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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Resilience

A student of mine, Eric Nguyen, has edited a marvellous book, Resilience:

To be queer and young is to be STRONG. To be queer and young is to be RESILIENT. Collected in this anthology are over 20 inspiring stories, poems, essays, and other writings made for you - our queer youth. Started in 2010 in a time of crisis for the queer community, these are the works of artists who wanted to show the world the power of words. While eclectic in style and form, what unites these works is a message of hope: it doesn't just get better, you grow stronger and wiser. Money from the sale of this book will be used to help fund The Make It Safe Project, which aims to bring LGBT-related books into schools and homeless shelters and into the hands of LGBT kids. More information on Resilience, visit the Better Books Project.

This is an anthology of stories, poems, essays, etc for LGBT teens. Money from it will be donated to the Make It Safe Project, which helps brings LGBT books to schools and shelters. I haven't read it, but I know it will be good: there are pieces in the book by two other students of mine, Liz Green and Jarrett Neal, and poems and essays by several other Fellows I had the good fortune to meet in Los Angeles when I taught at the Emerging LGBT Voices writing retreat in 2010.

This is an important project. I urge you to go take a look at the sample, then go buy a copy. You'll not only be getting yourself a very cool book, you'll be helping young LGBT kids who have nowhere else to turn.