STORIES & ARTICLES
While drifting through space, a they/them-pronouned space mermaid stumbles upon a giant space whale carcass that has become a home and a meal for all kinds of other aliens.
Listen to it read by Kate Baker
Purchase in Clarkesworld Issue 162
Support Clarkesworld by purchasing a subscription
Review by Karen Burnham: "The last story of the issue is my favorite... Its title is on the nose: in a universe entropically running down, where energy is scarce, [Tristar] drifts for untold eons... They have to make their way out into the void again, quite poignantly."
A creative writing undergraduate student falls for a boy in his class who has galaxy-spangled skin and dubious intentions.
Listen to it read by Stephen Rudnicki
Purchase in Lightspeed's October 2018 issue
Interview with the author conducted by Arley Sorg
Review by Charles Payseur: "I like here how this idea of the muse is one of ignition, that it’s something that wakes in all of these people a hunger and a need that it can’t fulfill... It's a lovely story that’s very much worth spending some time with."
A teenager explores their gender via alien abduction.
Read it in Capricious Magazine's Gender Diverse Pronouns Issue, a beautiful anthology featuring science fiction and fantasy stories using gender pronouns other than "he" or "she". It also contains an interview about "Phaser", conducted by editor A. C. Buchanan. The anthology was placed on the 2018 James Tiptree Award Honor List.
Review by Cameron N. Coulter: "...a funny, sophisticated story about the complexities of gender identity... it’s a wild, smart take on how gender identity can develop over the course of a person’s life."
A space pirate is drawn to a mysterious space mermaid who finds her way on board the pirate's spaceship. This f/f crossdressing pirate story embraces the fun tropes of the genre and avoids the transphobic ones.
Read it in Queerly Loving Volume 2
Review by Nicky Tyler: "SPACE MERMAIDS!! This was a really interesting story and I’d like to read more in this world."
Non-fiction
"The casting of [Jake] Graf, a transgender man, as de Caillavet, a cisgender historical figure, has led a few article headlines to praise Colette for having forward-thinking casting... The positive inclusion, however, does little to mitigate Colette’s larger casting problem — Colette’s long-time lover, a transgender person named Max de Morny, was played by cisgender actor Denise Gough."
Non-fiction
I attempt to donate blood while trans and navigate blood banks' policies designed to discriminate against cisgender queer men.
"[The nurse] opens her mouth to apologize for evacuating me from the premises—if you say yes, yes I am a queer man, then now it’s her job to turn you away and never let you in the door again, but she doesn’t see me as a man, she knows what form she printed for me..."