Mid August 2025

the last days of chez sabbatical

Dudes, my sabbatical is over. Sabbaticals for all! I would fight in that war. Fortunately, I return to wonderful colleagues & students & a damned decent college administration. I’m greedy for more life outside capitalism & also grateful for the time I had. I did not achieve my modest goals of finishing three books, taking up weightlifting, prevailing over the Tree of Heaven in the backyard & snaking the kitchen sink drain, but I feel my cup to have been at least partially refilled. Below, please find a picture of a cat in a catsuit:

There was a coziness to sabbatical.

I'm teaching two new-ish creative writing classes this semester: Building Literary Community and Everything is Political: Making Art in an Ongoing Catastrophe, so that feels worthwhile. I hope the two courses together help answer the pressing question of how to go on¹. I need to go finish the syllabi now but I would rather write to you.

I'm trying to think of any other reports from the summer. I was a mentor at Transchool, a very cool program for young trans writers which maybe you should know about? I had a sweet reunion with my buddy Miller Oberman; we walked around the Du Bois' homestead in Great Barrington, basically a small roadside trail with notes, but profound to walk where he walked. I saw my friend Xylor Jane's latest paintings, which I wish I could show you but maybe you'll go to her upcoming show, in November, details tk. CA Conrad made me delicious vegan lunch & taught me to play Spite & Malice. Paul came out in France!!!!! I am beside myself. Please somebody invite me to Europe!

Oh! I keep forgetting to say, if you are “following” this newsletter on purpose, would you mind “subscribing” at some point— it’s totally free & I am eventually going to move this whole thing over to a different platform like Ghost or Buttondown & apparently I’ll lose track of anyone who’s not a “subscriber.” Sorry / thank you / no presh!

Reading log (mid-July to mid-August)

• Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008). Dudes, 2008 was apparently 17 years ago, but this “Gitmo-by-the-Bay” story more than holds up to a re-read. Smart dystopian-with-a-utopian-edge YA for people (like me) who enjoy extremely detailed explanations of technology, righteous politics, mostly tonic masculinity. Fair warning: there’s some graphic torture (waterboarding), some awkward sexuality & some complex use of slurs, so unless you’re reading aloud to a tween & redacting those elements, probably best for high school & up. One of these days I'm going to get around to writing an entire Cory Doctorow appreciation newsletter. I frickin love this guy.

• Omar El Akkad’s American War (2017). Intense, even harrowing, epic fall-of-empire novel about a future USA, the making of a terrorist, etc. Feels all too likely. Not a comforting book. I do sometimes wonder why so many leftist men writers like to write gender-nonconforming girl main characters—on some level maybe I get it, maybe they're trying to explore a masculine consciousness that feels more relatable to themselves. Sometimes that feels like a metaphor rather than a character, but maybe also an invitation? I started to describe this book as dystopian, but now I would just say it's topian. Welp.

• Jeremy Gordon’s See Friendship (2025). Picked this one up at the library & saw the Brandon Taylor blurb so took a chance. I love Forbes Library! They really do have an excellent contemporary fiction selection. I think you can get every single thing I've ever mentioned in this newsletter at Forbes Library. Anyway. The premise, a millennial podcast dude investigates his own past with some self-interest. Seemed promising; the narrator had a bit of a ironic if downbeat Nick Hornby man-boy protagonist feel which I, reluctantly, find readable in the same way these fellows would also reluctantly find themselves readable. I don't know if I would've enjoyed this if the character & the author weren't thinking about being mixed race as part of their masculinity, but they did & I did.

• Lauren J. Joseph’s Lean Cat, Savage Cat (February 2026). Well. Well! Filthy rock 'n' roll Berlin art school sexiness. Yes please! more! and thank you.

• Cory McCarthy’s Man O’ War (2022). Technically YA, and maybe it is YA, but for like actual 18-year-olds? I loved the characters, very much a particular experience of being nonbinary/transmasculine right now. I appreciated the scope of the book, the time passing.

• Megan Milks’ Mega Milk (January 2026). A wild milky ride. That's not my blurb. I'm gonna have a good blurb for this unsurprisingly brilliant & very funny book. Is essays but really is New Narrative.

• Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline (2019). I started this when it came out then got busy & didn’t finish & when I returned this summer, it was like Old Me had left Now Me an excellent present! I loved time-travel stories as a kid but not so much as an adult — the fantasy lost some of its luster after I became a practicing rather than theoretical homosexual & going back in time seemed more like going further & further away from such activity. Long story short, this might be the first queer feminist time travel novel I have wholeheartedly loved, because Newitz obviously gets what’s at stake for any marginalized people to go back in time, but isn’t a weird triumphalist about the present or the future. Stay strong, fellow travelers! Also, no pressure, but I need Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, and Cory Doctorow to give me a new novel every year or I might not make it. Can we help them do that somehow? I don't believe in this kind of productivity, but I do want these novels.

• Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle (2025). I devoured this. And I am very annoyed that it wasn't five times the length because I want to live in this world longer. As you likely know, I am quite exercised around the subject of so-called artificial intelligence these days, so there's something pleasurable about spending time in the head of a writer who has thought a lot about sentience & consciousness & self-determination & self-awareness. Oh also & has a sense of humor & a big fucken heart. If you need a little comfort, get this right now.

