This reading list features poems, stories, essays, and interviews by writers identifying as trans, nonbinary, and/or gender nonconforming, all published by CLMP member magazines and available to read online.
Poetry
“Poem in Which I Dream Share with My Future Husband-Wife” by Kayleb Rae Candrilli
Radar Poetry
At night you keep your head inside the corona
of my past life and you are brave to invite
yourself into such an unsafe house. I lived
so lonely there. In this dream, which is also
“After So Many Days Fled from Scattering Mold” by Ching-In Chen
ANMLY
watch window punch back
invading water
let go Thursday birds stranded on roof no matter we flee he will not leave
watch closer dock floating
“(Judges 19) Remembering the Concubine” by Emma Goldman-Sherman
Writers Resist
After being done to by the pack of men
after she collapsed at the threshold of the old man’s shack
after her master discovered her there unresponsive
he cut her up with his sharpened axe
“Black queers deserve joy” by Tahirah Alexander Green
Electric Literature
i deserve joy
i want to read the story about
the awkward Black queer walking into a wall
cause they get startled by that fine ass human
“Bulldaggers between Starshine and Clay” by E. Hughes
The Rumpus
I want to fashion my black mouth to speak this
journey of our bodies into utterance: What
does one call this road between us? Once, a man
called this road love. Today, I call this path
“Nostalgia [strike-through]” by K. Iver
SWWIM
In the beginning, yes, a garden. As lush as you’re imagining. Even the grass grows mid-oak. In the beginning, the grass and trees and birds are already tired of their assigned names.
“Every Poem I Write I Ask Permission” by Brionne Janae
West Trestle Review
to exist I keep the history of my body
locked away in a file labeled do not name
more often than not I’m grieving
which is why doves peek in
“My Friend Mercavich” by Erik Jonah
The Hopkins Review
newly moved-in, a southern military brat,
nonetheless knew each spider in each shrub,
and which one, together in a glass bottle,
would kill the other. You might know
“After binging MAY I DESTROY YOU in 3 days” by KB
SWWIM
Multiple things can be true at once. Like me,
still messing up the title of this show & it being
the best thing I’ve witnessed in years. Like me,
being a survivor, still being scared to say
“before her casket” by Alejandra Rosa
Shenandoah
they spoke to me of hell
before her casket
the white roses listened
“After Top Surgery” by Birch Rosen
Bellevue Literary Review
You do not have to stagger around the house,
unaided and weak,
as the meds wear off or kick in.
You can tell your partner your cane is in the trunk of your car
“The Rhetoric of Persecution: An Essay With Quotes from John 16:2” by Zach Tanimola
ANMLY
Quoting Paul, this pastor
says he doesn’t mind
being cancelled
for declaring people
like me an abomination.
“[When I was born my mother]” by Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto
Translated from the Italian by Danielle Pieratti
Words Without Borders
When I was born my mother
gave me an ancient gift,
the gift of the mystic Tiresias:
to change sex once in my life.
Fiction
“My Body Double Begins the Whole 30 Diet” by Krys Malcolm Belc
SmokeLong Quarterly
Though he refuses to call it a diet. He doesn’t even own a scale, he says. It’s a lifestyle, he says. It’s about the way he feels, he says, opening a Tupperware of hard-boiled eggs and a plastic bag of raw spinach.
“Each Careful Step Along the Highway” by Emily Black
The Hopkins Review
The email must’ve auto-triggered. It’s in Comic Sans and reads, Guess Who’s Moving? You! Pay your outstanding balance or release your apartment and return all keys by noon—police are standing by.
“Slime” by Joseph Han
The Rumpus
Bora took an interest in making slime, and at first Sujin didn’t mind, until one day she came home from work to find Bora wide awake though it was far past her bedtime.
“Determining the Bull Gone Index” by James R. Gapinski
SmokeLong Quarterly
We’ve been freefalling for months according to Becky’s day planner. An expanse of mountainous crags stretches beneath us, endless and unmoving. Perspective lines do not shift.
“The Abbess” by Katie Lynn Johnston
West Trestle Review
The novices were smoking behind the statue of the Virgin Mary in the courtyard when the procession began.
“The Thirty Names of Night” by Zeyn Joukhadar
Shenandoah
Tonight, five years to the day I lost you, forty-eight white-throated sparrows fall from the sky. Tomorrow, the papers will count and photograph them, arrange them on black garbage bags and speculate on the causes of the blight.
“Tree of Lips” by Kim Bi
Translated from the Korean by Sora Kim-Russell and Eunjung Kwon-Lee
Words Without Borders
“What’s wrong with this kid?”
It wasn’t a real question. The teacher wasn’t expecting an answer, and even if she were, no one could have answered it.
“Daisies” by Marne Litfin
Electric Literature
Neither of my girlfriends would take me to the beach. When I told Miller, they yelped into the phone like they’d broken a toe:
Essays
“Ryunosuke’s Transition: Helen Chazan Reflects on Rumiko Takahashi’s URUSEI YATSURA” by Helen Chazan
SOLRAD
Urusei Yatsura is a difficult comic for me to write about. I have attempted many times this past year to write an essay about the series and have halted, finding my ideas too complex in scope to put into words coherently.
“Self-Portrait of the Writer on Their Thirtieth Birthday, in Nine Scenes Starring ‘All My Friends’ by LCD Soundsystem” by Jax Connelly
Tahoma Literary Review
J asked me if I thought I’d ever get sick of him and I answered, honestly, “No,” and now it’s a handful of days later and I’m sick of him asking. Everything dies slowly, then all at once. I’ve thrown out two pens this week already.
“I’ve Been Conditioned to Slay if I Want to Live” by Denny
Electric Literature
When I got a callback over a year ago for the leading lady in a musical revival Billy Porter was set to direct in New York, I sang for Porter himself.
“Post-Surgery Exposure to Wind and Water” by Tyler Orion
The Hopper
I open my mouth and usher the wind into my body. I hear the air echoing down my lungs. For a moment, I am the organ pipes played by an invisible force. I am hollow.
“The Green Notebook” by Shel Senai
The Keepthings
I called her Nanny, which in Louisiana is what you call your godmother. She was my mother’s oldest sibling, aka Sissy or Kitty Lou. She never married or had children, and we had a special bond.
“The Blue Cane” by Michael M. Weinstein
The Iowa Review
I bought it at LexCare Pharmacy, on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East One Hundredth Street. It was the most—all right, I’ll say it—spiritual I’d felt picking out a commodity.
Interviews
“Freedom To Just Be: A Conversation on Demisexuality with Poet, Fashion Photographer & Director Toni Smalls” by Britney Avila
Spoken Black Girl Magazine
Demisexuality is often misunderstood because most folks don’t know about it. This article is an open conversation between two people who are both Black Demisexual creatives. My intention for this is to affirm other Black, Ace-spec folk and ignite a community that is meant to uplift and encourage more of us to speak out on our experiences and intersecting identities.
“Comics Have Always Been Poetry: Joan Zahra Dark Interviews Rosemary Valero-O’Connell” by Joan Zahra Dark
SOLRAD
I first met Rosemary Valero-O’Connell at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in 2019 shortly before her triple Ignatz Award sweep for the absolutely incredible graphic novel Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (2019) she illustrated alongside Mariko Tamaki.
