On October 3 2023, I released a memoir, Book of Life. Four days later, the world changed. On October 7 we were in the middle of a matinee performance of …
I’M GAY BUT I KNOW JESUS: an interview with performer Melody Rachel
Melody Rachel doesn’t so much perform as detonate — sometimes with laughter, sometimes with prayer, sometimes with the quiet implosion of shame turned inside out. Growing up Christian, she inherited …
The Curse of the Man Who Could See the Little Fish at the Bottom of the Ocean (Simon Leys)
For Hanfang Since the Beijing massacres, the question has already been put bluntly to me several times: “Why were most of our pundits so constantly wrong on the subject of …
The Skin I’m In (Iona Italia)
All my life, I have been accused of having the wrong skin colour. My body’s wrapper—loosening and crinkling slightly around the eyes and mouth now, like the bow-tie-shaped foil around …
The World’s Longest Daisy Chain (Jenny Lindsay)
The first time I was complicit in inflicting public humiliation on someone has left a strong enough impression on me to be writing about it thirty-five years later. For various …
Back on ‘Zac (Nina Paley)
Why I am returning to my regular dose of Prozac after 2 years of tapering off A few days ago, at a candy store in another town, I asked if …
Reading and Writing in Exile (Mammad Aidani)
A short philosophical-poetical text I gaze at the mirror, and I say to myself: You were born, There is no return to the time before that, so keep living. Exile …
Eggs of Freedom (Nina Sanadze)
If you’re not a runner, get out of bed the moment you open your eyes. Throw on your ripped jeans and Birks, your painting shirt—nothing too sporty. Maybe even your …
Lesbians: the canaries in the mine (Susan Hawthorne)
I would suggest that when lesbians become victims of attack, they are a signal. They are the canaries in the mine. And if the perpetrators get away with it, then …
Trust: A Fractured Fable (Jeanne Ryckmans)
MARCH 2020, SYDNEY A magistrate finalised an uncontested Apprehended Violence Order for two years against the Irish Professor under the Crimes Act (Domestic and Personal Violence) three weeks after he …