in many different arneShml©Nee Guerra Nieves © Schimel Lawrence from, the ‘queer’constructed by category those discussing as it.simpler In it terms: is would a poem be first consider definitions:is whether it self-identitydetermines inclusion in, or or exclusion content that Almost always, whenqueer the poetry subject is of broached, one must 36 eba oty poetry lesbian Spanish of anthology Moreno's Carmen uomini present, from the poetry to 1900 Italian gay of anthology comprehensive Baldoni's Luca as such national, specifically be to tend poetry Europe. of rest the European in communities queer and poetic the in other widely being languages into are poets translated these English, in but voices its have of many don’t to access We Europe. across scene poetry queer vibrant the of iceberg the smaller and non- languages. larger national including of languages, mix European a language as well from as different Europe, of areas many and groups selections on The draw translation. in or poets recent trans by find work of to volumes forthcoming unable was I since Spain, in Catalunya from poet translations trans a own of my is exception one The English. that into translated works already are forthcoming or recent on be to focuses sampling example, this for is exhaustive; not intention but representative My identity. this expressing overtly celebrating or is work whose but community, LGBT+ manifold the of writers part as criteria self-identify only not my who as use to decided in complicated. English, It’s translation. in not when and, linguistically, culturally – gender approach each languages otatooiso GT LGBT+ of anthologies Most of tip the just is selection this But have I selection, poetry this For RbnEiin,21) r or 2012), Edizioni, (Robin n eedo o hy they how on depend and , n nlecn hi er peers their influencing and uee u mn aman que Mujeres eprl r l gli tra parole Le rmrl primarily oeul oecutiswl will countries projects multilingual similar more produce Hopefully linguistic queer cross Spain’s production of cultural sample a of way offering a (and as English) into produced it translated I was Poetry 2017) of anthology LGBT (Egales, Spanish the Anthology Contemporary ago, An years EuroPride Correspondences: few hosted a Madrid original when their in exception: recent one language. is There only available are Town offices. municipal selected Madrid at free available from and Council support with diversidad la LGTB celebrando the poemas edited 100 just have anthology Spanish I and casa 2018), sense poetry, an Amors Catalan edited LGBT+ of just anthology has Portell Sebastià mujeres a i er fwrsoshl in held workshops of years of fruit the six are They from Europe. work across include to trying scope, in comprehensive more be to aim do long, Brane by Mozeti edited of both two anthologies, collection These poetry. a lesbian European is 2015) (Lambda, European and poets, of male gay work the of collection a priti Slovenia: years, spet of bi Moral out recent come have of though, projects queer poetry Europe-wide encompassing future. in translations or oto hs nhlge,aa, alas, anthologies, these of Most ehp h otectn n all- and exciting most the Perhaps Tasxai,21) ulse published 2019), (Transexualia, č n ohaon 5 ae pages 250 around both and EiinsVrui,21) 2012). Virtuvio, (Ediciones n culturaland bo Lmd,20)i is 2009) (Lambda, eCuc lceo cielo: al Chueca De rzbsdj sledim ji besed Brez AgeEioil Editorial, (Angle n epn t it helping and u ndaries. 37 The Queer Lawrence Schimel is the closest to recreating (to This small sampling in Riveter an infinitesimal degree)these the important anthologies. work My hope of isthatthesepoemsofferasnapshotofthe queer Europeantranslated poetry into recently English, and alsoreaders, offer whatever their orientation or identity, a glimpse of the variousin ways whichrecorded LGBT+ in identity poetry. Hopefullyprocess is in it the will being delight,perhaps even entertain, inspire. and Literature and ŠKUC workshops brought together decades of this century. to a pluralityEurope of but voices also serve from asof a across European document queer poetry in the early poetry interact, in theirandintheirrespectivecountries.They own poetry offer Slovenian readers not just access smaller and larger languagesEurope across to translatework and one discuss another’s how identity and (Students’ Cultural and ArtThese Centre). gay poets and lesbian poets from Slovenia, co-sponsored by Literature Across Frontiers,Slovenian the Centre for Queer FROM TRACING THE UNSPOKEN BY MILAN SELJ(A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S PRESS, 2019) uoeneuropean TRANSLATED FROM THE SLOVENIAN BY HARVEY VINCENT poetry There’s a letter downstairs, waiting for me by the front door. The address is written in square letters I recognize straightaway. Trembling, I hide the envelope under a pillow. In the evening I summon enough courage to open it. As I write to you it is almost midnight. The two arms on the clock will soon be together. Like you and me. For a moment I almost believe you. Your games are lies. Nothing but lies.

We were sitting on a bench at the bus stop. Our eyes locked, avoiding thegazes of strangers and provoking them with our disdain. Later the descending road overtook the howling wind of disapproval. And if you said: The day is only an inevitable contrast to the night, I would have agreed. On the journey, our eyes sparkled with hints. The evening was a game of questions. You answered none of mine.

Around Christmas he became itchy and home-sick. I bought him a pair of shoes, a one-way ticket and credit for his mobile phone. Standing at the window I waited for his call while watching the first snowflakes. They always cover my restlessness with silence. I kept telling myself I was right to send him away. Will we be closer if he decides to come back?

Milan Selj is a Slovenian poet, translator and publicist. He is the author of four poetry collections, and the co-author of a satirical epistolary novel, Spolitika. His most recent collection, Slediti neizgovorjenemu, is forthcoming in English (translated by Harvey Vincent) from A Midsummer Night’s Press under the title Tracing the Unspoken. 38 39 Milan Selj

IMPURE ACTS , and his reviews have LAWRENCE SCHIMEL BnapreEioe)and Editores) (Bandaàparte Translated by Harvey Vincent FROM (INDOLENT BOOKS, AUTUMN 2019) Adán o nada Jack L - A Movie Mogul Mirage . and the play ÁNGELO NÉSTORE TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY is an American actor and director living in Paris. He is the author of is a poet, actor, and translator, professor. He is co-director of both the BY Anneliese EiinsHpró,XXXII Hiperión, Premio de(Ediciones Poesía Hiperión). Time Out London A shaved head is resting next to mine. I try to embrace his quick breath Harvey Vincent the screenplay appeared in reoclalsInternational PoetryIrreconciliables Festival and the feminist HeDalloway. poetry has publisher two published La poetry collections: Señora Actos impuros Ángelo Néstore bed, leaving behind the impression of a sensuouslast shadow. I word let before him he steal leaves. the His sharpmy fragrance still floats quivering in body. the air, enveloping after the spill of burning sperm. Abovethrough the a window slit sill, in rays the of curtains. sunlight Slowly, slip like an elegant jackal, he sneaks out of Mama, who do I look like? which my parents wound up giving away. The cold water brings me to my body, I hide my penis between my legs. My eyes hold the sadness of the dolls who played at being daughters, My mother always says I have my father’sWith shoulders. the mirror fogged with steam, my silhouetteI is draw broader, a more straight lavish. line with my fingers, wipe it out with my hand. At sunset I return when I strip to enter the shower. E io chi sono? In the morning, I abandon my sex. Queer If My Father Tells Me

If my father tells me:Be a man, european I shrivel like a grub, stick my belly on the fishhook.

Soft, like some mollusc without its shell, poetry I feel dismantled, keep my cool.

I then ask myself what use was learning four languages if words can’t be heard beneath the water, if I only know how to write poems.

Communion Every day an iron turnstile stops me at the gym’s entrance. The soundproofed glass turns the place into a showcase. From this side I watch a blond man, clean-shaven, with a military buzz cut and a sleeveless green shirt. He has a sophisticated vanity with his quiff and wide pants, which let one deduce golden pubic hair. The guy takes a sip of his protein shake and places on his shoulders the weight of masculinity that calls him.

I’d like to know what he’s thinking as he bends his knees theatrically. How many times he’ll count to ten. Whether his arms, his back ache. The identity of the woman waiting for him at home.

The blond boy looks up, exhausted. I’m turned on by the sweat on his chin, the candour of those beads soaking his towel. I imagine myself crossing the threshold that separates us. I open my mouth beneath his chin and stick out my tongue, like a child kneeling before the altar.

Ángelo Néstore Translated by Lawrence Schimel 40 41

*∞(À) Transito (BELLATERRA) LAWRENCE SCHIMEL

SER HU(O)ME FROM parameters (Bellaterra) and the graphic novel which just a few have constructed within some pre-established of exclusion. the fear ... fear of difference, fear that immobilizes the dissidence that flows along the edges of a palace outdated and decaying, Ser hu(o)me*∞(à) IAN BERMÚDEZ RAVENTÓS is a Catalan writer, linguist, translator & professor. He is the BY TRANSLATED FROM THE CATALAN BY author of the poetry collection (Pol.len & Bellaterra). He is the co-creator andfor co-ordinator of training the and project DebuT*,a investigation of space new trans identities and their forms of representation. Ian Bermúdez Raventós any further in their interrogation... Hey! You ... who are you? Or if they'd done so... they hadn’t wanted to go given how many times my eyes encountered my reflection they had never before questioned: I remember the first time that I looked at myself in the mirror. I couldn't believe that, Identity the silence. with anyone, along the seashore, and enjoy man and woman could have arranged to meet with someone to stroll, Whoever began to think of how to catalogue that which we call Queer europeanpoetry translated by ’s poems have ė nait ū The Moon is a Pill, RIMAS UZGIRIS do you love me in those blinks of an eye when i am truly there and generally (PARTHIAN BOOKS, 2018) 's selected poems, ė nait ū is a non-binary, pan-sexual poet, performance artist and journalist ė nait ū

THE MOON IS A PILL AUŠRA KAZILIŪNAITĖ

appeared in various anthologies, and have also been translated into many other languages. Aušra Kazili from Lithuania. Last year Kazili Rimas Uzgiris, were published in English by Parthian Books. Kazili

among stones would you still love ifiwereaflowerandastone or a flower growing the colour of my skin the time of year if suddenly my gender changed or my scent invisible metamorphoses would you love me TRANSLATED FROM THE LITHUANIAN BY FROM BY Translated by Lawrence Schimel Ian Bermúdez Raventós If love doesn’t abandon me and I only feel peace when I am with you. (physically), if I were homo (or hetero), any of all that, what does it matter? What use are classifications if I don’t do anything but love you. IfIwasawomanoramaman 42 storm on your body – tattooed rain butthereisno falling leaves splashing umbrella cars in the old town here andi– and no my wet tattooed you clothes, torn shoes on your body and soaked hair wardrobe i saw another person’s dream occasionally i meet trying you on for size the homeless man who wears you now it washed and ironed you hung you in the closet finally, there is light in his eyes then threw you away –youwerejusttoobig– hope idon’tdotheworkiliketodo only by doing dull things and i avoid the people whom i love hanging out with shitty people i don’t talk to those whose presence can i believe that the world is i enjoy beautiful

Aušra Kaziliūnaitė Translated by Rimas Uzgiris

Rimas Uzgiris is a poet, translator, editor and critic. He is the translator of Caravan Lullabies by

Ilzė Butkutė (A Midsummer Night’s Press), Crystal: Selected Poems by Judita Vaičiūnaitė (Pica 43 Pica Press) and Then What: Selected Poems by Gintaras Grajauskas (Bloodaxe Books, 2018).

44 atdt rt,asoyImsl myself I story a write, to book’s story a wanted the wrote I just was I – feature. principal love – the lesbian women that the the think between really bankster relationship didn´t coke-smuggler I girlfriend, Agla, her lesbian and Sonja about which Trilogy, Noir is Reykjavík the in wrote I When Lilja Sigurdardóttir © Author’s Archive HISTORY IN CHAPTER A WRITING oko h eri urin h imrgt o h eishv enbuh yPlmr Palomar by bought been have series the for partner. rights her film with Reykjavík The in Guardian. lives Lilja in California. Year in Pictures the of Book a worldwide. lists bestseller hitting series, Noir Reykjavik the crime-writer Icelandic Snare ij Sigurðardóttir Lilja h is ok book first the , a rte orcienvl,wt with novels, crime four written has edn bu a nasotsoy story short a in – was about reading exist. case kind same the of this few contribution so that is historical in a ordinary an becomes thriller the – book And crime a why fiction. of reason history crime the in realized Icelandic chapter a I after written that long however, read. until to liked have would dlsetm.Ihdahr ie time hard the a on had I had me. this adolescent impact remember deep still I the encounter. light, negative an a portrayed in for was lesbian car the Although her into – the lure woman young drunken but a to – protagonist tries beautiful lesbian dangerous the remarkably In a Sticks’). story (‘Match ‘Eldspýtur’ Sigurðardóttir: Ásta author Icelandic h is eba eebr remember I lesbian first The Trap a ulse n21,adws was and 2018, in published was Snare ulcto,publication, h is n in first the , twasn´t It a had I by 45 , Cage and Lilja Sigurðardó�r Trap , Snare The gratitude I have received In my Reykjavík Noir Trilogy, mean cocainefinancial misconduct! smuggling and from readerswarmed of these mylesbian heart. books So has peoplefor many have the non- insight thankedways into of me the athey minds lesbian and couple foundremembering and said it myseeing lesbian interesting. own charactersI thirst in am stories, now And very forpresent pleased to be my ablecharacters to Sapphic that sistersown realities. with represent And by their that I don’t with the titles the lead character,with Sonja, is her at easealthough own it sexual isanother her orientation, woman relationship thather with indirectly into gets theherself difficulties in.other Her she lover finds hand, Agla,within on her is the aplace constant between more battle herand takes her own troubled; desire prejudices for Sonja. by Arnaldur Bettý I am still very grateful when characters and thereforeour represent society better. not allstraight, characters white andwill able, need so see that more we to variety be in terms of Sigurðardóttir and Jónína Leósdóttir. Hopefully moreauthors will Icelandic gradually crime realize that authors withcharacters – queer mostlyexample, gay supporting men in – for the books of Yrsa Indriðason isfrom my his favouritecourse, large book body there of are Icelandic work. Of crime attractiveprivate and detectivefor Stella smart years, Blómkvist and bisexual desire women, andthe especially type so of incrime literature fiction. I love I most: have enjoyed the irrationally grateful for this story. I get to read about women who was such that a negativelycharacter portrayed becamemy mind, significant and in I remember being have jumped intohesitation! the The car lackrepresenting without of desire role between women models understandingreaction the as she protagonist’sI ran away thought in terror; to myself that I would lilja FROM TRAP

BY LILJA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR(ORENDA BOOKS, 2018) Sigurðardóttir TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC BY QUENTIN BATES

