Meet Me at the Intersection

by Rebecca Lim (Editor), Ambelin Kwaymullina (Editor), Mimi Lee

Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.

With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies, Poetry, Young Adult, Disability, LGBT, Queer

296 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2018

About the author

Rebecca Lim is an Australian writer, illustrator and editor and the author of over twenty books, including Tiger Daughter (a Kirkus, Amazon and Booklist Best Book, CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award-winner), Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky (NSW History Award-winner and Book Links Children’s Historical Fiction Award-winner) and the bestselling Mercy. Her work has been twice shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, ARA Historical Novel Prize and Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, shortlisted multiple times for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Aurealis Awards and Davitt Awards, and longlisted for the Gold Inky Award and the David Gemmell Legend Award. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Polish, Vietnamese and Russian. She is a co-founder of the Voices from the Intersection initiative and co-editor of Meet Me at the Intersection, a groundbreaking anthology of YA #OwnVoice memoir, poetry and fiction.

Reviews

[✨ jami ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of Australian authors from marginalised backgrounds. I really liked this collection. I was impressed with the editing, the flow of the stories was perfect and really highlighted the themes. I also genuinely liked every single story. One thing that struck me was the breadth of different voices and the diversity of Australian's which we don't often see represented in mainstream media.

My top 3 stories were: Telephone, Fragments and The Last Stop, though were was many I really liked

I don't usually rate collections but I decided to for this one because I genuinely liked each story so much, so I gave it 5 stars. There are a lot of authors in here who I would like to read more works from.

[TMR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Harry Potter and The Disappearing Pages for a literature class.

Loved the messages and the representation for disabled people written by the author who herself was visually impaired - cannot remember the actual disability she had for her vision, apologies. Also will appeal to harry potter bookworms with the references inside.

-TMR

[Amra Pajalic · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a privilege to be invited to be a contributor to this anthology which is providing a platform for writers who are of diverse backgrounds to share their stories for a young adult audience. I loved the concept of the anthology, a meeting at the intersection of race, gender, and disability, and reading it was an absolute pleasure. The stories in this collection represent diverse genres memoir, poetry and fiction by writers who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA and living with a disability.

In Night Feet Ellen van Neerven writes about Bella, a young girl of Aboriginal background who is using her talent as a soccer player to seek a better life. Graham Akhurst writes a series of haunting poems about the experiences of colonisation on the Indigenous people. Dear Mate by Kyle Lynch is a week in the life of a young job seeker in Kalgoorlie demonstrating the hurdles to finding work.

Embers by Ezekiel Kwaymullina is a poem about the experience of being a dyslexic student. In Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages Olivia Muscat shares the difficulties in being a visually impaired person and the challenges faced on a day to day basis. Fragments by Mimi Lee is about a young woman's experience of loss and acceptance and the challenges of migration from China. Stars in our Eyes by Jessica Walton is about living with disability and the desperate yearning we all feel to see our differences in TV and media, and about being sensitive to gender norms.

In her story Trouble Kelly Gardiner explores the experiences of being LGBTQA in the 1950s and the attitudes that those who were same sex attracted faced. Sheer Fortune by Jordi Kerr is a metaphorical story that explores our relationships with our bodies. In Telephone Yvette Walker explores the phone call that she would have loved to have been able to make in 1987 when she was taking her first tentative steps toward exploring her sexuality as a lesbian. DNA by Melanie Rodriga explores a young person questioning her gender and sexuality.

Almitra Amongst Ghosts by Rafeif Ismail writes about the metaphorical ghosts that haunt her character as she grapples with her coming out to her mother. In The Other Son Omar Sakr explores the concept of families and loss.

My memoir piece School of Hard Knocks (by Amra Pajalic) is about being a new kid to a school after living in Bosnia for four years and suffering huge culture shock. Autumn Leaves by Wendy Chen is set during 1902 against the backdrop of Australia's Federation and explores the impact of the White Australia policy on the Chinese community. How to Be Different by Michelle Aung Thin is about a multicultural family grappling with racial stereotypes. In The Last Stop by Alice Pung a young man challenges his racial stereotypes after a trip of a lifetime.Border Crossings by Rebecca Lim is a essay explores privilege and systematic injustices that those who are from the intersection face.

