Out Here: an anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa

This book is a great addition to the school library and would be equally useful as a class resource to unpack.

Out Here: a Takatāpui LGBTQIA+ anthology defines writers/contributors as those with specific identities and preferences in order to be to be as inclusive as possible.

Many well known names are represented in this hefty tome of poetry, word art and short stories. There are many new voices too all of whom offer varied ideas and experiences.

Pre 1990s writing has moved on from misrepresented, discriminatory, queer characters to contemporary, insightful portrayals. Out Here editors comment on how the Homosexual Law Bill enabled transparency and recognition of previously challenged queer writing. Invisible writing thus is now visible. Gender and sexual identities are worked across genres.

Contributions are strikingly contemporary juxtapositions. Hera Lindsey Bird writes a love poem:

I stare and stare at you like you were a distant mountain in a homeopathic

video game

with rare medicinal flowers on it

Contributions are exploratory and affirming, or search for identity:

You translating yourself

into other people

translating other people

into yourself

In the short story Searches related to state, Gus Goldsack plays with words and metaphor to expose ‘ state of disarray’ changing viewpoints.

I don’t know what his view is like now because we don’t really talk any more

Out Here is a great addition to the school library or would be equally useful as a class resource to unpack.

Title: Out Here: an anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa

Edited by: Chris Tse and Emma Barnes

Publisher: Auckland University Press

ISBN: 9781869409319

RRP: $49.99

Format: hardback

Publication: November 2021

Ages: Young adult and adult

Reviewer: Michele Ayres, Librarian, Motueka High School, Tasman

How are you recommending this book? Highly recommended

What’s the book’s opening sentence? As teenagers, the two of us would look for queer texts in public and in private.

You can buy this book here and read a student review on Hooked on Books