Every True Pleasure: LGBTQ Tales of North Carolina

Barnhardt, creative writing professor at NC State, presents an appealing anthology of short fiction, essays, and memoir that, he writes, are “accurate to LGBT life as we find it in the 21st century,” by authors from or connected to North Carolina (many but not all of them LGBTQ identifying), including revered literary veterans such as David Sedaris and promising newcomers such as Alyssa Wong. This anthology reflects the diversity of Southern queer experiences in both its contributors’ backgrounds and the topics and settings of their pieces: the collection engages clandestine sexual encounters, coming out, difficult and loving friends and relatives, career decisions, and broad political and cultural currents. In Jasmine Beach-Ferrara’s short story “Love the Soldier,” Keisha, a cop preparing to deploy to the Middle East, is pursuing a drug dealer, sorting through an ambiguous romance with an old friend, and contending with her minister father’s objection to the war. Melinda, the main character in Belle Boggs’s captivating story “Jonas,” plans her spouse’s gender-transition coming-out party: “It would be like a tea, with tablecloths spread on the picnic table and ladylike finger sandwiches and jelly jars full of zinnias, and hats and calf-grazing dresses.” Though the memoir excerpts don’t all have the literary flair of their fictional counterparts, the anthology is, overall, a winning showcase of Southern queer lit. (Mar.)