This is a great read and a wonderful resources for teachers and educators.

[Tilly Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS. This is a book you need to read. It’s an #ownvoices anthology by Australian authors and it’s so important. It has such a diverse range of authors that every short story/poem/memoir is different and they’ll give you an insight into these authors and their characters.

I usually dislike anthologies because I tend to want more. I did want more in this but every time I started the next piece of work, I was hooked again.

These stories are important, unique and need the attention they deserve. Literature needs to be more diverse and Meet Me at the Intersection is the future we need to head towards.

I was lucky enough to interview one of the participating authors, Rafeif Ismail and she was amazing. She had so many amazing things to stay about diversity in literature, about this anthology, her own writing and praising other authors and their books.

Read it!

[Ms Warner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book and I almost feel like I can’t speak badly about it because it’s tricky territory- can I critique marginalised writers from my place of non-marginalisation? Or does that just make me part of the problem?!

This is a collection of short stories by diverse Australians- First Nations people, people of colour, people with disabilities and people who identify as LGBTIQA+. These diverse and distinct voices aren’t often heard so it’s an important book and one that hopefully paved the way for many more. However- not all the writing is great. Some of it is actually pretty average and not, I think, anthology-worthy. Some is excellent though.

I also didn’t like the way it was organised- the book has sections- stories by First Nations people, stories by multicultural Australians and so on. I feel like this was a way to say “look, here’s an Aboriginal queer writer!”, rather than, “here’s a great writer who happens to be Aboriginal and queer”. It would have been better to just organise the stories in another way (alphabetical by author perhaps?!) and let the content (which usually mirrored the writer’s experience) speak for itself.

[Kerran Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* This is a great collection from a range of voices. I definitely do notice a lack of diversity particularly in YA literature, so it's refreshing to see collections like this that include stories from a range of perspectives. I do think that some of the pieces were noticeably not as strong as others, and some of the pieces I didn't enjoy as much as others, but overall I liked Meet Me at the Intersection a lot, with personal favourites including Dream, Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages? Autumn Leaves, and The Last Stop. I would have liked more poems to be included, as I really enjoyed Dream in particular, and hopefully this kind of collection is repeated. I would also love to read more from some of these writers in the future.

[Bron · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** thanks to Fremantle press for sending me a free copy of this one! ***
I adored this book! The amount of time over which I read it isn't indicative of my feelings about it - I just chose to read a little at a time and savoir it.
I enjoyed every piece included in the collection, but also getting to read a bit about each contributer's story/life. This one gave me a load of diverse writers to keep an eye out for, and I'd love to put copies in the hands of everyone I know.

[Cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I'd enjoyed this more. I think that this kind of anthology is so important, but I just felt like many of the pieces were lacking. I don't doubt the sincerity of the authors, I just don't think they hit home quite as strongly as I was hoping, and I regret to say that I don't feel as though I gained much from the reading experience. There were one or two out of the whole collection that I liked, the others were kind of so-so.... but it seems I'm in the minority with this one.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet Me at the Intersection is a fantastic collaboration between #ownvoices Australian authors.

With stories being told from the perspective of people who are First Nations, POC, LGBTI+ or living with a disability, it offers an often untold insight into their life. It was refreshingly raw and honest. I haven't read too many books by Australian authors, but I really should rectify this (being Australian myself).

I would have to say that the one that stuck out to me the most is the poem 'Embers' by Ezekiel Kwaymullina. It was short but to the point and really highlights what it's like to be different and left behind at school.

I really enjoyed the introductions before the stories/poems, they added a personal touch to the book and allowed the reader to gain a bit more insight before they started reading, which I found especially helpful when it's reading from a perspective which I haven't lived.

[Rachael (shereadsshenoms) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the concept of this own voices collection. It's a worthy read that addresses the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and disability and how marginalised identities inform how one grows up and lives in a nation like Australia.

