Book Club Zoom Discussing "Genderqueer" by Maia Kobabe
Join us for a lively discussion of Gender Queer: A Memoir. - a graphic novel recounting Kobabe's journey from adolescence to adulthood and exploration of gender identity and sexuality. It is also the most challenged (censored) book in school libraries.
Facebook Info (to Share):
Thursday, April 20, 2023
8:00-9:30 pm ET (Eastern Time); 5 pm Pacific Time
Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe - (either the paperback or the slightly longer hardcover book. 240 pages. Published 2019)
Please RSVP for the Zoom link. (Same as last month, if you attended before).
Thursday, April 20, 2023: Reading "Genderqueer" by Maia Kobabe.
[We send book announcements to everyone who indicates an interest in the Book Club] - if you aren't receiving these emails please send natasha@yalegala.org your details.
1. Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe.
ISBN13: 9781549304002
Trade Paperback 9781549304002
2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
(The Alex award is given by the American Library Association to "books written for adults that have special appear to young adults ages 12-18")
2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
"It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." — SLJ (starred review)
Originally marketed to teens and adults, it has increasingly entered middle and high school libraries, where it is one of the most challenged (censored) books in the US (2021 - American Library Association).
One Publisher's Page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Gender-Queer-A-Memoir/Maia-Kobabe/9781549304002
- Publisher: Oni Press (May 28, 2019)
2. About Maia Kobabe (Author):
Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator from the Bay Area, California. Eir first full length book, GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR, was published in May 2019. Maia's short comics have been published by The Nib and in many anthologies including THE SECRET LOVES OF GEEKS, FASTER THAN LIGHT Y'ALL, GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED LOVE, SHOUT OUT, ADVANCED DEATH SAVES and BE GAY, DO COMICS. Before setting out to work freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries. Eir work is heavily influenced by fairy tales, homesickness, and the search for identity.
Author's website for Projects: https://redgoldsparkspress.com/
3. Wikipedia Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Queer
"Gender Queer: A Memoir is a 2019 graphic memoir written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe. It recounts Kobabe's journey from adolescence to adulthood and the author's exploration of gender identity and sexuality, ultimately identifying as being outside of the gender binary.
Gender Queer initially received a small printing and was marketed toward older teens and adults.[1] It increasingly entered the collections of high school and middle school libraries after receiving an Alex Award in 2020, an award given by the American Library Association to "books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18."[1] Since 2021, its inclusion in American libraries, particularly school libraries, has been frequently challenged by parents, based on the presence of some sexually explicit illustrations. The American Library Association ranked it as the most challenged book in 2021"
3. Where to find the book:
Google Books
Other sources: your library (including inter-library loan), retailers, Amazon Kindle edition is $9.10 [direct link] or use the free Kindle app on any device; book is available from all booksellers in every format).
It also may be available to borrow (for free) on WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1304517630
(Enter your location)
Alas it isn't available at OpenLibrary https://openlibrary.org/ Preview only: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL21337755W/Gender_Queer?edition=key%3A/books/OL28900544M
or The Internet Archive https://archive.org/
Used book sellers include
Abe Books
Thriftbooks
Alibris Books
4. *OPTIONAL RESOURCES* for the book and authors here:
One Publisher's page:
Reading Guide:
5. Reviews
Library Journal
Publishers Weekly
Booklist
–> ** INVITE ** ANY YALE ALUMNI to our discussion on April 20:
NOTE: Our informal group doesn’t have any set “curriculum;” we discuss the books that members nominate and that we all vote for… but ongoing themes, connected to LGBTQ+ experience – sometimes including Yale – do emerge. At discussions, each of us can bring up ANY points we want. We welcome the widest range of opinions, in a lively collegial atmosphere – Boola Boola Redux!
Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club is a series of lively Zoom discussions of LGBTQ+ contemporary and classic novels, non-fiction, plays, and poetry. All alumni are welcome, of all orientations, genders, races, and points of view. We meet the third Thursday of every month at 8 pm ET via Zoom.
