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Act Cute
The second poetry collection from Queer Poz (PLHIV) writer and performance-maker.
In Act Cute, the poet addresses the gap between memory and the present, and asks how to perform a coherent self amidst the forces of nostalgia, institutional entanglements and reckonings, and queer desiring. Shifting between autofictive address and canonical personae, the structural codes of romantic drama uneasily frame the poet-as-actor through five sections, titled ‘Audition Sides’, ‘you stop me at the airport and tell me that you love me’, ‘twink death in Europa!!’, ‘Wedding Scenes’ and ‘forgiveness’.
In Act Cute, the poet addresses the gap between memory and the present, and asks how to perform a coherent self amidst the forces of nostalgia, institutional entanglements and reckonings, and queer desiring. Shifting between autofictive address and canonical personae, the structural codes of romantic drama uneasily frame the poet-as-actor through five sections, titled ‘Audition Sides’, ‘you stop me at the airport and tell me that you love me’, ‘twink death in Europa!!’, ‘Wedding Scenes’ and ‘forgiveness’.
- GenresPoetry
128 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2025
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December 23, 2025anything about memory >>>> I loved this collection and will definitely be seeking out andrew's first collection. personally, some poems felt more stronger than others but I enjoyed the reading experience so much. I felt so seen by the actory descriptions and loved the metaphors (even the inflatable bird one), the titles (e.g. the vapes in Western Europe), references (Michelle Yeoh, Hamlet, Twilight) and the act cute agenda. Have never discussed a poetry collection at book club before (nevertheless one I have set as a secondary text) so interested to see how this unfolds. also I bought this from The Bookshop Darlinghurst which should still exist post-2025.
November 3, 2025
I feel like I know Andy like a deep personal friend after reading this. And I know I don't. It's rich, and deeply layered, confessional and measured in equal parts. It continues the notion that writing about the body is critical for both queer and queerpoz authors.
I loved the connections between poems, the consistent crossed out lexicon of time/desire/actor, and the concept of the Act Cute narrative applying to his version of his life narrative that appears in these pages. Antarctica is definitely the award-winning standout but it sits only slightly above an incredibly dense supporting cast.
"A person always falls in love the day before the airport. That way, there will always be every future. That way, the only perfect memories are the ones that haven't happened yet.
But it was flights in opposite directions. But it was time - time itself - time folding - time, splitting - time, collapsing - time at its most impenetrable. Time. Time. Time."
"Wide open mouth creeps in on itself.
The tongue shapes the way a person
carries on."
"On the last day, we got drunk on the top floor of the tallest building in the city and he fucked me in a bathroom stall. Later, when I was HIV-positive, the Shanghai Theatre Academy rescinded my Masters offer; but I will always have been pounded down at the tallest point of the next city I should have lived in, and no one can take that away."
"We could have filmed
ourselves in that slight desaturation sheen.
We could have been a camera angle. A shot.
We could have wandered out from tropics to the snow."
"How are
we meant to defend ourselves against a
world without subject? Sickening on the
Theory. Imagine Julia Kristeva testing all
the godforsaken vapes in Western Europe.
Let them eat future. Let them eat twinks...
Depending on the you,
you and I are implicated here."
"the tiniest // safest cut
and freeze the HIV in my blood down in that great mass
how I would persist // beyond myself
although I suppose that would only melt, too
the way things are going"
I loved the connections between poems, the consistent crossed out lexicon of time/desire/actor, and the concept of the Act Cute narrative applying to his version of his life narrative that appears in these pages. Antarctica is definitely the award-winning standout but it sits only slightly above an incredibly dense supporting cast.
"A person always falls in love the day before the airport. That way, there will always be every future. That way, the only perfect memories are the ones that haven't happened yet.
But it was flights in opposite directions. But it was time - time itself - time folding - time, splitting - time, collapsing - time at its most impenetrable. Time. Time. Time."
"Wide open mouth creeps in on itself.
The tongue shapes the way a person
carries on."
"On the last day, we got drunk on the top floor of the tallest building in the city and he fucked me in a bathroom stall. Later, when I was HIV-positive, the Shanghai Theatre Academy rescinded my Masters offer; but I will always have been pounded down at the tallest point of the next city I should have lived in, and no one can take that away."
"We could have filmed
ourselves in that slight desaturation sheen.
We could have been a camera angle. A shot.
We could have wandered out from tropics to the snow."
"How are
we meant to defend ourselves against a
world without subject? Sickening on the
Theory. Imagine Julia Kristeva testing all
the godforsaken vapes in Western Europe.
Let them eat future. Let them eat twinks...
Depending on the you,
you and I are implicated here."
"the tiniest // safest cut
and freeze the HIV in my blood down in that great mass
how I would persist // beyond myself
although I suppose that would only melt, too
the way things are going"
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews