This a virtual book club that meets to discuss writing from different genres written by and/or about LGBTQ+ people. This is a space book club for open discussion, literary analysis, political discourse, and chatting centering on exciting contemporary and older books. The book list is still in formation (share your book recommendations by joining), however, we will be reading literary fiction, history, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and more.
This is a Q & T program run through Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria and facilitated by Memphis Washington.
We'll send you the zoom information once you are signed up!
When: Every last Tuesday of the Month @ 7pm
Where: Zoom (register to receive the link)
Each book is discussed once in a monthly session.
When & Where: Tuesday, June 27th at 7pm on Zoom
Reading: Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So
Facilitators: Memphis Washington
Discussion Questions & Topics (more details to come)
These are only meant to start the conversation. There may be some special conversations or activities for this month! Also, please come up with your own questions and bookmark passages you might want to discuss! Content warnings below the "About the Author Section"
A vibrant story collection about Cambodian-American life—immersive and comic, yet unsparing—that offers profound insight into the intimacy of queer and immigrant communities
Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.
A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
The stories in Afterparties, “powered by So’s skill with the telling detail, are like beams of wry, affectionate light, falling from different directions on a complicated, struggling, beloved American community” (George Saunders).
Anthony Veasna So (1992-2020) was a graduate of Stanford University and earned his MFA in fiction at Syracuse University. His story collection, Afterparties, was a New York Times bestseller, was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and won both the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction and the NBCC John Leonard Prize for Best First Book. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, n+1, Granta, and ZYZZYVA. A native of Stockton, California, he taught at Colgate University, Syracuse University, and the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants in Oakland, California. .
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please share them with Memphis at QNTCommunity@gmail.com
Content Warnings: suicide, domestic violence, explicit sexual content, gun violence. Please help me fill out this section with your suggestions!
