the stories we tell ourselves
Hello friends! How are you? Thanks for opening! This week--wala lang, kwentuhan lang. Hehe. Hope you find something enjoyable here. -K
I haven't joined a book launch in years--I think the last one I attended was the Inquirer's launch of Young Blood 6, and that was a fun, in-person event sometime a handful of years ago, and I really enjoyed going around and getting my book signed by fellow authors present at the National Book Store branch where it was held.
I'd been looking forward to the book launch of this lesbian anthology, simply because it would have been an opportunity to meet so many lesbians in person (lol, as the anthology editor Jhoanna Cruz posits: What do we call a room full of lesbians? My pitch was "march" -- as in "a march of lesbians". As in Jo March haha.)
Unfortunately, in light of the pandemic, this intimate launch had to be held virtually, hosted by our editor Jhoanna and our publisher, Anvil Publishing.
https://twitter.com/JhoannaLynnCruz/status/1415669030879305735
Coming off a full day of work, my brain was fried by default/end of day, but it was such a refreshing experience to be surrounded by so many wlw--women-loving writers!
In true better-read-than-heard fashion, I enjoyed sitting back and listening to them talk about the themes of the book--How it begins, Family matters, Passion, Unrequited, Consummated, Struggle, How it ends--through the lens of their personal experiences. I was so mesmerized I hadn't taken enough notes, so the reportage version of this would have to wait another day (or until I've reviewed the uploaded conversation on Anvil's Facebook page in a few days hehe).
For the purposes of this letter, I'd like to attempt to answer one of the questions posed to the panel: What was the first book you read where you saw yourself represented?
Perhaps not a book, but the first story I read about lesbians came as a gift from the late Charlene Fernandez, over a decade and a half ago when I was her Creative Writing student in an erotica elective: Jeanette Winterson's The Poetics of Sex, which opens with, Why do you sleep with girls? The perfect opening for the perfect read, around the same time that I, in fact, started sleeping with girls (lmao).
Anyway, I was so enamored with Winterson that a couple of years later, I hunted her books down at Powerbooks and bought the only title on the shelf at the time with my beginner's salary. It was, quite serendipitously, Written on the Body--which opens very memorably with, Why is the measure of love loss? At the time I had been trying to transition out of my college relationship and into a healthier one (lol)--an effort that would not succeed for literal years (until it did).
Everything feels so long ago--primarily because they are, and I've made my requisite peace. Personally, I think Winterson already belongs to another time--and I can't be more thankful that it was her words that I found when I was much younger and looking for ways to describe my experience (or maybe, her words were the ones that found me).
As writers, I think this is what we all aspire for--for our words to touch someone out there, the way we've been touched by other memorable writing that have come before us.
That said: Thank you for supporting Tingle! We hope it reaches more young queer writers, and inspires them to contribute their own stories in the next anthology -- because there should definitely be another one :)
P.S. Still available on Lazada and Shopee!
Media recs
- Obsessed about this faux High School Musical edit set to Permission to Dance
- Okay since I already saw this, so should you (music on)
https://twitter.com/kweenjanice/status/1388121966683381765
- LOL timeline cleanse:
https://twitter.com/dgellis0907/status/1415032556119076868
Have a restful weekend! ♥
https://twitter.com/twperritos/status/1415820961039925253
XO,
K