April 2011

Sonja was wrenched, shivering, from a deep sleep. She sat up in bed and looked at the thermometer on the air-conditioning unit; it was thirty degrees in the trailer. She had closed her eyes for an afternoon nap and fallen fast asleep while Tómas had gone to play with Duncan – a boy of a similar age who was staying in the next trailer. While she’d been snoozing, the sun had raised the temperature in their little space to thirty degrees, at which point the air-con had rumbled into action, blasting out ice-cold air. Her dreams had been of pack ice drifting up to the shore alongside the trailer park, and however ridiculous the idea of sea ice off the coast of Florida might be, the dream had been so vivid that it took Sonja a few moments to shake off the image of grinding icebergs approaching the beach. While she knew the dream had been a fantasy and that the chill of the ice had in fact been the air-conditioning, it still left her uneasy. A dream of sea ice wasn’t something that could bode well. Sonja got off the bed, and as soon as she stepped on the floor, she stubbed a big toe on the loose board. This trailer was really starting to get on her nerves. But it didn’t matter, because it was really time to move on. They had been here for three weeks, and that was already a dangerously long time. Tomorrow she would discreetly pack everything up and in the evening, without saying goodbye to any of the neighbours, and under cover of darkness, they would drive away in the old rattletrap she had paid for in cash. She had coughed up a month’s rent in advance, so the trailer’s owner wouldn’t lose out. This time, she and Tómas would travel northwards to Georgia and find a place there to rent for a week or two; and then they’d move on again – to some other location, where they would stay, but then depart before they’d put down any roots. They would leave before they could be noticed, before Adam could track them down. Adam who was Tómas’s father; Adam who was her former husband; Adam the drug dealer. Adam the slave driver. 46 47 Duncan came out of his trailer at a run, along with the basketball that he IfsheallowedherselftheluxuryofcontactingAgla,therewaseverychance Sonja opened the trailer door and sat down on the step. The air outside Her heart lurched at the thought of Agla. The memory of the scent of Sonja peered into the microwave – something that had become a habit. One day, once they had travelled far enough and hidden their tracks dribbled everywhere. He half crouched over the ball, and Sonja smiled to end,brokenbythenoiseoftrafficandhornsonthefreewayaspeoplebeganthe commute home from work. stood over his barbecue, which sentDuncan’s mother up sat plumes in of a camp smoke chair asto outside the the the radio. fire trailer There next took; door, was listening a peace to the place, but it would soon come to an from the trees across the bare earthSonja at the took centre a of the deep clusterdiscomfort of breath trailers. the of dream the had outdoor left air her and with. tried The to old, throw toothless off guy the opposite that Adam would sniff out and their communication use it to track her down. was hotter than inside the trailer and the afternoon sun cast long shadows a lonely one. But loneliness wasn’tconcern her was their biggest safety problem; – a Tómas’s in much particular. weightier her. Iceland was behind her, and thatTómas’s was new the life, way and it was. she This was was her fully and aware that to begin with it would be herhairandthewarmthofherskinunderthebedclothesbroughtalumptoSonja’s throat that refused tosince their be parting, swallowed. the The harder she more had time to work that to passed stop herself from calling card; she didn’t want tousing risk it Agla, to track with her her movements. access to the banking system, this new existence wherea prepaid she Walmart MoneyCard dared and had loaded trust it withafloat nobody. enough to for She keep them had a few got months, but herself she had not dared apply for a normal credit with the dollars and euros sheshe had had been scraped caught together in during Adam’s trap. the This year bundle that of cash was her lifeline, in Inside, giving her a sense ofsandwich security box full by of being cash. where It was it a should white be, box with was a the blue lid, and was stuffed didn’t particularly matter where the place was, asthey long could as disappear it into was the somewhere crowd, where she wouldn’tglance constantly over have her to shoulder. wellenoughforSonjafinallytofeelsecure,theywouldsettledown.Itwouldbe in a quiet spot, maybe in the US, or maybe somewhere else. In fact, it herself. She and Tómas had seen that his weird dribbling technique didn’t lilja affect his accuracy when he shot for the basket. His skill at basketball was Sigurðardóttir unbelievable,andafterafewdaysplayingtogether,hisinteresthadinfected Tómas as well. Tómas… ‘Duncan! Where’s Tómas?’ she called, and the boy twisted in the air, dropped the ball through the basket fixed to the trunk of a palm tree and, when his feet were back on the ground, shrugged. ‘Where is Tómas?’ she repeated. ‘I don’t know,’ Duncan said, still dribbling the ball. ‘He went down to the beach just now, but then some guys came looking for him.’ ‘Guys? What guys?’ In one bound Sonja was at Duncan’s side. He finally let the ball drop from his hands. ‘Just guys,’Duncan said. ‘Just some guys.’ ‘Tell me, Duncan. Where did they go?’ Duncan pointed towards the woods that lay between the trailer park and the beach. ‘What’s up?’ Duncan’s mother called from her camp chair, but Sonja didn’t give herself time to reply. She sprinted towards the beach, her mind racing. The vision of ice on the shore, the groaning of the floes as the waves grounded them on the beachandthechillthatthewhitelayerbroughtwithitcloudedherthoughts as if the dream were becoming a reality. She cursed herself for not having bought the gun she had seen in the flea market at the weekend. It’s never good for an Icelander to dream of sea ice, she thought. That means a hard spring to come, and ice brings bears.

Lilja Sigurðardó�r Translated by Quen�n Bates

Quentin Bates worked as a truck driver, teacher, netmaker, trawlerman and journalist before becoming the technical editor of a nautical magazine. He is the translator of Ragnar Jónasson's Dark Iceland series and Lilja Sigurðardóttir's Reykjavík Noir Trilogy. He is also the author of a series of crime novels set in Iceland. 48 49 ” MAX EASTERMAN BY (ORENDA BOOKS, 2018) VIEW E LILJA SIGURÐARDÓTTIR Please step aside for a moment. BY ‘“ In anshe instinctive shrank back from movement,although him, and her mouth opened, that she understood and agreedwith everything they said …tried She torefused to stand obey, and she was but stillweakwithterror,soweak,infact, her that legs her mind hadn’t even gotfar as as comprehending the humili- ation of having wet herself.’ ‘… she wanted to make it plain from Greenland to Paris to LondonMexico to andsuddenly swathed in back volcanic ash from the to eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, an which Iceland sonational effectively air travel to brings anincluding abrupt Sonja’s! The halt inter- route – iswith strewn surprises and intriguesas as a tense coke-mule’s stomach, allout brought intranslation: Quentin Bates’ virtuoso Once again, Lilja Sigurðardóttir writes with pacerapidly and between intensity, scenes switching and places, the trap is ever tighter.no Sonja escape: can see RIVETING R QUENTIN BATES

TRAP Trap , we left Snare , the second in Trap Her former female lover, Agla, is TRANSLATED FROM THE ICELANDIC BY izarrely, a tiger … see Agla again,entwined, their destinies and are for both women, a lot ofmen, who money are toback. determined Although some Sonja to doesn’t powerful get want to it also insentence trouble, for her awaiting part inbanking the a Icelandic crash; and, prison moreover, owing to herb extreme discomfort) and, of other‘Rikki undesirables the Sponge’ – (shelearns soon including the enough origin of this moniker – back in hock to theback drugs barons to and life withoutanother Tómas, locked battle in with Adam and a host out to trackvengeance Sonja for her disappearance. down She andrapidly exact finds herself back in Iceland, nemesis of a formerwhohadcustodyoftheboy.So,as husband, Adam, opens, there are a number of ‘bears’ Sonja in Florida, whither shewith had her fled son Tómas to escapeas her life a drugs mule and her grade-A series – and it’s in everyand way as compelling tense a readcessor. At as the its end prede- of There are bearsGunnarsdóttir in aplenty forLilja Sonja Sigurðardóttir’s Reykjavík Noir means a hard spring to come, and ice brings bears.’ ‘It’s never good for an Icelander to dream of sea ice, she thought. That 50 eoe si oe nxrbyit into hi-tech. of inexorably world moves has the it ever she as drugs than before, dangerous problems; running more become that Sonja’s realises the of are officers least customs end, the In o ohrbtt h a man the to but …’ her her behind that to not realised speaking were team she customs her the as the shut along jetway continue or to and two mouth only seconds took it three … between lips from her came sound no onsRgt azmsca n writer. and musician jazz Right, Sounds with trainer media – translator, lecturer, BBC the university with broadcaster senior a twenty- as spent years he five – journalist a is Easterman Max truly is a into tiger!) yarn. that ripping woven mention seamlessly to and, (not perfectly, in story as loves, the each of fit lives, strand nastinesses and their pleasures – Sigurðardóttir’s of characters authenticity tn on i vrdutte the doubt ever I did point no At Snare ahidvda tr story individual each ,

a Easterman Max

Sigurðardóttir lilja Queer

More RIVETING reviews

TESTO JUNKIE BY PAUL B PRECIADO TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY BRUCE BENDERSON (FEMINIST PRESS, 2013) REVIEWED BY JACKY COLLINS

Paul B Preciado’s revolutionary text first burst onto the Spanish literary scene in 2008, as questions of gender, sexuality and identity were hotly debated through queer theory, and the instability and mutability of these constructs were speculated on by academics and among the LGBT+ community. In the current discussions on transgender inclusion, equality and rights,Testo Junkie remains highly relevant, particularly for its re-evaluation of the way gender is perceived in society today. Having engaged with the book when it was first published, I can attest to the fact that Bruce Benderson’s skilful translation loses none of the impact of original text.

What seems to take the form of a meticulous deconstruction of a diary charting the effects the gender as established in the West testosterone gel Preciado was of the 1950s. The arguments put using to alter their (this seems the forward centre on the illusion of most appropriate pronoun) gender control that we have over our own serves as the premise for bodies, gender, sexuality, sex, and an acerbic examination of the any other aspect of identity that we pharmaceutical industry and believe we self-fashion. The author

Paul B Preciado has become one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexuality. A professor of Political History of the Body, Gender Theory, and History of Performance at Paris VIII, he is also the author of Manifiesto contrasexual, which has become a queer theory

classic, andPornotopía: Architecture and Sexuality in Playboy During the Cold War, which has 51 been named a finalist for the Anagrama Essay Prize. identifies a range of products, become more accessible. The text is including testosterone, the pill, illustrated, with drawings by the serotonin and alcohol, produced by author as well as images taken from what they term the ‘pharmaco- medical journals and pamphlets. pornographic regime’ of the 20th Both for its content and its style, century (and originating principally Preciado’s work could be deemed the in the US), which allow state queerest publication on the queering regulation of the population. of gender and subjectivity. There is a third strand in the This Spanish/French gender memoir aspect of this writing. In theorist presents a candid discussion the interaction between Preciado of the transsexual experience as and their lover, VD, and in the a memoir, contrasting it sharply with lamenting of the loss of a close theoretical and political analysis. It friend, GD, there is a deep well of is also worth noting that this edition desire, emotion and humanity. is credited to Paul B Preciado, as These elements are an effective opposed to the original text, which counterpoint to the more didactic bore the name Beatriz, thus acknow- and philosophical sections of the ledging the power of transformation book and provide rich insight into and self-identification sought after by the author’s mindset and personality. the author. Alternating the names Testo Junkie is without doubt might also signify that the trans- a compelling and challenging read, at formation charted in these pages is times bewildering, at times drawing complete or fluid – perhaps in deeply on the reader’s emotions. It keeping with Preciado’s own philo- doesassumepreviousknowledgeand sophy of gender and identity. understanding of a range of political, cultural and identity theories (from writers such as Michel Foucault, Jacky Collins Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Donna Haraway). Jacky Collins works at Northumbria University and Nevertheless, thanks to the personal is currently focusing her research on Icelandic nature and passion of much of the Crime Fiction, Film & TV. In 2014, in conjunction writing, the weightier theoretical with the Lit & Phil Society, she set up Newcastle ideas and intellectual examination Noir, Newcastle’s annual crime fiction event. 52 53 New and the (GRANTA, 2017) The Future is History: JENNIFER SARHA and

