Mid December 2025

I seem to have missed the entire fall but now I am back!

Hello, hello from cold Northampton! I am poking my head back up after a very quiet few months, coinciding exactly with the fall semester! Go figure.

At the end of the summer, I fell slowly & then deeply into an unhealthy obsession with our local elections. Mind you, I live in a town where the one conservative candidate for mayor got ~400 votes. Yet ugly internet battles raged for months between people who, if they lived in any other city, would literally have worked on the same campaign. My neighborhood Signal thread devolved into Rainbow-Green on Rainbow-Green rhetorical violence; I lurked on local Facebook & r/northampton, nursing something adjacent to a hate-crush but without the excitement, just a sick sour sort of hyper-vigilance as people shared their neighbors’ screenshotted rants. I fielded so many DMs & emails from friends on all sides! Group chats got awkward! I posted something fairly mild on FB & random super-supporters of my hate-crush who I don’t know in real life tried to friend me & then someone else randomly DMd me about the same thing happening to them after they’d posted something. Creepy! I thought I had pulled myself out of that particular k-hole but I see I’m still tripping. Zohran, take me away! Update: the drama continues, but as I am now restricting my local news intake to our print copy of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, I never know anything until the evening, when the mail comes. Aside: maybe if more people subscribed to the print paper, they’d do delivery again?

What else can I say about my last few months? I quit Spotify because they're running ICE ads & then couldn’t figure out how to listen to music¹ so only heard political podcasts for two months (not recommended). I fixated on AI & made a spreadsheet. Here’s what helps: Rebecca Solnit, real consideration of soft secession, Chase Strangio on trans health care under attack. What a time we are in. I hope you are taking good care.

Another thing that helps me: readings. This fall, I chatted with queer hero Diane DiMassa about Hothead Paisan & making comix at Forbes Library. I also conversated with Miranda Mellis about Crocosmia at Unnameable Books. I hung on Garth Greenwell’s every word read from his lovely Small Rain. I heard Layli Long Soldier read from her new collection of poems in the form of star quilts.

Layli Long Soldier, Obligations 2, 2018.

Reading log (mid-August to late-December)

• M.T. Anderson’s Feed (2002). Re-read. Unfortunately more relevant than ever. I read Feed to the tween, redacting a bit of gore & sex. Any kid who’s up for the literary language will find this affecting & worthwhile & may be shocked that it’s 20 years old (“so unc!”). I can’t stop thinking about how Anderson enacts the mental decline of the feed-modded characters on the sentence level, how their reliance on the feed has made them less able to think. Common Read for the world, perhaps?

• Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993). Re-read for the 9th or 10th time, but the first since 2024, the year the book begins. Parable is our Common Read at MHC this year & I taught it again. I’ll never forget my first encounter with Butler, catsitting for the impossibly glamorous Geeta Patel in Iowa City in the early 90s. I remember Geeta’s sunny couch, reading all her paperbacks, my shock that a serious adult read science fiction. I mean, I also fed the cat & changed the litter, I didn’t just sit there & read in the sun & forage in her fridge. In Inside Out parlance, a core memory.

• Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents (1998). Re-read immediately after finishing Parable of the Sower, as is mandated by law or at least my nervous system. I just recently learned that Butler actually wrote drafts of Parable of the Trickster (the legendarily unfinished third book of a projected five) & now am considering going to the archive in LA to read said drafts.

• John Christopher’s The White Mountains (1967). Re-read this childhood favorite to the tween & found it chillingly resonant with M.T. Anderson’s Feed. I think also maybe books were written more beautifully in the 60s.

• Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist (2025). NYRB’s comix arm brought out a compleat Hothead, doing justice to DiMassa’s genius with full color reproductions, a terrific foreword from Sarah Schulman & a lovely contextualizing interview with DiMassa from Jay Graham. I’m so glad this essential queer text is back in circulation & that we can read Hothead & friends as the righteous rebels they always were.

