This Pride, rather than inundate readers with products and merch to buy, we’re focusing on organizations dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community as well as the tremendous (and countless) contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the world—be it through art, activism or beyond. Here, we call contemporary poetry to attention. While it would be remiss not to mention talents like Pat Parker, June Jordan, Audre …
A portrait through poetry of a trans person’s experience, Kayleb Rae Candrilli’s Water I Won’t Touch runs powerful, emotion-laden language through moments of trauma, tenderness and joy. Candrilli’s accolades—as a 2019 Whiting Award Winner in poetry, a 2017 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in transgender poetry, and many more—are deserved, and this latest 96-page book further reveals their distinct, necessary voice.
Franny Choi explores queerness, femininity, identity and autonomy as an Asian American woman in Soft Science, a book of poems that often center on futurism and technology in a remarkably human manner. While cyborgs feature as a vehicle for otherness, Choi also uses them in many other nuanced ways. Rhythmic and melodic, her poems enthrall readers.
