Emma Batchelor: What I’m reading, writing and listening to during Pride Month

Posted on 27 June, 2023

Pride Month seeks to honour queer movements and elders while celebrating the vast diversity of queer culture that endures today.

It takes place during the month of June to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a series of gay liberation protests that took place in New York in 1969.

I was lucky to visit the Stonewall Inn earlier in the year and it felt very special to have a drink in that space, especially after visiting the iconic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center around the block.

So, in honour of Pride Month, here are some recommendations for a cute, cosy and queer winter.

Pride reads

Rebecca Burgess is an autistic illustrator who identifies as asexual and in this graphic memoir, they reveal intimate insights into their experience. I related to so many of Rebecca’s experiences (I identify as demisexual, a sexuality that sits under the ace umbrella) but I think anyone wanting to understand more about asexuality would get a lot out of this book.

How to be Ace: A memoir of growing up asexual by Rebecaa Burgess | Published January 2021 | Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Dress Rehearsals, a memoir made of poems, is the first book published under the Joan imprint of Allen & Unwin. Nakkiah Lui, who is the curator of Joan, said “Madison takes what usually feels like an introspective journey and makes it a shared one: their words make your examination of your own gender, sexuality, age and politics feel important because you are not alone.”

Dress Rehearsals by Maddie Godfrey | Published February 2023 | Joan

I picked this book up because of its beautiful cover and because it carried an endorsement from Torrey Peters, the author of the much celebrated Detransition Baby. Translated from Spanish, The Queens of Sarmiento Park is a heartbreaking queer fairy tale about sex work, gender identity and chosen family.

The Queens of Sarmiento Park by Camila Sosa Villada | Published July 2022 | Little Brown

Tell Me I’m Worthless remixes gothic horror with the queer scene of Brighton, England to tell a story that is both tense and frightening. Rumfit uses a haunted house to confront both supernatural and real-world horrors, all through the lens of a modern-day trans experience.

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfit | Published October 2021 | Cipher Press

I picked up this book on a recent visit to the National Gallery of Australia because I have always been interested in the Bloomsbury Group, a collection of sexually liberated creatives that included Virginia Wolf and her sister Vanessa Bell. Lately I have been considering what it means to make art with and about the people you are intimately involved with and I am excited to read this perspective on creativity within a found queer family.

Young Bloomsbury: A Young Queer History by Nino Strachey |Published May 2023 | Hachette

Support local Pride

This Pride Month consider making a donation to one (or more!) of the wonderful organisations supporting and advocating for our queer communities.

• A Gender Agenda—A not-for-profit supporting trans, intersex and gender-diverse folks
• Meridian—A community-controlled, peer-led organisation that provides health and social support services to our community.

Some Pride listening recommendations

Here are a few queer podcasts I have been enjoying lately:

• You’re Wrong About is rolling out Pride programming all June. My favourite episode so far has been about gay animals. The episode also includes a beautiful rendition of the song Lesbian Seagull sung by Carolyn Kendrick.
• In This Ends at Prom wives BJ and Harmony Colangelo analyse femininity in teen girl movies through a queer, feminist, cisgender and transgender perspectives. Harmony is often a guest on You’re Wrong About which is how I discovered this podcast.
• History is Gay uncovers the queer histories that, while always present, have often been unexplored. I love discovering new queer facts and remembering that queer people have always existed throughout human history.

Local love

This month I also want to shine a light on a few of our amazing local writers.

The ACT Notable Book awards are coming up soon with works shortlisted across Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s and Poetry.

The award night is taking place on Thursday 29 June at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space. If you would like to celebrate with Canberra region writers, tickets are available here.

Speaking of awards, the ACT book of the year for 2022 has also been announced. Here are the books that have been recognised:

• Winner: Believe in Me by Lucy Neave.
• Highly Commended: The Kindness of Birds by Merlinda Bobis.
• Highly Commended: Milk by Dylan van den Berg.
• Highly Commended: Killernova by Omar Musa.
• Shortlisted: Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium: A History of Afghanistan Through Clothes, Carpets and the Camera by Tim Bonyhady.
• Shortlisted: Failures of Command: The Death of Private Robert Poate by Hugh Poate.
• Shortlisted: As Beautiful As Any Other: A Memoir of My Body by Kaya Wilson.

Pick up any of these titles from your local bookstore or borrow from Libraries ACT.