• Cory Doctorow’s Homeland (2013). Read to the tween, heavily redacted the torture, sex, & Doctorow’s one failing as a writer (imho): his now-dated obsession with cold-brew. Seriously though, I will read anything this guy writes. I will eagerly inhale hundreds of pages of explanations of financial systems or computer operations. I want this man to explain things to me! Also, I wish he’d write many more YA novels, because the kids need to know this stuff.

• Margot Douaihy’s Scorched Grace (2023) & Blessed Water (2024). About to read Divine Ruin! Did you know my mom was a nun? Now I am halfway through this trilogy of hard-boiled mysteries ft. a queer punk nun hiding out in New Orleans from her feelings & her ex-gf & her very bad memories. The mindfuck is that Sister Holiday’s actually religious & actually also a queer punk! It’s wild, dudes. I co-sign my own decision to not give this one to my mom, despite her love of mysteries.

• Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (2020). Re-read & taught. I always find something new in this book! My students apprenticed themselves to nonhuman beings, in homage—highly recommended practice!

• Jacqueline Harpman’s Orlanda Trans. Ros Schwartz (1996). I’ve just started this very meta, very dirty, very French take on Orlando. Apparently just re-issued in a handsome new edition which I might need to purchase.

• Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds (2020). A loan from my friend Ryan, who I now know has excellent taste in SFF! This is a class conscious queer multiverse love story & apparently there’s a sequel which I hope I get for solstice or Hannukah or Christmas, I am not particular!

• Jack Lowery’s It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic (2022). Re-read for Jack’s visit to my Making Art in an Ongoing Catastrophe class. I find it very life-affirming to read about people collaborating.

• Miranda Mellis’s Crocosmia (2025). I can’t exactly blurb my own sister-in-law’s book, but if I did I would use words like luminous, feral/floral, ectopian, Borgesian. Also, another book with anarchist nuns!

• Susana M. Morris’s Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler (2025). Revelatory! I love reading about writers’ lives. This would be a good present for the right person, actually.

• A.E. Osworth’s Awakened (2025). Just started! My current treat book. Extended origin story, a ragtag band of trans misfits with powers — I’m in! More next time.

• Chana Porter’s The Seep (2020). Re-read. Still obsessed. The first time I read this, maybe three years ago, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Same the second time, with more feeling. Read this if you tried to watch Pluribus but did not enjoy.

• Chana Porter’s new manuscript (!!!). Follow-up: This is just me bragging & also remembering that I got to read this book this fall & that someday you’re going to read this book too & then we’ll get to discuss. It feels wholesome to remember such pleasures.

• Mariah Rigg’s Extinction Capital of the World: Stories (2025). Stunning linked collection set in contemporary Hawaiʻi. Keywords: family, queer longing, environmental devastation, the afterlife of colonialism. Excited to see what Rigg does next!

• Debbie Urbanski’s After World (2023). Read on rec from Olivia. Bleak, wildly relevant, sometimes funny, mostly a gut-punch. I saw a review that compared it to House of Leaves, which I have not read². Could be on a shelf with The Employees, which I’ve been reading on P.J.’s recommendation. Update: I found this one somewhat depressing by the end & can’t rightfully rec but am glad I read!

• Helen Phillips’ Hum (2024). Another excellent rec from Ryan! The flap copy marks this novel as dystopian but I found it more ambiguous. The world feels close to our current sitch, very bad, but there’s so much heart in the authorial worldview, so little jaundice, that I read this as more of a parenting allegory than a dystopian next week. Maybe it’s both.

2026 Books to Watch Out For & Pre-Order!

• Megan Milks’ Mega Milks (January 2026). Stay tuned for an interview with my brilliant friend!

• T Kira Māhealani Madden’s Whidbey (March 2026). Beautiful & satisfying & also a very sad mystery novel. I imagine all the reviews will talk about Madden’s complicated relationships with Highsmith & Nabakov & her own memoir & rightly so. Madden’s achievement here, to my mind, is in how she examines the nuances of characters & experiences generally treated as headlines.

• Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn (March 2026). Have you pre-ordered yet? No presh! Go do it.

• Lauren Haldeman’s Wild That We’re Alive: Momboy Comics (March 2026). One of my favorite cartoonists ever!

• Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Fat Swim (April 2026). I tend not to tear through collections but I can’t stop thinking about these stories. I love how Eisenberg loves Philly & queer people, both of which I also love. Eisenberg is one of the most interesting & observant young fiction writers on the scene! More anon…

• Joe Osmundson’s Spawning Season (May 2026). Excited to read!

• Natalie Adler’s Waiting on a Friend (May 2026). Favorite!

• Imogen Crimp’s Give Me Everything You’ve Got (May 2026). Excited to read!

• Hugh Ryan’s My Bad (May 2026). Excited to read!

• Mac Crane’s Perverts (July 2026). Excited to read!

What I Watched This Fall

• Abbott Elementary S3-5 (Hulu): I now understand the hype. In the same way that Ted Lasso helped during lockdown, Abbott Elementary is helping during the hostile government takeover. Best show! We eventually realized that Gregory is young Chris (!!!).

• The Diplomat S3 (Netflix): Still great but a little depressing this season.

• Down Cemetery Road S1 (Apple TV+): We’ve only watched a few episodes so far. I love Emma Thompson, yet I’m not 100% convinced—the combination of cartoonish villains & general implausibility make this less fun than it could be.

• Everybody Hates Chris S1-2 (Prime): Surprisingly sweet, at least in the first season. What happened, dude? Maybe the sweetness is all Tyler James Williams?

• Gen V S2 (Prime): Quit after fast-forwarding through 85% of the first episode. Gross violence, banal critique.

• Heated Rivalry S1 (HBO): I liked the bottle episode very much, maybe also the early placement in the season made it actually a surprise? What is it about a bottle episode that’s so magical? I especially enjoyed the moments when they date girls to make each other jealous (spoiler sorry). Also, I will join the whole of the internet in praising the masterful deployment of T.a.t.u’s early aughts anthem of queer schoolgirl longing. I love how they call themselves Jane & Lily & am working up a bit about how in the 90s (where I’m from), butch DL hockey players would have been the height of aspirational fashion for dykes & now we have butch DL hockey players fetishizing sapphic girl culture of the 2000s. Update: Episode 5! Gay hockey Notting Hill! If you like this show, please read Hot Girls With Balls & A Sharp Endless Need, two excellent queer sports novels that will scratch your itch.

• Jimmy Kimmel Live. Just watched the one episode. Nice to hear the Lenny Bruce shout out. Felt great to be watching with 6 million other people. Nobody wants fascism. Update: see how long ago I started this newsletter?

• The Morning Show S4 (Apple TV+): I love Jennifer Aniston & feel vindicated in my long-time admiration for her fine comic timing & love the Alex & Bradley relationship. I mourn the loss of Billy Crudup’s youth, which is to mourn the loss of all of our youths. Also oh my god Marion Cotillard & Greta Lee & Karen Pittman & Jon Hamm. Respect to the casting director!

• Murder at the Gallop (1963): dir. George Pollock. Margaret Rutherford is the favorite Miss Marple of my parents, so we watched this very camp adaptation with them & I reflected on my complete lack of interest in camp anymore. Is camp dead? I think I’m more of a Geraldine McEwan man myself; I like her twinkling eyes and girlish dimples, sincerely.

• Murderbot S1 (Apple TV+): I’ve been watching this one very slowly for no good reason. The show is very sweet & does not mock its well-meaning characters, only joshes them, kindly. Like everyone else in the world, I can’t take my eyes off Alexander Skarsgård, yet I don’t find him even a little bit attractive. Charisma is fascinating! What’s that about. Update: I finally finished & am happy to report that this is an excellent show about labor & trauma.

• Percy Jackson & the Olympians S2 (Disney+): Our friends are back!

