Also I’m aware I’ve spoken more about the approach of the anthology as a whole than any individual poem but … it’s hard to know how else to speak about an anthology.

While not every individual poem worked for me, the collection as a whole offers something bold, expressive and kind of even … necessary? In their joint Introduction Andrew McMillan discusses the strategy used in curating this collection: “The last time an anthology like this one came out from a trade publisher was almost four decades ago. This anthology seemed a good opportunity to address this as well as to open myself up to these voices and appreciate their experiences. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. Featuring a vibrant rainbow design, and our super-sized Q logo, you won't find a more stylish way to make a statement.It also a wonderful pair of introductions from the editors—this would be the sort of thing I normally skip over but, in this case, they serve as a kind of mission statement for the collection (and the line right at the beginning from Andrew McMillan about the poems of Thom Gunn make him feel, for the first time, that “who I was might be worth of poetry, worth of literature” hit me hard and immediately in the feels). I will be interested to see how both editors develop as another decade broadens their life experiences and how the subject matter of their choices evolves. Can we allow for a radical inner transformation that appears ugly to us, or that might render us undesirable?

The sections that spoke to me most directly to me upon a first reading were, somewhat predicably, Queer Relationships, Queer Landscapes and Queering Histories. Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan's luminous anthology, 100 Queer Poems , is a celebration of thrilling contemporary voices and visionary poets of the past. Meanwhile, Fan was surprised when Chan and McMillan chose his poem Hokkaido for the book, but says when he thought about it, it made sense. As with all poetry collections, especially if there's a variety of different poets, there will be poems and poets you connect with and ones you won't.

This collection is kind of like being at a party: you’re glad it’s happening and you’re glad to have been invited, you feel warmly towards the hosts, and you can kind of figure out broadly why this group of people has been brought today. I’m somebody that leads a very political life and has been very involved in activist movements for a long time,” they said. Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author. In a way that is a shame because poetry comes in many styles, forms, rhymes, metrical patterns (or the lack thereof of one or all of these), and we should never dismiss something simply because it doesn't appear to conform with our own ideas.

This is a love it or hate style and, for many, takes some getting used to and, perhaps, is better suited to either performance or a simple recital by a poet to get the flavour of the sound.Thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This book is divided into different parts and while I can't say that I liked any part the least, I definitely can say that I like the poems about Queer Future the most. not all of the poems are explicitly queer, but you can rest easy knowing that they are, and they were chosen for that reason.

this is undoubtedly one of the best poetry anthologies I have ever read and I am so excited to delve further into the works of some poets within this collection that left me in awe. Queer Poems, edited by Andrew McMillan and Mary Jean Chan, features work from 20th-century poets as well as contemporary LGBTQ+ voices. All in all this is a "very safe" anthology in which, as Keith Vaughan once wrote, "the lights are on" yet there is little "illumination. un montón de palabras poderosas y de sentimientos y de encontrarse en los márgenes de las cosas (como siempre). When choosing to read it, I assumed all poems were in specific relation to the LGBTQ+ community, so that's my bad.

I have therefore given a 5 star rating for the content of this book as an anthology of mostly contemporary poetry. This was a really wonderful anthology, later out in multiple several sections that explore different aspects of queer history and the trials and tribulations of the LGBTQIA+ community. Mary Jean Chan then takes over and shares the parameters they used as well as how the anthology is structured in terms of various themes as well as suggestions for reading the poems. What a wonderful collection of poetry - I can’t wait to get my hands on the physical copy so that I can dip in and annotate more thoroughly.