Out-Side: Queer Words and Art From Regional Victoria

by Michael Earp (Editor)

There’s a lot that can be found outside…

Myths emerge from the wood; rainbow parents and grandparents reflect on full lives; daughters spin yarns about black eyes; dragons fight beside their human companions. Poets muse on the mysteries of love and transformation. A three-headed cat stands as proud as Cerberus, while the dove inside a man longs to fly. We dream up ways to connect with our heritage while creating a future with our own hands, and check into motels on memory lane. We’re tempted by devils; contemplate our reflections; sink our teeth into realities often ignored and revel in the minutiae of life.

Sometimes, we just have to spend time outside and the whole world opens up to us.

Edited by Michael Earp (Everything Under the Moon and Kindred), this collection of art and writing showcases the spectacular breadth of talent from emerging and established artists and writers across regional Victoria. Out-Side is the first anthology to be funded by Midsumma/Victoria’s Pride Regional Activations. 5% of all profits from this collection will be donated to Koorie Pride.

Out-side is proudly produced and published by Q-Lit: Queer Victorian Festival of Words.

Contributors:

Sissy Eileen Austin, John Bartlett, Jemimah Brewster, Em Chandler, Michael Earp, Samantha Garner, Kate Hall, Sian Harris, Clare Holder, Garth Horsfield, Sarah Hart, Brionadh Hassett, Lou Hurley, KJ, Gaby Kruithof, Nick Lawson, Martin John Lee, Rhys Lok, Suzy Medwell, Phoebe Nagorcka-Smith, Josslyn Owleye, Jasper Peach, Marley Pearce, Coral Reeve, JC Rycroft, Dee Sanders, Hayley Singer, Cris Stevens-Todd, Josh M. Taylor, Reed van Galen, Cassy Velinos, Jessica Walton, and Ruby Wyatt-Carter.

136 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Michael Earp is a non-binary writer and bookseller living in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). They are the contributing editor of Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories (2019) and contributor to Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories (2019). The next anthology they are editing is coming from Affirm Press in October 2023 with another from Fremantle Press in June 2024. Their writing has also appeared in Archer, The Age, PopMatters, The Victorian Writer and Aurealis. For twenty years they have worked between bookselling and publishing as a children’s and young adult specialist. In 2021, they were awarded the Australian Booksellers Association Bookseller of the Year for their role managing The Little Bookroom, the world’s oldest children’s bookstore. A passionate advocate for LGBTQIA+ literature for young people, they established the #AusQueerYA Tumblr to catalogue all Australian young adult fiction containing queer content and characters. Representation of all people in the literature available to readers of all ages is the ethos that motivates their entire career. They have a Masters in Children’s Literature and a Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Teaching and previously served as committee chair for the #LoveOzYA campaign. Tea is the source of all their power.

Repped by Linda Epstein at Emerald City Literary Agency.

Reviews

[Emmaby Barton Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5? 4? i volunteered/attended a lot of q-lit festival this year so thought this was a necessary purchase!! my expectations weren’t super high/the (in)experience of the authors is evident, but i was still pleasantly surprised - a lovely anthology full of little gems

- “be ungovernable in all the ways that creativity invites you to be” - kate hall
- the love jasper peach portrays for their children
- “i have seen what drips from the cracks in my bones and it is not pretty, but i van drunk from it, made it part of my home… did i create it? would that change it?” - the mirror, samantha garner
- figuring out who you are even if its hard - “its okay, i dont need you anymore. you did your work, but now i need to do it on my own. i may not know who i am yet, but thats okay” - surviving the fog, cris stevens-todd
- “out of fear and denial, id locked away the loneliest part of my psyche for the comfort of those who dont understand” iphis and ianthe - interpretations, suzy medwell
- the above also really encouraged me to think about how i interpret art and i really appreciated the picture of the sculpture along with the authors thoughts about it - “there are no right or wrong interpretations. there is only exploration and understanding…. sharing these interpretations leads to growth and connection. it leads to the realisation that we are not alone”
- “to mould my hands take pleasure in the forming of something every shifting changing playing with each gentle stroke of becoming myself i squish so easily to the mould of someone else’s perfect granddaughter, woman, wife, my nurturing nature takes me too close to female. i fit the mould so easily. sliding in so easily and for a while i almost fit” - to mould, rhys lok
- “you’re worthy of love, care and medical attention in this moment, but you might not get it” the words i wish i had of said (to myself) - sissy austin
- the privilege of dental care, how we view people who have problems with their teeth, the ethics of using animals for medicine - on bones, kate hall
- “dykes… have governed ourself with fragments… we add page after paragraph to our histories… we look at the past to imagine our futures” - poem after novel, hayley singer
- “at the end of my tiny day my tiny hope for tomorrow will grow and things do not need to be tiny any more / the world is very big and i am very small but i am not always tiny” - a tiny day, jemima brewster
- grappling with feelings of being queer enough, wanting community, wanting to signal you’re queer, “it felt like being in pain was a prerequisite for being queer” - i didnt tell them, the haircut die, phoebe nagorcka-smith
- “queerness is the abundance. my queerness is fierce and free and generous, and it will always turn towards connection. i am my own true north. i am the star” - true north, sarah hart