A 'riot of brightness, life and feelings': Queer writers showcased in new anthology

Sunday, 14 November 2021

'Out Here' anthology editors Emma Barnes and Chris Tse hope the book is a “step forward in the visibility of queer identities” in Aotearoa literature.

Finding literature where you can see yourself represented, even partially, can be a lonely task for queer people in New Zealand.

For older generations, the search was often done alone (if at all), in secrecy and with the weight of a sense of shame entrenched by mainstream society.

For poets Emma Barnes and Chris Tse, who were teenagers in the 90s, it involved “looking up keywords in the library card catalogue or waiting until our family had gone to bed, so we could use our home computer to read about queer TV shows and films we’d heard about but couldn’t watch in New Zealand”, they said.

It’s not that queer literature hasn’t existed in Aotearoa before, but prominent queer authors – such as Witi Ihimaera, Renée, Ngahuia te Awekotuku, and Peter Wells – are among the host of writers whose work is printed in a new 368-page anthology.

* Local writer joins Pukapuka Talks session, Out Here in Whakatū

* National takatāpui artists' collective receives $70k Creative NZ grant

Kerry Donovan Brown describes the anthology as a “landmark” book, informed by takatapui and LGBTQIA+ experiences. (File photo)

Barnes and Tse, the editors of Out Here: An anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa, imagined the book as a “riot of brightness, life and feelings”.

Tse said there was often a stereotype that queer writing was about coming out, first love, or trauma and tragedy, but “we wanted to see, and we wanted to read things by queer writers that were anything that they wanted to write about”.

The book, published by Auckland University Press and launched last week, features writing from 69 writers.

In the introduction, Barnes and Tse state their goal from the beginning, almost three years ago, was to “curate a wide-ranging anthology that brings together writers of as many gender and sexual identities as possible, all working across different genres”.

Poems, fiction stories, non-fiction stories, and screen scripts from established writers are included, as is work from a younger generation of new writers. For some, it was their first time having their work published.

Poet essa may ranapiri’s piece 'knot-boy ii' features in the anthology. They hope future generations can see themselves reflected in takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers’ work.

Kerry Donovan Brown said they felt honoured to feature in the “landmark” collection.

The 36-year-old’s science fiction piece reflects on their experience of homophobia, transphobia and queerphobia when they were younger.

Cadence Chung, 18, hopes readers will feel validated and represented in a way that was once more difficult.

“I’ve been holding in my hands some anger about what I endured growing up … I don’t know what it is about my mid-30s that has brought out this frustration in me,” they said.

“I feel that I set aside a lot of my passions and interests and my integrity to really focus on fitting in … that was really weighing on me.”

Having access to work like Out Here would have been nourishing while they were growing up, Brown said.

The anthology gave people a way to recognise themselves in writing and “uplift parts of themselves which they’ve been taught to see as shameful or perverse”.

An extract from Annamarie Jagose's award-winning novel 'In Translation' is one of the 69 pieces of writing to feature in the 'Out Here' anthology.

“My dream for this is for people to read this and to tell their own stories and I guess it’s as simple as that.”

The poem – called, knot-boy ii, a sequel to their book Ransack – explores their experiences of how their queerness was perceived in public, including the “kind of tension or threat of violence that often can feel almost worse than violence”.

The anthology was also hopeful though in giving people a place to be themselves, they said.

For Wellington High School student Cadence Chung, her writing often reflected how “everyone is still kind of expected to be straight”.

“We’re sort of pushing all these ideals onto people, but increasingly bigger amounts of people are realising that these ideals aren’t what they are.”

The 18-year-old said she was seeing more queer writing, but it was often written by white men and hardly any was from women or people of colour.

Chung hoped people would find the anthology and “feel validated”.

“If I was a year 9 and saw it in the library there, I would be really pleased to know that there is something affirming out there.”

Major social survey

One in 20 adults in Aotearoa identify as being LGBT+, according to Stats NZ's latest Household Economic Survey, released on Friday.

Of the total adult population, 0.8 percent identified as transgender or another gender/non-binary (that is, had a gender that is different from their sex recorded at birth) and 3.7 percent reported being a sexual identity other than heterosexual (gay or lesbian, bisexual, or another sexual identity).

The survey for the year ended June 2020 was the first to reflect inclusive questions on gender and sexual identity.

“People’s sense of their gender and sexual identity matters to them, and we are pleased to be able to reflect the experience of a greater range of New Zealanders,” social and population insights general manager Jason Attewell said.