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Volume 49, Issue 1 & 2

NOWADAYS it is not uncommon to hear about the "twilight" or "end" of "queer theory," "queer studies," or more to the point, the salience of the term "queer" itself. Certainly, the academy, in all its homophobic splendor, has gone about making this appear plausible. I don't entirely blame the academy, of course, since everyone blames it for everything—in this case, it is the mere suntan reflector of culture.

What I found when sending out shy tentacles for this volume was that wonderful talents and minds were responsive to the call of "queer " What might this mean? Well, first it means that the term is not necessarily yoked to the academy—in fact, we must remember that queer didn't come from academics but from activists. And amid those activists: poets, fiction writers, video artists, theorists of many stripes, historians, essayists, and lumping them all together in a category: thinkers, feelers, and, well, writers. Academics of the sort god loves made "queer" more articulate and articulable. Artists, thinkers, and activists of many stripes vibrated very pleasantly to the term for over twenty years before we were told that the garage door was closed, the car parked, and us, sitting in it, idling.

My experience of assembling this group of writers and artists was that "queer," above all, presently, means ALIVE: inventive, thoughtful, artful, delighted and delightful. Also, it means a whole lot about collaboration. Somehow, queers seem to do collaboration really well: witness the various conversations, from Ali—Isaac, Ashbery—Brainard, Butler—Durnrn, Sedgwick—Snediker, to the lovely and weirdly interchangable vocality of Johnson—Bordowitz.

Queer means that sexuality, the basis of our lives and self-definition, is contested and INTERESTING. Homo-, bi-, hetero-, sadly-, happily-, giddily-, gorgeously-, furiously-, melancholically-, sexual.

These writers and artists are my very favorite (I guess I have to admit it), and it fills me with delight to have them in one place where, under my bedside lamp, I can thrill to their voices. I hope that one terrible consequence of this volume is that bedside lamps are burning much, much, much later than they would "normally." If this is the sort of thing we have to look forward to after a bright day or even after a twilight, I envy us.

John Emil Vincent
for the editors


Entries

poetry

For All the Freaks of the World

By Rafael Campo

nonfiction

Yankee Doodle Dandy

By Henry Abelove

nonfiction

Eddying

By Michael Moon

poetry

Transitions

By Eileen Myles

poetry

No Rain

By Eileen Myles

poetry

Girlfriend

By Eileen Myles

fiction

My Friend Goo

By Shelley Jackson

art

Studies for My Lincoln

By Lee Gordon

nonfiction

Every Queer Thing We Know

By Lisa Henderson

nonfiction

Breeding Culture: Barebacking, Bugchasing, Giftgiving

By Tim Dean

interview

Giving Away, Giving Over: A Conversation with Judith Butler

By Judith Butler and Thomas Dumm

poetry

Lettera Amorosa

By Marilyn Hacker

poetry

Ghazal: min al-hobbi ma khatal

By Marilyn Hacker

poetry

Ghazal: dar al-harb

By Marilyn Hacker

nonfiction

Agape

By Michael D. Snediker

poetry

Kouros

By Robin Becker

poetry

The Wall

By Robin Becker

interview

Moments of Shared Glamour: A Conversation

By Gregg Bordowitz and Liza Johnson

interview

Moments of Shared Glamour: A Conversation

By Gregg Bordowitz and Liza Johnson

poetry

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Landscape

By Jack Spicer

poetry

The City of Boston

By Jack Spicer

poetry

Homosexuality

By Jack Spicer

art

Here Comes the Kiss: A Conversation between Laylah Ali and Allan Isaac

By Laylah Ali

nonfiction

My So-Called Crime

By Kevin Kopelson

poetry

Recovered Blue

By Elaine Sexton

poetry

Taken

By Elaine Sexton

nonfiction

Conversations Around Tintoretto

By Jonathan Goldberg

poetry

Play/Replay

By Frank Bidart

interview

Queer Little Gods: A Conversation

By Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Michael D. Snediker

interview

Queer Little Gods: A Conversation

By Eve Kosofsky and Michael D. Snediker

Table of Contents

Introduction, by John Emil Vincent

For All the Freaks of the World,
a poem by Rafael Campo

Yankee Doodle Dandy, essay by Henry Abelove

from The Vermont Notebook, a collaboration
between John Ashbery and Joe Brainard

Eddying, essay by Michael Moon

Transitions; No Rain; Girlfriend,
poems by Eileen Myles

My Friend Goo, a story by Shelley Jackson

Lettera Amorosa; GHAZAL: min al-hobbi ma khatal;
GHAZAL: dar al-harb, poems by Marilyn Hacker

Studies for My Lincoln, art by Lee Gordon

Every Queer Thing We Know,
essay by Lisa Henderson

Breeding Culture: Barebacking, Bugchasing,
Giftgiving, essay by Tim Dean

Giving Away, Giving Over: A Conversation with
Judith Butler, by Judith Butler and Thomas Dumm

AGAPE, essay by Michael D. Snediker

Moments of Shared Glamour: A Conversation,
by Gregg Bordowitz and Liza Johnson

Homosexuality; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Landscape, "The city
of Boston. . .", poems by Jack Spicer

My So-Called Crime, essay by Kevin Kopelson

Kouros; The Wall, poems by Robin Becker

Here Comes the Kiss: A Conversation between
Laylah Ali and Allan Isaac, art by Laylah Ali

Recovered Blue; Taken, poems by Elaine Sexton

Conversions: Around Tintoretto, essay
by Jonathan Goldberg

Play/Replay, a poem by Frank Bidart

Queer Little Gods: A Conversation, by
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick & Michael D. Snediker

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