Swagger: A Celebration of the Butch Experience

by Nat Burns (Editor), Rae Theodore (contributor)

Through essays, short stories, and poems, Swagger documents the butch experience by highlighting butch stories and butch voices, which often go unheard or are misunderstood. Books can be mirrors and windows-reflecting our lives back to us or opening them up to others.
The writers featured in the pages inside have bravely shared their stories and their hearts with the intent that this anthology be both.

172 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2024

About the author

Nat Burns is a professional writer and editor who retired from a publishing career in Virginia and relocated to the enchanted mountains of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a novelist with Bella Books and her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. In addition, Nat is the music editor for Lesbian News Magazine and has a monthly column called 'Notes from Nat'. Complete information and samples of her work can be found at www.natburns.com.

Reviews

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really lovely collection of poetry, short stories, and essays on butch identity, primarily from butch writers, but also from a few femmes. I liked that there was such a wide age range from the contributors, with a variety of gender identities and expressions, although only from transmasc, cis, and gnc butches; and mostly butch4femme, but with some nods to butch4butch relationships. It was cool to see the throughlines in each piece: being butch in a society where that clashes with gender norms.

Stand-outs for me were: “Becoming Butch” by Georgie Orion, “To Have and to Be” by Susan Spilecki, “Rapture” by Rowan Harvey, and “Forgiving Seeds” by Calliope Rose.