Joy//Us: LGBTQ+ poetry

by Cherry Potts (Editor), Jeremy Dixon (editor)

Arachne Press has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ writers, but we've never before published an anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry. These are joyful poems that celebrate all that is best about our community/ies and lives. This is not an 'explain it to the straights' book, this is for us. LGBTQ+ readers can open this book at random and find a moment of poetic queer joy for themselves, however big or small.

Featuring contributions Abhi Alexander Williams Annie Kerr Aoife Mannix Becky Brookfield Cherry Potts Conway Emmett Dean Atta Desree Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell Elizabeth Gibson Garnett 'Ratte' Frost Helen Bowie Jane Aldous Jeremy Dixon John McCullough Joshua Linney Joshua Jones Joy Howard JP Seabright K. Angel Kate Foley Khakan Qureshi, BEM Laurie B. Lawrence Wilson Lydia Fulleylove Maria Jastrzębska Mwelwa Chilekwa P Burton-Morgan Rab Green Rick Dove Robert Hamberger Sophia Blackwell Steph Morris Tanya Erin Sheehan Tom McLaughlin Vron McIntyre Zo Copeland

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 17, 2024

About the author

Cherry Potts is a Londoner born and bred. She is the author of two collections of short stories: Mosaic of Air, and Tales Told Before Cockcrow: Fairytales for Adults; a photographic diary of a community opera The Blackheath Onegin, and has had several stories in anthologies. Her Lesbian Fantasy Epic, The Dowry Blade is out in February 2016 and she is currently working on her next collection, a science fiction novel, and a timeslip-young-adult kinda thing. She also runs workshops for writers exploring NLP (Neurolinguistic programming) approaches to language and characterisation and teaches Creative Writing at City University as a visting lecturer.In her spare time Cherry is the owner of Arachne Press, and (co)editor of London Lies, Lovers' Lies: Short Stories, Weird Lies, The Other Side of Sleep, Solstice Shorts and Stations: Short Stories Inspired by the Overground Line.

Reviews

[Claudia Vallejos]

What a necessary, delicious reading. My favourite poem of the collection, perhaps my favourite poem from now on, was "Green Little Thing".

Thank you for sharing the joy!

[Sushie]

I am coming to terms with the fact that I am scared of poetry.

It feels to me like language in its most powerful form. When I was a teen I dug that, but college and learning to cope with being a neurodiverse adult made me shy away from raw emotional power. It's hard to mask or do the executive functions when I'm feeling big feelings. So I have rarely read poetry since.
And this anthology scared me too. Even though it's specifically about joy, I left it feeling bereft. Not only were the feelings in it poetry-sized, but also it showed me some places in my queer self I have specifically not been looking at. Great book.

[Holly]

Poems of queer joy

Perhaps I couldn't connect with the British metaphors as well, or perhaps I just don't like poetry as much, but I only found a handful of poems in here that I enjoyed. Nevertheless, those ones were good, and I'm sure someone that honestly loves poetry would enjoy this collection.

[Isa Misset]

so lovely, encapsulates many facets of the queer experience and a wide spectrum of views on joy, society, folklore, culture and queer. tragic, sweet, proud.