I will admit I borrowed this from the library without know it was aimed at a Young Adult audience, and after reading After Australia which is an incredible anthology of stories, so my views may be influenced by that in part.

Overall it's a great book, but as some other reviewers have noted, I do believe that the quality of the writing varied across the collection. There were some real stand outs for me (Omar Sakr, Alice Pung), while some others felt perhaps a little underdeveloped.

Also, I think perhaps each authors intro leading into their story or memoir work could have gone to the back of the story instead of up front, to let each story hold it's own space before receiving some further contextualisation about the authors identity and intersections.


3.5 stars.

[Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so excited to see a book, an anthology, dedicated to #ownvoices ! Finally, something for everyone (or almost). Editors did a fine job in collating stories of representation from a cross-section of those who are different, unique; of voices whom we rarely hear.

There are a couple of poetry which I struggled with... I don't know how to read poetry! Although what really helps is the blurb at the beginning of each chapter describing who the authors are and sometimes, what their pieces are about. Each one of these authors are amazing humans!

Of course, I am absolutely partial to the Asian stories / authors as I understood them better from the cultural perspective. However, this did not diminish my enjoyment of the other stories (except for poetry as I mentioned above) for each of these stories help me to better understand their side of the story. I mean why else do we read but to open our minds to others and in listening to them, be better able to love as they deserve to be loved. I highly recommend this anthology for all who seek to understand.

Thanks to Fremantle Press for copy of book in exchange of honest review. 

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

*uni read

this book gave me so much insight into the different groups in which issues that i personally could never face are highlighted, all while being set in the landscape of a shared country.

i'm really glad i read this book, and saw the intersectionality of australia shown through poetry, stories and memoirs. these really opened my mind more to the impact of white straight australians actions towards different ethnicities, races, nationalities and sexualities.

[Michael Earp · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of own voice memoir, poetry and fiction that really highlights how many different points of view there are in the world. Definitely worth reading!

[Cogan Chou · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: racism, homophobia, bullying, death of a parent (in the past), death of a grandparent, mental health.

3.5 stars.

So here's the thing: I wanted to love this collection, all of which are by diverse authors. But I had two niggling issues with it. One is that it feels eeeeeever so slightly lacking in cohesion given that it's a mixture of fiction, poetry, and memoir. Especially when much of the memoir was written from an adult perspective in a young adult collection...

The other niggle is the choice to section out the stories into categories. So you start with stories by Aboriginal authors, then stories by disabled authors, then queer authors, and finally authors of colour. And because all the stories were clumped together, I found that by the end of each section, the stories were starting to lose their impact because I'd just read X other stories of the same sort.

All of that being said, I did enjoy a lot of what I read. I don't think there were any stories where I was like "I don't like this and I want it to be over". Instead, there were plenty that I enjoyed and a handful that fell sort of flat for me. My favourites were Night Feet, Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages, Stars in Our Eyes, Autumn Leaves, and The Last Stop. The diverse nature of this collection would actually make for a really interesting set text, and I honestly did enjoy it. I just wish the stories had been arranged some other way...

[Krystelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was so refreshing to read this collection! A focus on diverse voices from Australian literature really makes a difference. One that specifically focuses on the lived experiences of queer, Indigenous, and other diverse individuals in Australian society makes even more of a difference, however, and so it was really wonderful to read something that centred the narratives that are so representative of many of us who do not commonly get representation in media.

A lot of the stories were absolutely wonderful, but perhaps my absolute favourite was 'Telephone', which was a story that left me thinking for many hours afterwards, and I imagine would have been a comfort to so many queer kids growing up. This kind of collection is a rare one, and I really hope to see more from all of the authors involved- to the point that I will be seeking the majority of them out to read any other works they've produced.

[Elene Papazoglou · Rating 4 out of 5]

✔️ an anthology

[Sarah Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great selection of diverse writers! 💖

[Eyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a beautiful anthology!! I read one of the short stories for a uni class and fell absolutely in love with it (for anyone curious, it was 'Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages') so I decided to read the whole volume. I loved the idea behind the anthology, different minorities fictionalizing their stories for an own voices collection. I loved how many different types of stories there were, and how some went out to educate the reader, whereas others wrote the fluff they craved when they were the age they're writing about.
I find it hard to rate anthologies, there are some stories I loved better than others and some that didn't speak to me at all (such as poetry, which I usually avoid for that reason.) Some stories are 5 stars, like the one I mentioned earlier, and others are 3. But this overall collection was so well written and I enjoyed so much of it, I'd really recommend it!!