• Charlie Porter's Nova Scotia House (October 2025). I wrote a blurb! “Charlie Porter's Nova Scotia House is a stunner, an actual masterpiece of longing, cruising, going out dancing, the then & now of AIDS, the pentimento of living in rooms marked by lust & loss, queer solidarity under capitalism, utopian dreaming, the apps, the future, friendship beyond camaraderie. I don't think I will ever get over this book.”

• Hal Shrieve’s Fawn’s Blood (September 2025). OK, I am a huge fan of Hal Shreive’s novels & comix & also of vampire novels in general. I mean, obviously. Especially when they're explicitly queer & trans. Fawn’s Blood is so satisfying! Political, thoughtful about community & intergenerational dynamics, great vamp lore! Perfect for Buffy fans who always wanted something more.

• Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s Terry Dactyl (November 2025). I love Mattilda’s new novel so much! I loved the way she brings Terry up through AIDS & club kids & gentrification & lesbian moms & Covid & the art world & the nonprofit industrial complex.

• Shoshana Von Blankensee’s Girls Girls Girls (2025). I just reread this awesome novel & had a great conversation with Shoshana at the Odyssey. I can't stop thinking about Hannah’s story as a queer femme gender journey, a coming-of-age novel that takes femme gender seriously. I'm about to sound like an academic, sorry, but I was thinking about the ways in which Hannah moves from relationships with Sam (her secret high school girlfriend who I read as also maybe proto-femme) to Chris (the 30-something butch addict who pays Hannah for sex) to Billie (the hott River Phoenix butch) & in the process, also, I think, moves from default girl to queer femme, a hard-won gender identity Hannah finds through sex, relationships, community, labor, etc. As one does! I guess what's interesting to me is what it’s like to desire queerly when your gender is regularly misunderstood as the same as straight girl gender. Now I really want to see more of the post coming-of-age version of this. More adult queer femme novels please!

• Michelle Tea's Valencia with a new introduction from Maggie Nelson (2025). Dudes, there's a lovely new addition of Valencia & Maggie wrote a terrific foreword. Our youth is having a moment.

Hotly Anticipated! Pre-order these babies!

• Miranda Mellis’s Crocosmia (August 2025). Out now! There’s a playlist!

• Max Delsohn’s Crawl (October 2025). Here's my blurb: “Max Delsohn writes like a throwback transmasc Mary Gaitskill; his melancholy trans guys and various masc gendered people behave badly in their early adulthoods, propelled by longing, procrastinating self-awareness, occasionally getting what they want. Ah, youth! I inhaled this collection like gossip from a far-off city’s scene. My favorite new short story writer–watch this guy!”

• Sara Jaffe’s Hurricane Envy (October 2025). Pre-order!!!!

• Roddy Bottum’s The Royal We (November 2025). Pre-order!!!!

• Oksana Vasyakina's Steppe Trans. Elina Alter (January 2026). Pre-order!!!!

• Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn (March 2026). Pre-order!!!!

Western Mass QT Lit Events

• 09/18: Ariana Reines, 6 pm, Old Chapel, UMass Amherst

• 09/20: Read & Resist Fest, 10am-4pm, Interlink, Northampton

• 09/26: Miranda Mellis, 7 PM, Unnameable Books, Turner's Falls

• 10/23: Garth Greenwell, 6 pm, Old Chapel, UMass Amherst

Workshops & Writing Coaches & Editorial, Mostly Online:

• Do you need a writing coach? Sascha Rice is fantastic & also my sister-in-law!

• Do you need help with an academic book proposal or re-booting your academic book? Craig Willse is your guy & also my friend!

• Check out whatever’s being offered at Workshops for Gaza, Shipman Workroom, 24 Pearl Street, & Grub Street. These make good gifts too.

• Small Press Traffic benefit auction has lots of cool opportunities!

• The Body Chronicles: "Trans/Forms," with Miller Oberman, b ferguson, luna rey hall, and friends. September 2025!

What I’m Watching

• Art Detectives S1 (Acorn). Got through two episodes. Maybe one? It's weird to see the guy from True Blood being actually British & not a vampire. On paper, yes. On screen, nope.

• Big Bang Theory S11-12 (Max): We’re almost at the end! Aaaah! What will happen? Will Penny cave & get pregnant? Will Raj finally transition? We will probably finish this series in the next week or so. I think it’s too late for a proper Raj reveal, but, I mean, right? Raj is some kind of trans, obvs. Why is nobody talking about this? Yes I understand that I am coming to the show many years later, but one would think there would be more conversation on this matter on the internet. I have been trying to avoid spoilers, admittedly. One thing I love about the show is how it skips the boring parts of shenanagins—for example, how Wollowitz knows & accepts that Bernie needs to chill in the playhouse at night & lie to him about it. It’s also interesting to think about Penny’s alcoholism in the context of The Flight Attendant’s recovery narrative, which was my actual first exposure to Kaley Cuoco’s comic genius.