• Pluribus S1 (Apple TV+): I wanted to like it, heard there was queer content, but ultimately I just do not like anti-utopian narratives³. Stopped mid-episode 1.

• Severance S1 (Apple TV+): Tried again & made it to episode 3 this time. Might continue. It’s still depressing. Update: this season of the world is depressing enough; I have no need for Severance.

• Slow Horses S4 (Apple TV+). No spoilers, please! Best show, but only if one is in the mood for Gary Oldman & violence which I have not been quite as much this fall & so am still only a few episodes in. I could watch Kristin Scott Thomas all day, though. I wish she was in a different show, with no murders, just her talking about books, maybe? What if there was a show where Kristin Scott Thomas & Alexander Skarsgård played very kind & clever literary agents or editors? Doesn’t that sound relaxing? Cozy meets hygge. DM me if you want to make this show!

• Ted Lasso S1 (Apple TV+). Re-watching with the tween. Mildly inappropriate yet still so sweet! Is it perhaps a bit sadder the second time around, more divorcey? Maybe the undertone of melancholy is closer to the surface than I originally thought. We watched this during lockdown when the kid was asleep & everything turned okay for 29-78 minutes at a time & I for one needed this show to not be sad at all & it delivered.

• The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix): Soothingly anodyne; I slept through half & was able to follow the story, which can sometimes be a good thing. Also, Helen Mirren & Pierce Brosnan still have it; file under Charisma Studies.

• Zerophilia (Vimeo). Dir. Martin Curland, 2005. Dudes have you seen this secret movie about a college student who changes sex every time he comes? I cannot believe no one told me about this! I am obsessed. Fun fact: one of the stars is Allison Folland, hero of the greatest queer film of all time, All Over Me.

• Zootopia 2 (saw at the theater!). Dir. Jared Bush & Byron Howard, 2025. I don’t know about you but I did not expect this charming sequel to be a moving—and barely even subtextual—allegory of Palestinian right of return. As we left the theater, B just happened to observe that many Iranian directors have told stories for or about children as a way to get political films made in a repressive cultural climate. Do with that what you will.

Extremely Last Minute Gift Ideas for Bookish Sorts

• Interlink Book Clubs: Something for everyone!

• Odyssey’s First Editions Club: Lovely for any reader in your life.

• Nightboat Books Subscription: Perfect for your coolest & queerest friends!

• Transchool Vol. 2: Anthology featuring work from emerging & established trans writers!

• Wave Poetry Books Subscription: Poetry lovers will love this, I promise.

• Perhaps a literary quelque chose from the Mass Review Auction?

• Ministry of Words Workshops ft Fatimah Asghar, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, & R. O. Kwon.

• Give yourself the gift of a workshop with Oliver Baez Bendorf!

Is this your job?

• Insight Western Mass Outreach & Administrative Coordinator (P/T)

• My department at Mount Holyoke is hiring two 1-year visitors for next year: a VAP in literature & creative writing & a VAP in American literature. Applications in by Jan 23. These are sabbatical replacement positions, with no expectation of renewal. Come work with me for a year, doesn’t that sound fun?

Cool Stuff Continues to Happen in the People’s Valley

• 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.

• Need help relocating to Western Massachusetts from a hostile environment? In Western Mass & want to help? Check out Trans Relocation Support WMass.

• Relatedly, do you know about these Move to Thrive loans & The Rainbow Railroad?

• Luce offers bystander trainings to protect our communities against ICE. Let’s all do this!

Okay, now I’m caught up. Happy solstice, happy Hanukah, happy xmas, happy days off if you have them! More soon, for real. Stay tuned for my end-of-year round up & suggestions for how to spend that gift card from your local indie or Bookshop.org!

Sending love to you & yours,

AL

1. I ended up taking Apple Music’s 3 month free deal & thus kicking the can down the road. I know they are bad. Argh. If you have a cassette or CD walkman you don’t want, I will take it off your hands!

2. Life is short, friends.

3. Ibid.