What do you hope activists and community organizers will take away from reading your book? For both books we were seeking stories that are so well told/written that they indeed invite that empathy and attendant understanding. Our (my co-editor Karen Martin and I) chose these twenty-six stories out of 95 submissions (QA2), from the first anthology QA we only received 44 submissions and decided to choose from previously published stories, that’s how we reached the total of 18 stories for the first book. The empathy that the stories invite will I believe have a positive impact on the readers’ understanding of the climate. The stories in these books bring a window into easy-to-dismiss lives. The broader generalized political and social climate is still anti a full embodiment of full self- expression, not just for queer individuals. Twenty-six stories from seven countries will give BAR readers access to as many political and social climates and as they read though each story, different “points” will come forth for each reader. I thus entered an oasis of specific information and knowledge, I hadn’t known anything about, until then. Eating is also haram.” I had never heard of the word - haram - before so I researched that before I engaged further with the writer. The character in the story tells of her mother: “Mama would never allow me to do that to my hair. provided an entry point for me towards understanding the burden of an oppressive religion, within a society. Khosi Xaba: We all read from our own positioning and so the book is likely to provide different “points” for different people entry points, starting points, meeting points and connecting points.įor instance Nine pieces of desire (QA: 2) by Idza L. Roberto Sirvent: How can your book help BAR readers understand the current political and social climate? When I quote specifically from one book, I will reference them as such: Queer Africa: New and Collected Fiction (2013) Queer Africa: New Stories (2017) Queer Africa Selected Stories (2018) Note from author: My responses relate to these three books as a collective. In 2014 she was nominated for the poetry category of the Mbokodo Awards. Her book is Queer Africa: Selected Stories. Her poetry has been anthologized extensively and translated into Italian, Mandarin and Turkish. This week’s featured author is Khosi Xaba. In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. “ The stories in these books bring a window into easy-to-dismiss lives.

We are in a time zone wherein the problematic of queerness is being emancipated through story telling.

Queer Africa 2 by Karen Martin