cover image Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America

Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America

Edited by Martin F. Manalansan IV, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo. Temple Univ, $39.95 trade paper (418p) ISBN 978-1-4399-2109-8

American studies professor Manalansan, activist Hom, and Asian American studies professor Fajardo offer a rich follow-up to the 1998 anthology Q&A. Featuring writers who identify across the LGBTQ spectrum, all 41 pieces are new and cover a diverse set of genres, including memoir, visual art, history, and scholarly criticism. In “Sewing Patches Through Performance,” performance artist D’Lo movingly recounts how his Sri Lankan mother came to accept his “queer and trans masculine” identity by listening to the monologues he performed from her point of view. In “Asian Men and the Construction of Racial Desire on Craigslist,” meanwhile, sociology professor C. Winter Han makes a scholarly argument that the language used in personal ads on Craigslist perpetuates “the long history of feminizing Asian men in contemporary American media,” and Kay Ulanday Barrett’s poem “Anomaly: a poem sponsored by TSA” traces the experience of being a trans person at the airport. While the pieces are often academic, the expansive set of perspectives is impressive. This rich compendium will delight students of Asian American and queer studies. (July)