THE FUTURE IS HISTORY: REVIEWED BY explained – by academics, by New York Review of Books Her particular focus is on the This is, significantly, a history not Blood Matters: A Journey Along the Genetic MASHA GESSEN gaps politicians andGessen’s book shows how by crucialdissemination the newspapers? andinformation manipulation is for the of lived experience in any given country, and how it effects the political choices peopleand are allowed to able make.read I such a would history for like every country. to mechanisms through which certain in a fragmenteddriving narrative, force but behindthe the these burning stories, questionbrought Russia of to whatkeeps the where reader grounded. has it is now, only of politicalintellectual events, but experiences: alsoit what of possible was toin know, different andSoviet times to history? think, andwas What available, places information and in how were the events happen. This might have resulted BY .

HOW TOTALITARIANISM CLAIMED RUSSIA The Future Is History is a journalist who has written for the The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin . She is the author of several books, including Masha Gessen answers these Yorker Frontier, How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Masha Gessen reads like fiction; histories of narratives of moments, families, crucial snapshots that explain how and why certain or indeed our own? questions through journalism that should we know aboutwant to Russia know if Russia? wepossible And to know how a is foreign it country – strand, which might orof might not interest be historiography. In to other words, others: what intellectual experiences of peoplesocial from and diverse cultural backgrounds.interests led me My to read it along a third Russians. Gessen follows thefour lives people of born around 1984, whichallows her to explore the different a particular focus on the development of LGBT+ rights; and/or as anarratives series about of the lives of ordinary Masha Gessen’s can be reada history of contemporary on Russia with several levels: as neighbour. Or rathermight – reside – and it is this‘Russia’ Russians might is who be are worth or our do. neighbours, remembering regardless of wherever what you I thought Ibook; knew by something the about time Iof Russia finished when it, an I excuse realised I started that than reading I knew most this nothing. Europeans have I – less I am Finnish and Russia is our

54 H ILDM AHR FATHER MY KILLED WHO reality, as established are – for example paedophilia, of equation with the homosexuality – concepts cultural re omk ec ihtemnwo who man the he with book, peace make latest to his tries In father. relationship his troubled with his of account Eddy with fame found first author Father of theme key a also It’s their McVeigh’s and Paul in fathers recently more dynamic disapproving and father-son Kramer’s of Larry dysfunctional in tales The appears with offspring. damaged filled emotionally is literature Gay BY REVIEWED BY FRENCH THE FROM TRANSLATED the frame to over, take to turn man for strong long a to to minorities, supervillain against people a take doesn’t supervillainy. horrific as read would manipulatingof homophobia, people into of which,ifthiswereacalculatedcampaign history Her contemporary Russia scenario reveals concerned. a people sociological the narratives personal of the to from studies evidence, of range wide a weaving through in narrative persuasive skilled a is Gessen true. to be believe will people that something n aemd i n ftems eertdwieso i generation. his of writers celebrated most the of one him made have the and in appeared has Hisfirsttwonovels, work His Bourdieu. Pierre Louis Édouard htGse hw sta t it that is shows Gessen What oe htofr fictionalized a offers that novel a – yÉoadLus h rnh French The Louis. Édouard by ALBURSTON PAUL steato ftonvl n h dtro oko h oilsinit scientist social the on book a of editor the and novels two of author the is TheEndofEddy h ildM My Killed Who h n f of End The Faggots and BY HistoryofViolence OI TI STEIN LORIN DUR LOUIS ÉDOUARD nin rita apns Maupin’s Armistead , h odSon Good The satmtn olanaltelnugsi h world. the in languages the all learn to she attempting time is free funding remaining research her In of day. by wrangler applications a night, by history European obscure of researcher a is Sarha Jennifer news. fake of spread the with book concerned anyone for this reading required the why of one reasons only is mechanisms these Her paedophiles). from (protecting unobjectionable people) gay legitimised through association of murder and (torture unthinkable the that so debate og,working tough, a of kind Louis the is man who – father Louis’s to half is essay. half but which memoir, piece fiction companion a through with not him, raised e okTimes York New h ildM Father My Killed Who wrtasaeittitlnugs ,weretranslatedintothirtylanguages, HRILSCE,2019) SECKER, (HARVILL h the , isl ee ol e be: could never himself . casgywofailed who guy -class Guardian ae fteCt City the of Tales n and sadesd addressed is xoueo of exposure enfrSarha Jennifer hudb be should Freeman’s hlrnchildren becomes ihte the with

.

IEIGREVIEWS rIVETING MORE 55 Oneday Paul Burston As the book ends, words are Yet despite telling people he hates Finally, the author describes with an understanding. In finally learning to forgive his father, Louisfree. sets And the himself reader is movedwords. beyond righteous anger the factors leading tohis father’s demise –that the mangled factory his job body,problems the digestive resultingrecuperating on his back, the from poor diet and medications months no longer paid forthe by government. ‘You’reyears barely old. You fifty belong toof the humans category whom politics has doomedto an early death.’ exchanged and father and son reach children. Insteadglasses and words that he wound. throwsLouis seeks wine revenge bya orchestrating fight between stronger brother. physically his father and his his father, Louis admits, ‘it often seems to me that I love you’. Seeing hiscry, father he realizesa victim ‘you of the were violence you inflicted as asof the much violence you endured’. father swore he’d never hit his own Then there were the darker times Whatfollowsisthemostprofoundly – the broodingdrinking, the silences, angry outbursts. Himself the the heavy son of a violent alcoholic, Louis’s sneeredatanysignofeffeminacyonce dragged up as a cheerleader. a different person.’ Later,a Louis finds family photothat album and this discovers homophobic man who beautiful, and soobsession at with masculinity, odds it dawned with on your me that you might once have been him. His mother recalls how his fatherloved to dance.body had ‘Hearing done that something so your free, so ajourneyofdiscovery.Asachild,Louis longed for his father’shefeelsanurgentneedtogettoknow absence. Now of months andphysical is so shocked deterioration,recognizes at him. Compassion his he prompts barely moving memoir I’ve read in years. Theauthor visits his father after a period space. Snow falls, slowly burying them both. Only the son speaks. Thedoesn’t say father a word. It opens with a series of stage directions (indeed, it has been made intoTwo a play). men stand apart in an empty to escape his modest background andbecame a father –other from children a marriage. to previous Louis and two

56 EIWDB BY REVIEWED BY DUTCH THE FROM TRANSLATED NOVELLAS TWO – CHILDHOOD ednis rte ta al tg stage early these an of at Written examples tendencies. good are Press), here as (published together Family’ novellas the early Boslowits of Fall ‘The two and Nieland’ His ‘Werther want. may reader the than to information and less offer unresolved leave to delete, to diversions, antithesis. the ideas, is Reve plots. characters, distractions, with to them bursting filling stories, his overload to rapture, towards tendency. ‘English is impulse this of Mulisch’s resists idea home Reve the Europe’, into Mulisch his nicely where fits in However, writers is country. Dutch he post- greatest war the Mulisch, of one considered Harry have literature. Dutch that Alongside of classics works become produced the in Reve Netherlands, the in work 1920s the in who Born writers overlooks and writer. a refined heroic, such Dante, imagination, is and Reve English Tolstoy, margins. classical scene, the it. and by the in conceived ‘English great crowd praise. as found of champions Europe chorus be never-ending Europe’, English, heavyweight a to enjoying in other laurels, literature not with European crowned the is of and ‘canon’ name a Cervantes Reve’s as thing Gerard a then such is there If sas ueypplradciial clie.TefrtEgihtasaino i atric masterpiece his 2016. Reve of character, in translation year controversial English first and The complicated acclaimed. Evenings critically A The and history. popular country's hugely also the is in writer gay openly Reve Gerard i rtn ist aeaa, away, take to aims writing His scniee n ftegets otwrDthatos n a lotefrt first the also was and authors, Dutch post-war greatest the of one considered is hpe oeta 000cpe nteU n a he-iebo fte the of book three-time a was and UK the in copies 20,000 than more shipped UME SINGH GURMEET Childhood yPskn Pushkin by A ART GARRETT SAM BY hlho satal ie ertv, secretive, like: Elmer’s actually what is of childhood sense disturbing with left scenes is a reader the the up, pile As to begin them. on explaining expanding childhood: without rural experiences, of a exploration semi-absurd bizarre, in a is It friend. a with obsession up an developing community, growing Elmer, strange and childhood. mysterious of experiences dark, the recreate novellas the career, Reve’s in nisrrltapns u nlsd enclosed but trappings, cruelty. by rural its in enough familiar world animal- a is in It terms. like describes Werther, often friend he his whom belittling things, to destroy and of to fits urges to momentary often, violence, to given cruel. and is regret, Elmer without rituals, and strange suddenly and with symbols invested repetitive, EADREVE GERARD Wrhr olw h tr f of story the follows ‘Werther’ PSKNPES 2018) PRESS, (PUSHKIN ttn stating