To register, please email natasha@yalegalaevents.org with the subject line, “Yale GALA LGBTQ+ Book Club: Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe -- or simply Book Club
More Info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=725
SOME BOOKS TO CONSIDER FOR FUTURE DISCUSSIONS
We are NOT limited to the below recommendations but see what you think of these diverse titles. Nominate any LGBTQ+ book that interests you, contemporary or classic, whether a work of FICTION (novel, story collection), NON-FICTION (history, biography, memoir, essay collection), PLAY (or musical), or POETRY; there doesn’t need to be a Yale connection. Mention your choice, at a discussion, and I’ll add it to the following list for future group emails. We periodically, live at the beginning of discussions, take nominations and then vote as a group.
For our UPCOMING OPEN DATES (‘Third Thursdays’) – in the next couple of months, we need to select books for: March , April and May. If you’re looking for some ideas, here are major LGBTQ+ book ‘best lists’ and award winners (Lambda Literary, Publishing Triangle, Stonewall Awards, more). NEW! BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) LGBTQ+ literature with links to external BIPOC sites. You’re not limited to those websites. PLEASE NOTE: new titles take a few months to become widely available in libraries. Here are members’ recommendations.
- AMAN recommends: (FICTION) Delicious Foods by James Hannaham; Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu; The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.; The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer. (NON-FICTION) Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P Carl; Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay; Love, Hait and Click Bait by Liz Bower and Ghost Wall: A Novel by Sarah Moss.
- ANN recommends: The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village memoir by Samuel R. Delany
- BRUCE recommends: Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin; The Gallery by John Horne Burns (1947); Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
- CHIP recommends: Poetry of Emily Dickinson (list of Dickinson’s most openly lesbian poems); There Will be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; and Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick
- JIM recommends: The Bell by Iris Murdoch; The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde; Julian [last ‘pagan’ Roman emperor] by Gore Vidal; Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts by James M. Saslow (includes hundreds of art photos; winner of two Lambda Literary Awards) – THANKS to Prof. Saslow, Pictures and Passions is briefly FREE to download complete (use the basic “Download PDF” link; 59 MB) and Gilgamesh (which translation).
- MARY ANNE recommends: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen; and Love Me Tender by Constance Debre (English translation and/or French original).
- TASH recommends: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. There is also a PBS documentary :)
- CAROLYN recommends: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl b Andrea Lawlor and XX by Carolina Robertis
- What would YOU – including new members – like our group to discuss? Nominate ANY LGBTQ+ book that interests you! I’ll add your recommendations here.
BOOKS WE’VE DISCUSSED (Complete List):
- March 2023: There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald (Yale MC '09)
- February 2023: Love in the Big City by Sang Jong Park. Translated by Anton Hur (2021-201 pages)
- January 2023: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
- December 2022: Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies:A Memoir of Love, Loss and Other Four-Letter Words by Michael Ausiello (2017). Also a Dec 2022 movie Spoiler
- November 2022: Love, Hate and Click Bait by Liz Bowery (2022)
- October 2022: Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry (Yale '94). (2018) - 250 pages. PBG movie is Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes / Feeling Heart
- September 2022: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, by Andrea Lawlor (2017)
- May and June 2022: Maurice, by EM Forster (1913 - published 1971 with a happy ending)
- April 2022: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
- March 2022: Ain't I a Woman, by bell hooks
- February 2022 – Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim’s “Musical Thriller”
- January 2022 – Song in a Weary Throat, Pauli Murray’s memoir. (Movie available)
- December 2021 – Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s novel
- November 2021 – Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart’s novel
- October 2021 – Fa**ots, Larry Kramer’s satirical first novel
- September 2021 – The Sparsholt Affair, Alan Hollinghurst’s novel
- August 2021 – The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s thriller novel
- July 2021 – Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette’s memoir
- June 2021 – Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s novel
- May 2021 – The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s play, inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End
- April 2021 – The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne’s novel
- March 2021 – Native Country of the Heart, a Memoir, by Cherríe Moraga
- February 2021 – Leaves of Grass (1855 first version), Walt Whitman’s poetry
- January 2021 – The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s novel
- December 2020 – Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman’s novel [no meetings in October or November]
- September 2020 – The Gods of Tango, Carolina de Robertis’s novel [no meeting in August]
- July 2020 – Under the Udala Trees, Chinelo Okparanta’s novel
- June 2020 (our first discussion) – Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde’s autobiographical novel (“biomythography”)
More info: http://www.yalegala.org/article.html?aid=725
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