The Queer & Trans Nonfiction Podcast

On the first ever "Now That's What I Call an Ally!" episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, I chat with author and ally Heather McCalden on a myriad of topics such as: instinctual creative output, getting sick of your own work during the editing process, viewing the threads of a text as forming a “DNA strand,” using extended metaphor to describe the things we can’t otherwise explain, writing a fragmented book, striking a balance between the personal and the researched, respecting our own boundaries when writing about the personal, the internet as a photographic negative of our world, the transmission of knowledge, teaching a class called “Writing the Internet,” handwriting vs. typing, researching HIV AIDS, the role of AIDS in LGBTQ+ history, the AIDS walk as a day of resilience, queer and trans writing influences, exploring “covering” books the way we cover albums, and the concept of alchemy.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Sex with a Brain Injury by D/Annie Liontas, The Situation and the Story by Vivienna Gornick, How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler, Merve Emre, write-the-internet.org, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Elizabeth Winkler, GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), Lucy Sante, Rachel Pollack, Doom Patrol, Grace Byron, Susan Sontag, Cyrus Dunham
Links:
Purchase The Observable Universe (US Edition)
Purchase The Observable Universe (UK Edition)
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, we celebrate the release of Homosexual Intifada: A Queer Palestinian Anthology with editors George Abraham and Hannah Moushabeck. Our discussion spans many topics such as: the bonds within queer Palestinian community, the trust of working with friends editorially, common themes and threads organically coming up in submission drafts for an all-genre anthology, the risks of writing memoir, colonial gaslighting, Epistemicide, who gets to narrate their own bodies, honoring Arabic storytelling traditions, responding to the argument that queer and trans folks shouldn’t support Palestinians, pinkwashing, making the concept of “return” a reality, photography as proof of existence, being vulnerable as editors alongside contributors, writing for adults vs. writing for children, and Arabic literature vs. English literature.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Noor Hindi, Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry, Mejdulene Bernard Shomali, Afeef Nessouli, Micaela Laibni Raen, Randa Jarrar, Al Maqdisi, Tareq Baconi, Tariq Ra’ouf, Elias Jahshan, Noor Aldayeh, Sarona Abuaker, Sara Solara, Eman Abdelhadi, Maria Zreiq, Saleem Haddad, Lenna Jawdat, Rashid Khalidi, Mira Mattar, “The Principle of Return” by Adam HajYahia, “In Tune with Their Time” by Nasser Abourahme, “Bleeding Forms: Beyond the Intifada” by Abdaljawad Omar, Queer Phenomenology by Sara Ahmed, Palestinian Feminist Collective, Mx. Yaffa, Jordy Rosenberg.
Links:
Purchase Homosexual Intifada
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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On this special Genre Switch episode, I chat with poet Dr. Kelsey L. Smoot about topics such as: book tours, poetic texting, incorporating poetry into academic writing, re-framing the ways we define “love,” the politics of blurbing, determining the order and flow of a collection, considering the corporeal in trans poetics, form reflecting content, conveying imperfection on the page, speaking your truth even if someone else remembers it differently, personifying the heart, the ways in which love overtakes us, experimenting with innovative poetic forms, constraints as a means of strengthening word choice, pop culture references in contemporary poetry, and the lasting impact of Sula by Toni Morrison.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: AWP, KB Brookins, Mac Crane, Jericho Brown, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, James Baldwin, Cameron Awkward Rich, Judith Butler, Jessica Abughattas, Chen Chen, Glorilla, Chaka Khan, Edward Scissorhands
Links:
Kelz's Website
Purchase SOULMATE AS A VERB
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
Lin's Bandcamp
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A fun and enlightening conversation with writer and historian, Hugh Ryan, in which we discuss: approaching personal nonfiction vs. researched historical nonfiction, examining through writing the moments and memories in our lives we constantly think about, reading against the archive when researching queer histories, crafting an intimate reader experience, disagreeing with or contradicting the self on the page as vulnerability, figuring out the meaning of a moment by re-writing it several times, the freedom of being alone in a queer crowd, articulating complicated feelings about gender, hope through young queer and trans folks, establishing stakes in creative nonfiction, building a question in the reader’s head to get them invested, structural work as an entry to a draft, the importance of writing community, and of course, 90s pop culture.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: The Long Hallway by Richard Scott Larson, “Motorcycle Drive By” by Third Eye Blind, Edgar Gomez, The Moth, This American Life, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Vivian Gornick, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction, The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind, The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, Bennington College Low Residency MFA Program, The American LGBTQ Museum
Links:
Hugh's Website
Purchase My Bad
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
Lin's Bandcamp
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My good friend and writer Mackenzie Kwok (who also makes music under her artist name, Lin), joins the conversation in episode 10. We discuss tons of topics such as: the crossover between the disciplines of writing and music, defining “folklore” and “folk and traditional arts,” Asian hate during Covid, the allure of the American Girl Doll universe in the 90s and 2000s, fictional characters with historical context, misrepresentation, writing with the current interests of the internet in mind, meme accounts, erasure of Asian American activism and history, research approaches, AWP hot takes, the appeal of creative nonfiction that fuses trauma and humor, writing songs vs. writing essays, choosing an artist name, journaling processes, lyrics that audiences react to, and popular indie musicians.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: When the City Stopped: Stories from New York's Essential Workers edited by Robert W. Snyder, An American Girl Anthology edited by Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler and KC Hysmith, AFS (American Folklore Society), University Press of Mississippi, The Care and Keeping of You, Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy, AWP, I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying by Youngmi Mayer, There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib, SOULMATE AS A VERB by Kelsey L. Smoot, Good Luck in the Real World by Adrienne Novy, NoSo, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Links:
Purchase An American Girl Anthology
Lin's Linktree
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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Multi-memoirist Edgar Gomez is our special guest for episode 9 of the QT Nonfiction Pod! Listen in as we discuss topics such as: Substack, the importance of a good title, writing for the self instead of an audience, queerness as a privilege, getting from one published memoir to a second, sounding confident in a book proposal, self-promotion as a skill, the joy of meeting your readers, balancing childhood perspective with adult realizations, establishing major characters and planting seeds for larger themes in the earliest pages, non-linear structure as a natural storytelling form, writing about the Pulse Nightclub massacre, what needs to change in the publishing industry, and our favorite Ru girls.
Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Soft Skull Press, J. Lo’s Versace dress, Melissa Broder, America’s Next Top Model, The Nonbinarian Bookstore, Ru Paul’s Drag Race
Links:
Edgar's Website
Purchase Alligator Tears
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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On episode 8 of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, Aubrey Hirsch and I discuss a wide range of topics such as: the accessibility of information in graphic nonfiction, colors and images in the attention economy, whittling down research to the absolute most important points, the helpful confines of short form, service journalism, infusing humor into graphic nonfiction on heavy topics as a means of acknowledging the absurdity, anger as a necessary tool for revolution, cover art that accurately represents a book, working with a great small press, getting informational works into the hands of folks who need to learn, deciding when and when not to include comics, bi-erasure, the freedom in publishing whatever you want and keeping a personal archive on Substack, and more.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Roxane Gay’s "The Audacity," The Rumpus, Split Lip Press, Kristine Langley Mahler, The People’s Project curated by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith, Alexander Chee, Joy Harjo, Kiese Laymon, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay, Shay Mirk’s “Crucial Comix,” Thi Bui, Eleri Harris, Yifan Luo, Sanika Phawde, Hyesu Lee, Alex Norris.
Links:
Purchase Graphic Rage
Aubrey's Newsletter
Aubrey's Instagram
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
Lin's Bandcamp
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A thoughtful discussion with author Carvell Wallace on topics such as: love and beauty as a means of healing from trauma, finding and collecting bits of life to share with others, form reflecting content, distinguishing the difference between child and adult narration, essay as exploration or asking "what's missing?", the ongoing tragedies of masculinity, run-on sentences, 2nd person point of view, writing about survival, expanding readers' understanding of queerness, challenging traditional ideals of intimacy on the page, using writing as an investigative tool to detangle ourselves from oppressive systems, and much more.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Lani Ka'ahumanu, Jayda Shuavarnnasri, Vaim by Jon Fosse, Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls by Nina Renata Aron, Family Guy, Weird Spotify Playlists subreddit, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson, and Pure Ghost Radio, a podcast by Carvell.
Links:
Carvell's Website
Purchase Another Word for Love
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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On this episode of the QT Nonfiction Podcast, Zoë Bossiere and I discuss topics such as: the formula for a successful flash nonfiction piece, editing an anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction, beginning a memoir with a photo, writing a setting that is alive and immersive, home video as helpful archive, generational differences in queer longing, determining the right time to share drafts with family members, depicting the self at different ages in different genders, the urgency of the childhood perspective, coming out constantly via publishing a book, writing the middle first and going back to write the beginning and ending, and navigating gender norms as a parent.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: Brevity, Riverteeth’s Beautiful Things, The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate, The Best American Essays of the Century by Joyce Carol Oates, Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, Erica Trabold, Wayne State University Press, KB Brookins, The Florida Project, Mac Crane.
Links:
Zoë's Website
Purchase Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
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Listen in as D/Annie Liontas and I discuss navigating transition on the page, writing while “on fire,” work belonging to the reader once it’s published, striking the perfect balance of research and the personal, establishing language for brain injury, 2nd person POV, writing as resistance to erasure, turning people from your real life (living or dead) into “characters,” describing symptoms of a disability for others to understand, insomnia, crafting a collaborative essay, redaction as care, understanding that there are different ways to experience time, and lots more.
Writers/Books/Things to Check Out mentioned in this episode: T Kira Madden’s essay “Against Catharsis,” Toni Morrison, Susan Sontag, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Paul Lisicky, Kendra Winchester, Marchell Taylor, Dr. Kim Gorgens, Couple’s Therapy, Profile on Orna Guralnik in The New Yorker, Suzanne Keen ,Virginia Woolf, “Most Anticipated Queer Books” list on Electric Lit, Sara Novic, Melissa Faliveno.
Links:
D/Annie's Website
Purchase Sex with a Brain Injury
Intro/Outro Music by Lin
Lin's Bandcamp
Lin's Spotify