ror

IEIGREVIEWS rIVETING MORE 57 Gurmeet Singh lack of answers or resolution. Gurmeet Singh is aworking writer in and editor Berlin. living Hetechnologyandpolitics,andis and writes also mostly currentlywriting onhis culture, first novel. and bucolicabides in the splendour. life of Europe; awriters fact Violence that likeoverwhelmed Mulisch by the often enduring powerof ignore, concepts such ashistory. Reve ‘civilisation’ is and more honest:to he reproduce tries on thelived: page weird, life impulsive as and it cruel.the is Like Dutch poet, Hans Faverey, Reve’sspare style creates aworld, sharply which defined lingered in the mind longafter I finished reading, as much for its a backdrop of presumed innocence As such, the two novellas are This a theme continued in ‘The and wartime Europe, set against quietlyrecreating and the cruelty ironically of childhood caustic, ‘replacing’ God with their excitedoverbearing and humanism, Reverebuffs the gently reader for being so naive. parent; itnot explained simply away.other If is, Mulisch writers and and provide it solace is by Sexual abuse pervades thedoes novel, animal cruelty. as And yetthis none is of moderated by a loving God or of the manyindifferent forms of cruelty violencedaily realities and experienced depicted and in the novel. as occupation. However, this destruction is not the ‘point’ of theit novella, is rather an extreme representation of one Amsterdam. A family close toown, Simon’s theand Boslowits, are tragically inevitably destroyed by the Fall’, with a new character, Simon, who is growing up in Nazi-occupied

58 hpe rmWoet rgs Greg’s Wioletta from chapter on of a seamstress think me made the story her This sister. on her for girl and the for bullies revenge perfect of the be form to out turns dress The dress’. ‘princess perfect local the create a and by sew and together girl sit They bullied seamstress. a to provided haven safe ‘parable’ a – world magical almost an the about Princess’, the from ‘Sewing category, is favourite story absolute My another into falls well. almost dry girls a off the chopped of head one – and its acts gets chicken dangerous a ever-more to other Greta’ each on urging with girls little ‘Games two sees story parables. title even The or poetic, stories, of more fairy-tale to descriptions issues, relationship naturalistic ranging from importantly, language, in and more atmosphere substantially in also, but vary length, stories The STORIES OTHER & GRETA WITH GAMES oit,wih iems otcmuitcutisi uoe em seems Europe, in prejudice. with Slovenian countries struggling in be post-communist women to most queer still for like life which, of social society, aspects to various cruelty reflecting and mirror, abuse bullying, homophobia, violence, and exclusion from issues, heavy with and tense dense, A BY REVIEWED 2016) PRESS, ARCHIVE (DALKEY ŠOŠTARKO MOJCA BIBIČ, ŠPELA BY SLOVENIAN THE FROM TRANSLATED BY n20 h a wre h ršrnFudto rz,oeo lvnasms rsiiu prestigious most Slovenia’s of Yugoslavia. one 1980s Prize, in Foundation movement Prešeren rights the awards. LGBT+ awarded the literary was of she founders 2007 the In of one was Tratnik fiction. ( novels two collections, uaaTratnikSuzana UAATRATNIK SUZANA NABLASIAK ANNA sawie,tasao,pbiit n oilgs.Sehspbihdsxsotsoy short-story six published has She sociologist. and publicist, translator, writer, a is yNm sDamjan is Name My in es olcino hrensotsoisdaig dealing stories short thirteen of collection tense ae ihGea&OhrStories Other & Greta with Games IHE IGN,TMR OA, SOBAN, TAMARA BIGGINS, MICHAEL AND n and ewe laigteojc fter their of object the pleasing or between line the passions cases some In their over. take desire let and thinking rationally stop they when control, that lose they when moments those in us presented to often are they but control, and power for hunger a by driven are – person first the in narrated are stories protagonist. is child the by visited character seamstress formidable Mercury Swallowing uiiyo t t eaiiy bu About relativity. its to says: she it; maps reading attempts of our and In futility absurdity the of – humour. things categorize Tratnik fun of Positions’, makes lot a is ‘Geographical quite there stories, also those in described – metaphorically. and flows literally Blood becomes crossed. them even blurred, harming and desire hr World Third LZBT ŽARGI ELIZABETH rti’ artr oto h the of most – narrators Tratnik’s swl stedr sus issues dark the as well As ,apa,adtrewrso non- of works three and play, a ), nwihaohr another which in

saboe broken a is

IEIGREVIEWS rIVETING MORE 59 Anna Blasiak

CRIMSON (VIRAGO, 2018) ANNA HALAGAR URSULA PHILLIPS . REVIEWED BY This is a very interesting collection: five contemporarygrowing up young in ahere as Greenland people an insular, postcolonial depicted society in which everyone knows one another digested food’. And: ‘I raiseup my to hands my neckthe and skull of squeeze. its I expressionless eyeballs emptyandonceandforallrescue rolling itfromthe splinters of my straw childhood.’ multifaceted, likelaughter life with itself, sexualand mixing desire, violence cruelty with for boredom, power with hunger resignation; related by Tratnik with a certainstriking bitterness directness. and unfocused anger, and bits of half- , was published in 2014 . She translated it herself NIVIAQ KORNELIUSSEN Homo Sapienne Crimson Crimson BY TRANSLATED FROM THE GREENLANDIC BY grew up in South Greenland and studied Psychology at Aarhus University are politically right wing.’ the right areare communists, politically who left wing,the and left on are the capitalists, who left is west,and other capitalists where are. You can Americans try to remember it all like this: on ‘Fine, east and westleft. – right Right and is east,Russians that’s and where communism are; in Denmark. She startedGreenland writing where in her debut 2013from novel, and Greenlandic is to the Danish winner and of is currently many working writing on competitions her in second novel. Niviaq Korneliussen roughly 18,000 inhabitants,portrays the claustrophobic – thedespite empty grand, landscapes of lives – century. Its original title was Set in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital of Bergmanesque, herwriter novel outside renders herlanguage, her which homeland. was the only written It best-known down for is the Greenlandic first written time in the in mid-19th Greenlandic, an Inuit Niviaq Korneliussen has maderemoved a dramatic entry from into Nordic criminal fiction. Far noir yet possessing something of the a fountain that alternately gurgledcurse up words, disgusting whimpers, incredible lyrical beauty in the middleof a seemingly naturalistic‘His sequence: drunken brother was like Sometimes Tratnik adds a line of an MORE and which is struggling to establish an private flats, characterized by excessive independent identity as a country. On alcohol consumption and promiscuous IEIGrIVETING the one hand, it is determined to sex. If this seems gruesome, or even disown the prejudices directed tedious, it is underscored by a sardonic, towards it by its erstwhile colonial self-deprecating humour, prompting

