Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives

by Miguel M. Morales (Editor), Bruce Owens Grimm (Editor), Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini (Editor)

Overview

AASECT Book Award for General Audience

'A joy to read' ESSIE DENNIS
'A beautifully written collection' JUNO ROCHE


We're here. We're queer. We're fat.

This one-of-a-kind collection of prose and poetry radically explores the intersection of fat and queer identities, showcasing new, emerging and established queer and trans writers from around the world.

Celebrating fat and queer bodies and lives, this book challenges negative and damaging representations of queer and fat bodies and offers readers ways to reclaim their bodies, providing stories of support, inspiration and empowerment.

In writing that is intimate, luminous and emotionally raw, this anthology is a testament to the diversity and power of fat queer voices and experiences, and they deserve to be heard.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787755062
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Publication date:	05/21/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	216,069
Product dimensions:	8.31(w) x 5.31(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Bruce Owens Grimm writes haunted queer essays and memoir. His work has appeared in The Rumpus, Kenyon Review Online, Ninth Letter, AWP's Writer's Notebook, Iron House Literary Review and Older Queer Voices among many others.

Miguel M. Morales grew up working as a migrant/seasonal farmworker, and now works in a library. His writing has appeared in Hibernation and Other Poems, Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldua and From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction.

Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini is a graduate of Manhattanville College's MFA Program, and a 2019 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow. Tiff's writing has appeared in The Gambler; Off the Rocks: The LGBTQ Anthology of Newtown Writers Press; and Songs of My Selfie: An Anthology of Millennial Writing.

Table of Contents

Foreword Roy G. Guzmán 11

Introductions 14

Incantation Provvidenza Catalano 21

"Fat Queer Freaks" Hannah Propp 22

"Sweet Revenge" Leah Harris 34

"seven nights of noodles" Jay Audrey 56

"Lessons Learned and Unlearned" Edward Kelsey Moore 59

"Faithful Food" Ruth Gibbs 64

"cherry popsicle" jay Audrey 67

"cantaloupe season" LJ Sitler 69

"The Gender Nonconformity of My Fatness" Caleb Luna 72

"Incorrect Attribution: A Collision of Fatness and Gender" Alyssdh Roth 78

"A Sexy Fat Shower Time Playlist Confessional" Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr. 90

"A Fat Lot of Good That Did: How an Art Studio Transformed My Eyes" Jerome Stueart 93

"About My Breasts, Since You Asked" Sherre Vernon 105

"Heretic Body" Ninamarie Ochoa 111

"Soft Butch" Nora E. Derrington 115

"F-Words" Jonathan Hillman 123

"You're Too Fat to be Androgynous" Nicole Oquendo 126

"Enough" Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini 128

"How I Found Fat Acceptance and My Nonbinary Truth" Benny Hope 152

"To All the Fat Queers on the First Day of School" Hannah Propp 160

"Fat Top/Switch" Emilia Phillips 165

"I'm Not Masc of Center Because I'm Fat" Emilia Phillips 167

"She Doesn't Need Any More Dresses" M.P. Armstrong 168

"So Not a Big Deal" Haley Sherif 174

"They Does Not Fit Like a Thundershirt Should" Nicole Oquendo 180

"Growing Up Fat Made Coming Out Harder (But Now I'm Queer, Fat, and Thriving)" Samantha Puc 182

"And Then…" KM. Steigleder 191

"The End of the World" C. Adán Cabrera 200

"Land Acknowledgement for My Body" Alix Sanchez 220

"Legacy" Miguel M. Morales

"Mantra of the Fat Faggot No. 27: 'Develop a Skin Thicker Than the One You're in"' Dan Vera 227

"Seven Unsated Appetites" Aubrey Gordon, Your Fat Friend 229

"FATQUEERPOEM" Miguel M. Morales 245

"Pop Goes Perfection" Jonathan Hillman 247

"Dropping Fictions and Gaining Visibility" Bruce Owens Grimm 251

"Large and in Charge" Fletcher Cullinane 261

"Him" D. Nolan Jefferson 279

"The Haunted House" Bruce Owens Grimm 291

"Grown" Jonathan Hillman 303

"The Trash Heap Has Spoken" Carmen Maria Machado 309

Acknowledgements 323

List of Contributors 329

Editorial Reviews

Fat and Queer introduces a new generation of writers creating intersectional fat culture. It is a fine feast of life stories and poems exploring fat, sexuality, race and gender. As someone who has spent their life nurturing a movement of fat queers and trans people, I can't express how satisfying it is to see the work grow and bloom.

Dr Charlotte Cooper

Reading "Fat and Queer" was a breath of fresh air for me. So many stories truly touched my heart and made me reflect on my own experiences. These stories were written with so much honesty and depth, the whole book was a joy to read.

Essie Dennis

This is a collection of a range of voices and formats, including fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose. It's a much-needed collection with honest accounts of what it's like to live in this world as a fat and queer person.

Book Riot

A powerful meditation on the nuanced and layered lived experience of being fat—in its most potent and politicized sense-in America

Emma Copley Eisenberg

Fat & Queer presents readers with a vibrant collection of diverse, often-silenced voices that speak to the extraordinary resilience and tenacity that allows these writers to thrive in a world that rarely celebrates or affirms their identities. A necessary addition to an ever-expanding literature of the body and the new queer canon.

Amy Long

'A beautifully written collection of stories, poems, pieces that does so much more than just celebrate different bodies, this book poetically and stoically lays claim to the space that we've been told to avoid at all costs. This book is an exploration of the freedoms and reclaimed joys that feel as if they were stolen from us. Important stuff!'

Juno Roche

06/01/2021

With this anthology, editors Morales, Grimm, and Ferentini, all of whom are writers, gather other writers and poets to explore what it means to take up more space than society tells us we should; how fatness is amplified by being LGBTQ+; and how radical love of the self becomes increasingly important for those who are otherized. Each of the contributors has a different relationship with their weight and sexuality: love, hate, indifference, gratitude. In a standout essay, Ferentini discusses how his body both prevents him from fitting into a particular gay identity and liberates him from the requirements of gender norms. Another piece considers, among other subjects, the emotions that come with embracing victories in LGBTQ+ rights while watching consistent efforts to overturn them. This varied collection—which includes everything from short poems, to fiction, to longform meditations on the quotidian—boldly showcases lives that are too often ignored, discarded, or discounted, and proves that there is no one way to be queer. VERDICT This must-have title is a radically necessary addition that will bring joy and understanding to readers. The contributors revel in their identities, thrive despite challenges, and claim the space they deserve.—Ahliah Bratzler, Indianapolis

Library Journal