• Black Bag (2025): I liked Michael Fassbender more here than in other places. I liked Cate Blanchett less. I couldn’t follow the whole plot but that might be because I took a small nap midway through. I liked Marisa Gabrielle Abela from Industry the best, what else is new. Total scene-stealer. Maybe I’ll go track down everything she’s been in. It’s (sort of still) summer, what.

• Black Mirror S7: “Hotel Reverie”: Perfectly watchable television show episode, with unremarkably fine performances by the leads (Issa Rae & Emma Corrin) despite their utter & complete lack of chemistry. I would have been happy to watch much more of both characters separately. Shrug.

• Hightown S1-3: Um. I feel like the show was made for me? It's very strange when a show gets a place you know well right. Also, Monica Raymund has so much swag it's almost upsetting. What's the opposite of a natural disaster? She's like that. A natural charm phenomenon. I will say this show is not for everyone, it is extremely violent, with some devastating drug-related storylines, one of which I do not think I will recover from. I will not give a spoiler but I will say there is some child-harm in season 2. I also did not know they could show this much penis on television. But just such a great show. Elements of The Wire, truly fantastic acting & writing, actually feels like the Cape. We need one more season though!

• The Hunting Wives S1 (Netflix). Tried but nah. There is literally nothing less hot than Republicanism.

• Irish Blood S1 (Acorn). Nope. We got through maybe five minutes. I think I might re-watch Clueless though.

• The Lazarus Project S1-2: I generally avoid anything with a title or premise that invokes Judeo-Christian mythology tbqh, but I was desperate because my beloved was watching The Gilded Age & I needed something for me & I thought, it’s British, it will be fine (sorry, Grandma). Spoiler: so good! Wildly charismatic actors, great writing, halfway through the first season & it’s not going Lost on the time loop material but rather letting the conflicts arise naturally from the premise. The story of the pregnant agent is chilling in an unintended consequences of technology way. I also found myself thinking about time loop narratives like Groundhog Day, which in this world would be a side-gag, someone thinking they’d learned their social-emotional lesson but really being in an intentional loop generated by some super-secret spy org. Real question though: do other people actually watch car chase scenes anymore or does everyone else also fast-forward?

• Mr. Robot S1 (Netflix): Amina got me into this & I do not want to get out. Reminds me of the glamorous 90s days of Hackers and such. Like watching a science fiction book. I had been holding off on this show for quite some time & I needed a show & I got a show & heaven knows I'm actually quite happy now! Update: I stalled out in S2. You actually have to watch all the episodes & you can't take little naps so I'll probably need to start over.

• Red Eye S1 (Hulu): Enjoyable murder show set mostly on a red-eye from Heathrow to Beijing, somewhat marred by cogency issues but with appealing actors. The main detective, Jing Lusi, is obviously smarter than her character, for example. Jess’s rockabilly haircut does a lot of work though, and kept me going when the characters were made to do illogical things.

• Superman (2025): Enjoyable DC movie! Seen in the theater! Fun! The dog reminded me of my friend Miller’s old dog Zero. I enjoyed the soundtrack. I was taunted about “punk rock” being “old people music” by both the tween & the movie but you know what, those songs kinda slapped & Iggy Pop sang one so whatever.

• Zombies 1-4 (Disney+): Oh, it’s the guy from School Spirits, who apparently is Camryn Manheim’s grown-up kid! We had to watch all of these movies in a week for reasons I will not elaborate. They were weirdly okay? I’m mildly annoyed they dropped the queerwolf storyline & also they did not do Eliza justice surprise surprise.

Tidbits

• CFS: Transcendent Love: TrueStories of Trans-for-Trans Relationships. Seeking personal essays and creative nonfiction between 2,000 and 6,000 celebrating true stories of trans-for-trans love and relationships. Deadline: end of September.

Cool Stuff Happening in The People’s Valley, As Per Usual

• Art show: SUNNY ALLIS: We’re Riding the Same Wave. Solo show 9/3/3025 - 10/3/2025. Public Reception/Celebration: Saturday, Sept 13, 1 pm to 3 pm. Carberry Fine Arts Gallery, Springfield Community College

• Drop-in classes at Spirit of the Heart. This queer/trans/feminist/inclusive martial arts studio offers self-defense classes & martial arts training & more for kids & adults. First class is free! Sometimes people need a safe place to hit things & also learn self-defense.

• Support immigrant teens in the People’s Valley to get their licenses!

• Trans Relocation Support WMass. If you need help relocating to Western Massachusetts from a hostile environment, check this out. Also, if you’re in Western Mass & can help, check this out. We are the ones who will help us!Relatedly, do you know about these Move to Thrive loans & The Rainbow Railroad?

Okay! That’s it. Wait, here’s something cute that is old but making the rounds again.

Sending love to you & yours,

AL

1. “You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.” Relatedly, you can listen to this promotional Beckett sound piece, which must be the most N+1 marketing move of all time. Tangentially, Bernadine & I once made a improvised short film called Potluck, which I turned in as my final project for Noy Holland’s Beckett seminar in grad school. Should I try to locate that for you or should I send off this newsletter & finish my syllabi?