master, Denmark. On the other hand afeelingofalmostaffectionateacceptance. REVIEWS it seems to confirm some of those Basically, however, the struggle is one very charges: for example, that against loneliness in a society that Greenlanders are violent alcoholics rejects difference in the name of given to child abuse – one of the five national belonging. characters in the novel suffered abuse The upshot of these stories is as a child from her own father; nevertheless positive. Key is the story of another flees to Denmark to escape Sara and Fia, who meet in the opening a homophobic scandal, only to pages and finally come together, thus encounter a similar lack of acceptance providing a structural resolution to the for being a Greenlander in Copenhagen. whole. But Sara’s story has another The five protagonists record events dimension: her close relationship fromtheirownfirst-personperspectives. with an elder sister (to whom the This is pithy, vigorous prose narrated in opening poetic epigraph is dedicated) the present tense, interspersed with and the birth of the sister’s child, at text messages and hashtags, and bursting which Sara (not its father) is present. with youthful invective and suppressed The birth of new life changes the tenor emotion, as the characters grapple with of the narrative. Interestingly,as mother their conflicted identity as modern and aunt cuddle the baby, they say: ‘we Greenlanders and above all with the realise that we don’t know the gender of homophobic prejudices of a socially the child’. Gender is secondary to love conservative society. Two, Arnaq and and human acceptance, as is sexuality, Sara, self-identify as lesbian, while one, and indeed nationality. A youthful cry Fia, rejects a stifling heterosexual for our times. relationship to discover her repressed preference for women. Fia’s brother Ursula Phillips Inuk rejects his previous homophobic attitudes and comes out as gay, while Ivik, always uncomfortable in her Ursula Phillips is a British translator from Polish and ‘female’ body, eventually accepts that a writer on Polish literary history. Recent translations she/he is a man. include novels by Zofia Nałkowska, Choucas (1927) Since such identities cannot be and Boundary(1935), which received the Found in publicly visible in Nuuk’s existing bars Translation Award 2015 and the PIASA Wacław and clubs, the novel portrays an under- Lednicki Award 2017. world of night-time ‘afterparties’ in 60 61 River of no

INFIDELS LUCY POPESCU ALISON L. STRAYER (SEVEN STORIES PRESS, 2016) REVIEWED BY is a cautionary tale, a love story, . Jallal watches his mother Related in haunting, lyrical prose, Silma and Jallal’s lives fall apart in prison for three years. She managesto arrange her young son’sEgypt escape to where heanother prostitute. is When mother looked and son after are reunited, Silma is by too damaged, mentally and physically towith Jallal reconnect and turns to religion. Infidels and aFollowing his polemic mother’s death, against Jallal injustice. (another outcast of sorts) in Return identify with the actress: ‘Sheinfidel, was like an Marilyn. Like her, unhappy. A whore. A servant. A goddess.’ when Silma is taken in forby questioning thesoldier Moroccan has already left for the Western authorities.Sahara Her War but is believed to befor a spy the Sahrawi indigenousSilma Polisario. is brutally tortured and remains Silma is ABDELLAH TAÏA BY , witchdoctor TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY was born in the public library of Rabat in Morocco, where his father was the introductrice , which was awarded the prestigious French Prix de Flore in 2010. explores the alienation of three After Saâdia’s death, poverty janitor and where his familyfilmmaker, he lived until writes he in was French and twoLe has years jour old. published de eight Acclaimed roi books as now both widely a translated, novelist including and Abdellah Taïa magnetism of Marilyn Monroe Silma works as a prostitute, but enjoysfleeting security withintroduces her a soldier. He son, Jallal, to the citizens’ most intimate moments. forces her daughter into a similar trap. outcast. The needa damning for indictment of this astate ritual patriarchal is which seeks to control its displayed foralike’. friends She is and despised forshe enemies the service provides and treated like an couples on theirhas wedding to night ensure and ‘bloodwhite flows sheet onto the that will be proudly the adoptedTadlauoi, an daughter and of Saâdia ‘sex-specialist’. Saâdia helps Infidels of onegenerations Morocco’s family,and political and social repression. individualism as a threat. Narrated from various perspectives, 1998, writes in Frenchevent, and, he to date, talked hasthe openly published difficulties about eight novels. his At forging of early the homosexual sense a experiences and identity of in country a that sees I first came across Moroccanon writer sedition. Abdellah He Taïa had recently ina caused 2006 something at country of where a PEN a stir homosexuality talk by is coming out illegal. in Taïa has lived in Paris since 62 sasakwrigt hs those and deny to love, that criminalize warning individualism, regimes stark authoritarian a as serves Strayer, L. Alison by translated II. Hassan cold, of Mosque dark the in Casablanca, in intertwine religiousjihad. sexual Their and of commit to Mahmoud by groomed dying been apparently is cancer. who to convert Islam, Belgian a Mahmoud, man, young a for He falls himself. and Brussels for to life moves new a forge to has aaspwru ae ueby superbly tale, powerful Taïa’s o ae allraie ehs has he realises Jallal late, Too eoindevotion ’ aeo h aesufa o.Im I’m everybody.’ you. In you. as in stuff same orphaned. the of and made I’m Divine power. in She misfortune In and you. maidens. like ‘I’m observes: virgin is Jallal prerequisite that the than fitting rather Monroe, is by welcomed him it heaven, propels of gates the that At self-destruction. towards suggests, Taïa status, pariah Jallal’s is it and violence, breeds Violence citizens. their torture

uyPopescu Lucy

IEIGREVIEWS rIVETING MORE 63 JIM TUCKER (OPEN LETTER, 2019) and since nodecided one not had to answer asked, rather than we The Two Fridas (school beyond the border) They hadthough us that sittingwanted. We wasn’t together, even saidAt what that, we our didn’t. we teachercane staff whisked through her the airastonishing alacrity, with given her an body weight. Who asked you, she asked, TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN BY

NIGHT SCHOOL: A READER FOR GROWNUPS FROM grew up in Brazil and Hungary, and is the author of three works of fiction and four essay collections. Winner ofwriter-in-residence numerous prizes at for the her DAAD writing, (German she Academicis is Exchange also currently Service) a a programme, former and professor of American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Zsófia Bán

three-quarter sleeves, its lower hem adornedpattern, with while a I cute had little on redgreen a skirt flower with blue white flounces and at the yellow hem (sadly, top jewellery was matched not allowed, with a long, olive- constantly sizing you up, particularly if there areparticularly two of if you, the and even two more ofdressing differently: you Frida are would wear one. a We richly-laced long tried white to dress with ease the situation by be asked again. We sat intraps. silence. You might Held say our it’s traps. not The particularly whole good class being held a new its kid. Everyone is sf án©steo csgsp htor hwww.steo om c . t r ekoa t s . w w phyw ogra phot r pa gas s ic ekov t s © n Bá a Zsófi 64 rgtnn.H nurd n ut,wa a ruh stee n and there, us brought had what more quote, him made I only and which inquired, Teoti- smarm, He of excessive mayor frightening. the with were us we then Our received pal you. our huacan) with was cards he report (if your Principal take Comrade and pal Comrade office, principal’s yourselves pal the Pack to our worse.) off matters and right make any only Lenik ask would not this dared Comrade thinking but questions, to Lenik, Comrade this listen about wondered just (We Principal. said, she all No went oils, with here, red. glistening around face, God her and no teacher, There’s homeroom that. the screamed said have about. shouldn’t worry go to we couldn’t thing say, less Pioneer to one Needless a said, we Said God, Thank that. that. like like looking patrol around for Said assembling here. around be done wasn’t couldn’t thing moustaches, of we sort they that had said (Alright, They it.) already it?—off-putting. for hell put we us gave more we thing, much should one found—how were they for We something were: was. they that than what washboard-chested developed those imagine but in even Diego, chemistry the with couldn’t had best from toothpicks we The us kind was! the distracting she was wrong was world how the it by knew confiscated said only she was She If chemistry. it us compounds. until taught of Diego who One of lady Indian. portrait the completely medallion a was carried Diego Lakatos Diego. always Sanyi Especially home. while back boys half-Indian, nobody the was like of knuckles us his reminded over also compass a He else. flip We could Gracias. anyway. He kindly Lakatos. him Sanyi thanked liked but didn’t, We said. in he faces want, their you smash if I’ll differences. cultural from knew he empathize; could class. whole the of out laugh belly got big difference’. This in ‘cultural a as known sense is The logic of some too. systems identical, such be was of should multiplicity names there their then identical, thought acceptable: are equally identicals is still two view if another we that admit when must you but said them, debating we that, identical to certain a two is logic There identical. call so be to wouldn’t they is So names. with different here by told copies around were we custom dolls, the little superiority, my make Well unrestrained actually though. should them, this for thought Not we easier. though things name, that same confusing the was had it both said we were They another. we so, one Even for naked). mistaken out being going constantly were we like feel us made always which ofsinbfr e l nahf.Snew intko h ewere we why know have didn’t let’s we girls, Since huff. now a now in and all line, get the I over before confession step a a gone perhaps we had h nyoewodd’ ag a h ys o,SniLkts e He Lakatos. Sanyi boy, Gypsy the was laugh didn’t who one only The 65 Zsófia Bán Translated by Jim Tucker , a classical philologist living in Budapest, translated works from German, French, and Italian before makingsince the acquaintance translated of some George Konrád,numerous thirty-five for other whom essays authors. he from has the Hungarian, in addition to works by Jim Tucker which sent a shiver down both our spines. dusk had fallen. Alright then,are. said Now, our you two comrade just principal take this at homenot last, for your see there father you we to sign. here And I’d any better more because, well, now now, he said unctuously, words. There we stood, in the middlebecame of the aware principal’s office, that and suddenly the national lazy emblem on spot the of wall, framed afternoon by sheaves sun of had wheat. In faded other from words, the report books. Our comrade theenvied him principal this facility; got as for to us, we writing could spend and all writing. day pondering We the right one day, we just got stuck that way.the Hence request we were of in our no comrade position the to principal,responded satisfy and that told him we as much. would To this, deeply he regret this, and sternly asked for our we were stuck that way. It was notimes, use Grandma Oh Kaló’s telling Fridas us a Fridas, thousand don’t stuck squinch that way. your We just eyebrows wouldn’t listen. because We you’ll squinched and get squinched until, there, we said nothing. Girls, he said, betterthat not when squinch your talking eyebrows like to me,were or in no things position will to really satisfy get this request ugly. spliced Unfortunately, into we a threat, given that Zsófia NIGHT SCHOOL: A READER FOR GROWNUPS BY ZSÓFIA BÁN (OPEN LETTER, 2019) TRANSLATED FROM THE HUNGARIAN BY JIM TUCKER Bán WITH AN AFTERWORD BY PÉTER NÁDAS RIVETING REVIEW BY JONATHAN LEVI

