Super gay poems LGBTQIA+ poetry after Stonewall

Stephanie Burt, 1971-

Book - 2025

"Esteemed scholar, poet, critic, and activist Stephanie Burt anthologizes five decades of verse for and by queer Americans. Interpreted by Burt, the poems of Frank O'Hara, Audre Lorde, Judy Grahn, James Merrill, Thom Gunn, Jackie Kay, Adrienne Rich, Cyborg Jillian Weise , and others trace a flourishing of queer life from Stonewall to the present day."--

Saved in:
1 copy ordered
Subjects
Genres
LGBTQ+ poetry
Queer poetry
Poésie queer
Published
Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Stephanie Burt, 1971- (author)
Physical Description
pages cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780674273115
  • Introduction
  • Frank O'Hara, Homosexuality (1954 / 1970)
  • Judy Grahn, Carol, in the park, chewing on straws (1970)
  • James Schuyler, We Are Leaves (1972)
  • Adrienne Rich, Twenty-One Love Poems, XIII (1976)
  • James Merrill, Manos Karastefanis (1976)
  • Audre Lorde, Walking Our Boundaries (1978)
  • Thom Gunn, Bally Power Play (1982)
  • James L. White, The First Time (1982)
  • Marilyn Hacker, Nights of 1962: The River Merchant's Wife (1986 / 1990)
  • Paul Monette, The Worrying (1988)
  • U. A. Fanthorpe, 7301 (1987)
  • Jackie Kay, Mummy and Donor and Deirdre (1991)
  • Essex Hemphill, Object Lessons (1992)
  • Ruth Vanita, Mermaid (1994)
  • Samuel Ace (Linda Smukler), Suits and Ties (1994)
  • Melvin Dixon, The Falling Sky (1992 / 1995)
  • Chrystos, Jump Back in Me Now (1995)
  • John Ashbery, The Underwriters (2000)
  • Cherry Smith, In the South That Winter (2001)
  • Trish Salah, notes toward dropping out (2002)
  • bill bissett, looking out now aftr a recent brek up (2005)
  • May Swenson, Found in Diary Dated May 29, 1973 (2000 / 2003)
  • Carl Phillips, Riding Westward (2006)
  • Kei Miller, The Broken (I) (2007)
  • Angie Estes, Takeoff (2007)
  • Mark Doty, Apparition (2008)
  • Richard Howard, What the Future Has in Store (2009)
  • Erín Moure, Evocation (2009)
  • Jee Leong Koh, Glass Orgasm
  • Marisa Crawford, Deidre (2010)
  • D. A. Powell, Lessons in Woodworking (2012)
  • Frank Bidart, Queer
  • CA Conrad, Unknown Duration of Fear / A Human Being Realizes They Are Alone for the First Time in 12 Hours (2014)
  • Jericho Brown, Heart Condition (2014)
  • Kay Ryan, The First of Never (2015)
  • Hera Lindsay Bird, Bisexuality (2016)
  • Sophie Robinson, Cancer, Leo Rising (2016)
  • Trace Peterson, The Valleys Are So Lush and Steep (2016 / 2024)
  • Anthony Vahni Capildeo, After Catullus 5 (2016 / 2018)
  • Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Dis Pure Diss (2017)
  • Billy-Ray Belcourt, Sexual History (2017)
  • Gabrielle Calvocoressi, She Ties My Bow Tie (2017)
  • Stephanie Chan, You Throw a Party and Everyone You Have Ever Been Attracted To Is There (2019)
  • Roque Raquel Salas Rivera, la cortadura
  • Logan February, Prayer of the Slut (2020)
  • Rajiv Mohabir, Indo-Queer I (2021)
  • Tonee Moll, Poly Beach House (2022)
  • Danez Smith, Waiting for You to Die So I Can Be Myself (2022)
  • Essa May Ranapiri, She-Viper with Tales Outstretched (2022)
  • Chen Chen, Summer (2023)
  • The Cyborg Jillian Weise, So Your GF Wants to Come Out as Bi and Polyamorous to Her Very Conservative Family (2024).
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this well selected and compulsively readable anthology, Harvard English professor Burt (We Are Mermaids) presents 51 poems that address and exemplify queerness in America. In the introduction, Burt explains that she chose to only include poems published post-1969, establishing the year of the Stonewall riots as the inception of modern queer identity. She additionally provides helpful context for each poem in an accompanying essay. The anthology moves chronologically, beginning with Frank O'Hara's "Homosexuality," which addresses closeted life in its opening line, "So we are taking off our masks, are we, and keeping/ our mouths shut." From the 1990s to the 2000s, the anthology introduces an increasing number of poets of trans and other gender identities, including the glorious ode to genderqueer sex "Suits and Ties" by Samuel Ace. Danez Smith's 2022 poem "Waiting for You to Die So I Can Be Myself" picks up where O'Hara left off, articulating the strain of hiding one's true self: "i want to say something without saying it/ but there's no time. i'm waiting for a few folks/ i love dearly to die so i can be myself." Burt's insightful commentary draws through lines between eras and poets, making this a valuable text for the classroom and a dynamic and comprehensive collection for casual readers of contemporary poetry. (Apr.)

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