Night Sky with Exit Wounds: Ocean Vuong
An extraordinary debut from a young Vietnamese American, Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other.
Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects – love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire – and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention: ‘…the chief of police/facedown in a pool of Coca-Cola./A palm-sized photo of his father soaking/beside his left ear.’ This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, and its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.
Our Wives Under the Sea: Julia Armfield
Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah is not the same. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has brought part of it back with her, onto dry land and into their home.
Moving through something that only resembles normal life, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had before might be gone. Though Leah is still there, Miri can feel the woman she loves slipping from her grasp.
Jeanette Winterson – Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (1985)
Oranges was Jeanette Winterson’s first book and serves as a semi-autobiography about growing up in a staunchly religious community whilst also starting to recognise your sexuality, rebelling against the foundations of your upbringing. The book itself has a strong message about advocating for yourself despite the pressures of family and society. Winterson later released “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” (2011), which serves as a parallel non-fiction memoir of her childhood in a Pentecostal family who rejected her lesbianism. She continues to write poetry and literature surrounding gender and sexuality.
Pageboy – Elliot Page (2023)
Pageboy was Elliot Page’s brutal and honest memoir surrounding his journey to self-acceptance and gender transition, a book which finally allows him to own his own narrative. Never before has a book explained those feelings of gender dysphoria so plainly, highlighted the pain of coming out as gay while others rejoiced versus coming out as trans while others hated. The book also speaks of euphoria, euphoria in his body, in his experiences and in his voice.
Blue Jean (2022)
Blue Jean is a 2022 British drama film written and directed by Georgia Oakley. Set in Newcastle, Jean is a PE teacher at a secondary school. In 1988, a new law stigmatising Gays and Lesbians forces Jean, a closeted gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts on all sides, the arrival of a new student catalyses a crisis that will push Jean to the edge.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. In 1963, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist and ranch hand Ennis Del Mar are hired by rancher Joe Aguirre as sheep herders in Wyoming. Ennis and Jack develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship is complicated when Ennis marries his longtime sweetheart, and Jack marries a fellow rodeo rider. Despite this, the two men keep up their tortured and sporadic affair over the course of 20 years.
Pariah (2011)
In early 1970s Harlem, daughter and wife-to-be Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny. Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together, but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.
The Half of It (2020)
The Half of It is a 2020 American coming-of-age comedy-dram film written and directed by Alice Wu. The film received the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. The shy, straight-A student, Ellie agrees to write a love letter for the jock, Paul. However, she doesn’t expect to become his friend nor to fall for his crush. They find themselves connecting and learn about the nature of love.
Dusty Springfield: 1939-1999
Dusty Springfield was an English singer with a distinctive voice. Her legendary four decade career saw genre versatility and numerous musical accomplishments. During the 1960s she was at her peak, ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her style, featuring heavy makeup, evening gowns and a blonde beehive fixed her as an icon of the swinging sixties. In 1971 she came out publically as bisexual. In 1982 she married actress Teda Bracci, despite same sex marriages not being legally recognized.
Marsha P. Johnson: 1945-1992
Marsha P. Johnson was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Johnson was known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights and was a prominent figure in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. Johnson was also a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front and the radical activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. Johnson was also active in the art scene and modelled for Andy Warhol.
Tove Jansson (1914 -2001)
Finnish creator of the Moomins
Much like Virginia Woolf, Tove wrote of her love for women. Despite the fact that homosexuality was illegal and seen as a disease in Finland until it was decriminalised in 1971, she was openly in love with her same-sex partners, living with one of her lovers for 45 years. Many of the characters in the Moomins are amorphous and do not follow traditional gender roles, representing queer themes in Jansson’s life and what she wanted out of society.
Queen Latifah (1970-)
Often hailed as the best female rapper of all time, Queen Latifah was part of Native Tongues, an Afro-centric hip hop collective – her debut album “All Hail the Queen” making homage to Africa and drawing from her experiences as a black woman. Songs such as U.N.I.T.Y and Ladies First represent the way she made waves in the hip hop community as a militant feminist and black rights activist. She has recently been able to be open about her experiences as a gay woman in 2021, publicly acknowledging her partner and their son. In a community that has been plagued with homophobia despite its creation as a movement that defied authority, a sub-culture of resistance and belonging; Latifah stands at the forefront of advocating for further intersectionality in hip hop.