With EasyJets and internets zooming us from our living rooms into the jungles and cathedrals of foreign lands faster than a speeding bullet, it’s no wonder that it’s becoming less and less possible to squeeze the contemporary writer into any particular geographical or literary pigeon- hole. So let’s not call Zsófia Bán a remarkable Hungarian writer – although it is thanks to translator Jim Tucker’s acrobatic agility with Hungarian and English that we Anglos finally have the chance to visit the circus of her imagination. Born in Brazil of Jewish parents, Bán moved to Hungary when she was an adolescent, and has made a career teaching American studies in Budapest, while writing fiction and essays that have drawn the praise of the dean of the Hungarian literati, Péter Nádas.

Night School, written in 2009, the first compatriot László Krasznahorkai, but of her fiction to be translated into hipper and sexier, with overtones of English, is as much of a mashup as Hunter S. Thompson, Frank Zappa, Bán herself. In one story, the cynical and The Firesign Theater. 18th-century aristocrats ofLiaisons Night School is subtitled ‘A Reader Dangereuses find themselves in the for Grownups’.Each chapter is headed United States on the cusp of 9/11. In with a subject topic (‘Geography’, another the two Fridas of la Kahlo, ‘Biology’, ‘Recess’), pockmarked with linked by a single heart in the famous Sebaldian photos and illustrations, and double self-portrait, are a pair of tied off with a set of discussion unfortunate twins dropped into the questions that do more to confuse the mean-girls midst of a communist-era reader and make us wonder what we Hungarian high school. have just read. The confusion is Bán is a citizen of history and consistently hilarious and bracing. a virtuoso of language, a reminder that Bán is one of those writers who is not Portuguese and Hungarian were once only interested in everything, from the the tongues of empires. Her riffs – at colour of Madame Bovary’s eyes to least as brought to us in Tucker’s the origins of gravity, but infects the sizzling translation – are often long, reader with the virus of her curiosity. loopy, sentences/paragraphs, as complex The titles of the sections might seem as the rococo curlicues of her arbitrary at first (‘Concerto’ – for 66 67 .A day- Jonathan Levi This is not . , he currently lives and Granta A Guide for the Perplexed NightSchool and US-born Jonathan Levi is the authorSeptimania of the novels founding editor of teaches in Rome. as Pelé.literature The in translation pitfalls arejoys often – its discovering of yourself inwhere reading a something place isyou happening don’t but Nevertheless, quite ‘knowledge’ is know awordinBán’s what tricky itschool is. learning, nor theof stuff in dreamt night-time philosophy class. Arantes do Nascimento, better known . Some are Olympe re never taught during the day Some of Bán’s stories are cute, Hungary’s homegrown fascists,Arrow the Cross, orfootball Brazil’s players legendary Zezé and Edson a cultural knowledgeHungarian, that non-Brazilian readers may her non- lack – for example, a familiarity with about Victorine,modelled for the hisgenuinely artist horrifying. Some who require the night. like the complaint of Edouard Manet worth learning, particularlythey because a and bear the forbidden licence of a story about rape). Butthey in symphony, make upsounds the and stuff the silences, of the life, lessons the VIGNETTES

playing berlin

and this is how: watch a buzzard catch a crow in the tiergarten andbe overwhelmed by the cruelty and go shopping but not buy anything after all and let you stamp the credit for my coffee on your loyalty Simon Froehling © Nikkol Rot card and bitch about schaubühne because crave is completely sold out and pretend that we know every- one and even the playwright although the playwright is long dead and we barely know anyone especially me and go to the cinema instead and watch a terrible american movie but still kind of like it and take your new friend to a bar where women actually aren’t allowed and not really get into the swing of things and only realise at home that we should have bought wine and have good sex for the first time in ages even without kissing and watch tv together in the old-fashioned rocking chair and for a short while feel no jealousywhatsoeverandsleepuntiltheothersgetbackfrompartyinginthe

Simon Froehling was born in Switzerland to an Australian mother and a Swiss father.Roughly a dozen of his plays were produced or published before he graduated in 2009. His BA thesis included the novel Lange Nächte Tag, which was published to critical acclaim by Bilgerverlag. Simon has received numerous awards for his work, most recently the Network cultural prize for his contribution to queer arts in 2014. Around the same time he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 68 69 friends, with neighbours, withstrangers, lovers, after the again kissing and and licking and again sucking and spitting, the the slapping, strangers, the too-skinny, after all the porn and theafter piercings, the all tattoos and the the tickling, jerking and jacking but mainly the fucking with exes, with grindr, those graveyards of quickies, of boyfriends,hanky of codes lovers, after and all abbreviations those – thethat ff, bdsm the with the pp, muscled, the the chubby, tt, the toned, the the what? tanned and – the after way- all all the poppers, the viagraghb (but and never the together), tina, the after roofies, theafter the ecstasy, the coke, the cum, the ecstasy! the and spit, all that the coming sweat down, and the piss, after manhunt, scruff and and thin, after rough, afterand tender divers, with with truckers artists and and waiters, bankers, lawyers and withplace-or-mines, painters, the judges after showers, all the the your- bathtubs, the pools and the oceans, after rubber, in nothing, after the big,the the horse, small, the the massive medium, and theintended), the tiny, after monster, the after huge, cut, lots after of bent, foreskin after (like beer nature can and mushroom, after thick after all the couples and throuples, or is itand triads? orgies all with the tirades! twinks after and groups bears and cubs and otters in leather and latex, in after all the bedrooms and theseats of kitchens, cars, the after all the sofas train stations and and airports, the the cottaging and cruising tables,in the clubs back and outdoors, after all the danger, the fear and the exhilaration, after all music much too loud andpromise and promise repeat the promise myself and repeat the not promise. and then to leave again. miss you and repeat the interested not even from afar and remember that buzzard catching that crowor was it a hawkexcuse and to get go invited out for on dinner our and own again and the right at east the and end find tell an you that you smell of find the east german sandman but don’tcheap buy the because doll even you though think it’sin really that’s hand far through too the nostalgic tiergarten and and cruise not home spot hand a single guy who could be east and treat them alla green to shawl made coffee out at of raw themysterious silk plans and flea for say goodbye lunch market to and and her lose because the buy she others has your somewhere by friend the vinyl and the whipping, the fisting and the rimming, after rome and paris, berlin and SIMON zurich, after london, madrid and athens, to be honest?

to do absolutely nothing FROEHLING in bed with someone except perhaps: netflix.

