In considering the bookish highlights of the past year—the breadth of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and zines read and shared with others; the bookstore shelves browsed and little free libraries visited; the virtual and in-person readings, discussions, and book clubs attended—a theme emerges. Books by queer writers, about queer characters, and curated by queer booksellers are […]
In Tea Leaves, a new collection of short stories, Baltimore-based author Jacob Budenz invokes a queer cast of fantastical oddballs making their way in the world we share. From an aspiring magician filled with regrets related to student debt, a deadbeat demon who practices astral projection to compete in speed-eating contests, and a televised semi-psychic […]
As the weather turns cool, curling up with a short-story collection can plunge you deep into another world in mere minutes, with a few turns of the page between other commitments and concerns. This fall, two new short-story collections by Virginia authors offer ample opportunities for reflection and escapism. Richmond-based author SJ Sindu’s new book, […]
In Voice Machines: The Castrato, the Cat Piano, and Other Strange Sounds, Bonnie Gordon explores the castrato as a cultural phenomenon and a critical mode of inquiry into the technological relationships that have existed between humans, machines, sounds, and instruments, from early modern to contemporary times. We interviewed the UVA professor of music and co-director […]
“Minds are different and healing them is likewise so,” writes Kay Redfield Jamison in her latest book, Fires in the Dark: Healing the Unquiet Mind. She adds, “It is the healer’s order to restore the mind to soundness: to repair and mend it, to pry it from disease, to reassemble.” These are the seeds from […]
A queer mountain lion in “ellay” is the narrator of Open Throat, the new novel by Charlottesville’s own Henry Hoke. If that doesn’t pique your interest, we interviewed Hoke to take a deeper dive into his fifth book, which has garnered widespread attention and acclaim, and tops many of the year’s best-of lists. C-VILLE: […]
“It is one thing to understand in theory that our healthcare system is broken … and an entirely different thing to have your hands in the leaky dam of that broken system every day,” writes Sarah DiGregorio, author of Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World. Beginning with a […]
“You can’t eat ’em if you don’t find ’em. And you can’t find ’em if you’re not outside. I know that’s where I’ll be,” writes Frank Hyman in his latest book, How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms. An avid outdoors enthusiast, Hyman has foraged […]
In the opening pages of the new zine, Under the Table and Screaming: Volume 1, musician Gina Sobel says, “If you run into a friend who just left the Tea Bazaar, you ask them, ‘Oh, were you just at the Tea Bazaar?’” This is a reference to the distinctive smell of the Twisted Branch Tea […]
In The Good Ones, Polly Stewart’s new novel of literary suspense, a woman’s family and friends struggle to find answers about her disappearance in a small Blue Ridge town. Set almost two decades after Lauren disappeared, leaving behind a bloodied washcloth and little more, the novel centers on her old friend, Nicola, the protagonist, who […]