Hobbies: none

As a child I could hear the ocean in the large conch that lay on my mother’s nightstand, and as a young adult a Thai lover taught me to dive. For the first time in my life I felt entirely in my element, as the expression fittingly goes. A lot has happened since: I received an education and found not only a job but also a vocation. I travelled a lot and had busloads of sex. I was ill for a very long time, always in love and often had a man by my side – usually the wrong one – and twice a dog. I planted trees, wrote poems, but never killed anyone (apart from myself nearly, once). I was always quite poor, which troubled me more than I care to admit. I moved to a fast, dirty and very loud city in a cheaper and much sunnier country, where I will always feel a bit out of place, as I will in its language, which I don’t mind at all. I’ve been sober for nearly as long as I was an addict. I know myself well and nearly believe the voice that keeps repeating that I’m no longer searching for anything – especially for some- thing as elusive as love. I was rarely content, which I regret, but which will payoffwhenIfillbookswithitoneday. For now, however, it suffices to say: I have learnt to lie down on my bed, flat on my back, entirely still. I have learnttoblockoutthenoiseandthestench,theswelteringheat,andtosink deep down into myself. I need no shell, nor do I need an ocean, and I swear: Icanseeallthefishintheworld.

Simon Froehling

These vignettes were either written in English or translated from German by the author.

A bilingual, German-English version ofplaying berlin was published in the Swiss literary magazineEntwürfe in 2006 and the Solothurn Literary Day’s anthologyNew Swiss Writing in 2008. The original German version ofHobbies: none was published in the Swiss literary magazineOrte as well as the only queer German-language literary publication Glitter in 2018. 70 71

West Camel © Auhtor’s Archive ) magazine. His The Riveter (ORENDA BOOKS, 2018

ATTEND FROM was published in December 2018. is a writer, editor and reviewer. He is the Editor of Attend Inthecoupleofdayssince,thosewords–‘Ican’tdie’–hadbeenrepeat- ‘I can’t die,’ Deborah had The ridiculous words came West Camel debut novel if Deborah were perched on his shoulder, shouting in his ear. ing in his head and Sam had ignored them.heard. He had But turned now, away trapped as beside if the he toy hadn’t stall, they were suddenly louder – as put his hands back in his lap andback listened home in to silence. And meet then Derek, he attacking haddown dashed on him the with muscle a of his rough shoulder. Derek embrace had and grunted biting and laughed. said, then tried tostroked her arm; collect had almost herself, said he sniffingloustaleofapieceofsewingthatcouldmakesomeoneimmortal.Buthehad believed her and as she blinking. told him He the ridicu- had almost my mother’s birthday.’ a rush to get ridrattling of boxes: the broad, ‘It’sstuff, all ladies. kosher Cut price ’cos it’s mothers and children clustered around a stalltoys. The stallholder selling seemed in cheap back tothrough Sam as thebecame he caught walked in market a clutch and of ‘I can’t die.’ 72 ttee htm hnh wthdhsgz akt i opno companion his beat to face. eyelashes his back over hand gaze thick his wiping his his nod, a switched or and word he a loose without Then hung rhythm. jaw stuttered Derek’s a But open. smile that eyebrows his of prickled. back movement Sam’s approached. slight a he as green, interest from Sam’s and questioned – apart large eyes unlike his flat round, But, expression and white. pale his the was same almost face the man’s of other almost suits the shirts Derek, wore open-necked They hair. their grey, solid, – cropped under same similar necks strikingly red were thick men with two Derek’s The on firmly. was hand him His off.’ shaking people shoulder, many too pissed He’s meat. dead He’s interrupt. to how sure not slightly, slowed Sam fast. tight, throat was his and smile arm. suited his a only eager if pace, into Derek, his touch accelerating to twitched road, the crossed face He words. Sam’s for itself of prepared muscles The man. stock. with him help selling could someone warehouse seen contact. had the a had He Derek at Perhaps here? someone stall vans. perhaps a and have carts – their to cloth up like loaded be and it way would other’s What each in got stalls, their of at making was, he here and left; life. a had of he bit troubles, a least his despite But – below. road window, left the had bedroom on passing he his people the at at curtain standing net the house, through gazing parents’ his in days self-pitying told. she stories own stupid her the was all it her, with ignored fault, they the if for and up her; saw close people to course beginning He Of were attention. afternoon. which any stalls, the her of paid backs one the clothes, past no strode homemade that on dull, insistence hand her Her at house. flat Deborah; decrepit a her – at lay to anger had into He flamed way. irritation his of out woman’s brats a their pulled or pram a steree e,i a si a a lme w tp,adh e i his let he and steps, two climbed had Sam if as was it met, eyes their As Sam. saw Derek then And Derek. you, for out Nigel sort ‘We’ll now: speaking was voice man other his The and down and up jerked hand his red-faced; was Derek But another with supermarket Vietnamese the outside standing was He him. saw he then And frames the apart pulled people as clangs and shouts with rang air The long spent had He head. his shook and second a for eyes his closed He moved one no him; see to seemed stall the around mothers the of None akt e isl u ftecod ieasrc ac,hs his match, struck a Like crowd. the of out himself get to back 73 West Camel Sam’s smile was still in his cheeks, but it was a dumb grin now. He ably forward, bleeping and flashing, its bandjaw. There of was peons no feeding way its around wide it. Derek back had ignored him. tipped into gaspingly coldSqueezing between water. two stalls He he tripped could overthen bundles found not of himself unsold stuck quite goods behind and the control market’s rubbish his truck. It limbs. crept inexor- stumbled slightly, as if shoved back downstairspair, and, his swaying heel away from slipped the off the kerb, jarring his whole body. He was capsized; 74 eas hsi u eod second unable been difficult have our we where magazine is been this also because has this Producing magazine more. inspire can we Maybe English. into queer translated fiction contemporary actually much that there isn’t because but social some hurdles, and dangerously cultural in political, growing) (and, countries, continuing European the of prose because only not and Europe, around from poetry queer of selection not translated this It’s gathering this easy of magazine. been proud little is pioneering team riveting Our BY AFTERWORD yErlte emmtswo who team-mates Eurolitnet my and themselves, writers both – Camel were lottery’. been, we on the win if ‘to has do could one we produced what this imagine as be shoestring, beloved a can our magazine If profoundly ever, as grateful. are, we whom to – England match Council Arts to from grant our funding additional raise to

OI ODMT, GOLDSMITH, ROSIE Queer hnAn lsa n et West and Blasiak Anna When RIVETER-IN-CHIEF apnhappen Riveter iee Riveter ol eal ocet oehn something create to able be we knew would I contribute, to agreed Schimel, then Sigurðardóttir Lilja Lawrence and Dehnel Jacek icons Burston, literary Paul queer excellent the very When it? do we could of exist: not Europe did magazine from English A in writing right. queer was time writing. their The love and trust I instincts YES! their said immediately I me, magazine to this proposed – queer be to h oiiedbt on eul years sexual Fifty round identity. and debate orientation (both positive are the about Brexit rather how but anti-queer) about and arguably talking Trump not odd I’m No, do. the male. class middle- by white, dominated straight, stereotypical world literary a in today queer being of challenges the into insight but an provides yes, it because But also queer literature. good it’s is and it because because poetry not their prose, you’ve reading hope enjoyed I exciting. and relevant elv nqertms eral really we times, queer in live We 75 The Queer Rosie Goldsmith to celebrate beautiful work in has made me read and think However, if, like me, you are this magazine – I want to make of the European Literature Networkin-Chief. and Riveter- more expansively.validation of modern times. It Thank you for is reading. a proud Rosie Goldsmith (aka Rosie the Riveter) is Director on a difference. also occasionally tired by the constant campaigning, labelling andshouting zeitgeist- andcelebrate would whatI believe we’ve been we able prefer havetoo: there’s to – somethis then magazine whichgreat, is quite riveting simply Riveter writing. in the same way as everyone working teachers and employersangry. – We and are I in this am together and – (sic) woman who has woken upfact to that the I too have beenand marginalized abused over the decades by today as we strive for legal recognition and visibility. I say ‘we’ because Ias write a white, middle-class, stereotypical Russia and Poland, you’ll understand.Understanding, explaining,shaming naming, and labelling are important into often marginalized,individuals and threatened communities –read if you our items from, for example, reflected in literature, as our magazine demonstrates, and literature provides a mirror, escape, outlet and insight discussion aroundsexual identity, equality, prejudice human and political rights, struggle. All these are after the Stonewall riots, thirtyafter the years fall of the Berlin Wall, LGBT+issues are part of a wider topical 76 n nprnrhpwt oaiLtrr Salon. Literary Polari with partnership in England, and Council Arts from support with Right Sounds Network for Literature European the by Produced Edi RIVETER THE [email protected] Network: Literature European the via RIVETER THE Contact #Rive #TheRiveter @eurolitnet eurolitnetwork.com Kalloo Lisa Editor Production and Design Blasiak, Anna Editor Poetry Guest Schimel, Lawrence Editor Guest Burston, Paul Editor Camel, West Riveter-in-Chief Goldsmith, Rosie , oe n niePhotography Inside and Cover

� � nSx ue2019 June Six, on ngReviews Team