[Bree T]

Read for a children’s lit class

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put this down. It is not easy to find these voices, so I was pleased to find this in a listing of must reads recently. If you want to hear the Australian voices that are rarely heard, that tend not to be included in mainstream media or publishing, or are but are difficult to find or rarely in a way that truly reflects their lives and selves, then this collecton is a great place to start.

[Tsana Dolichva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina is an anthology filled with intersectional Australian voices. The idea being to highlight all sorts of marginalised writers. Taken as a whole, this results in a very broad and diverse anthology. Although I am familiar with the two editors from the spec fic books they've authored, most of the stories did not have a speculative bent, although there were a few.

Some of the stories were fun to read, some were intentionally uncomfortable, other fell somewhere in between those two extremes and made me think. Note that I use "stories" here in a generic sense to refer to all the pieces in the anthology, even though it included poetry and memoir. My two favourite stories gained that status for very different reasons. ‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton was a delightful celebration of geek culture, while including queer and disabled characters and refreshingly supportive characters. ‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung was not at all what I expected from the opening and is a story that firmly fell into the "made me think" category. It tells of the journey of a teen boy who starts off ignorant of Chinese culture but ends up learning that Chinese teenagers are just like him (but live in China). His experiences were starkly contrasted with those of various people around him.

I enjoyed a lot of the other stories too, but since I've written mini reviews of them all, I'll leave them for you to read below if you haven't already seen them in one of my #ReadShortStories posts. I will add, however, that I was a bit sad that the ebook I read didn't include the back cover art, since the (full) cover art is apparently also one of the intersectional pieces making up the whole. It wouldn't have been hard to include the full artwork inside the book (either near the start or at the back) and I'm disappointed that the publisher didn't bother.

Overall, this was a great read. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to read more diverse voices or stories of Australia's chequered history. I liked how the anthology was structured, with stories grouped thematically, so that it opened with stories by indigenous people, and ended with stories of the migrant experience, with stories about characters who are queer and/or disabled (or overlapping with one of the other groups) in groups in the middle. The whole book is like a thematic rainbow, shading from one group to another, with overlapping stories in between.

~

‘Night Feet’ by Ellen van Neerven — A story about a teenaged girl playing soccer. And a bit how poverty and family circumstances are hurdles to that end. I expect the story would be more exciting for people who are into soccer, which I am not.

‘Dream’ by Graham Akhurst — A poem with formatting that didn’t work on my phone screen and was much more powerful when I was able to read it on the iPad. It’s also the kind of poem that becomes clearer with subsequent readings.

‘Dear Mate’ by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing.

‘Embers’ by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia.

‘Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages’ by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society.

‘Fragments’ by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. 4/5 30/12

‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far.

‘Trouble’ by Kelly Gardiner — A story of non-conforming girls in 1950s Melbourne. I enjoyed the local colour even if the end was not quite as I had hoped/shipped.

‘Sheer Fortune’ by Jordi Kerr — A more Australian story that I would have expected from a short summary of it, with some strong New Zealish elements thrown in via the second character. Shifters, lesbians, high school. A nice read.

‘Telephone’ by Yvette Walker — A timey-wimey story in which the main character receives a phone call from her teenage self. As she talks to this version of herself that had been trying to call and LGBT support hotline, she reflects on her life and how she got to where she is now (happily living with her wife). A sweet story, overall.

‘DNA’ by Melanie Rodriga — A story about a queer teenage girl and her interactions with her family and one of her teachers. I found it to be a slightly unusual story, full of direct questions and teen anger but not as many answers as I might have expected.

‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts’ by Rafeif Ismail — A kind of depressing story about not fitting in due to race, religion and queerness, all at once. Written in a lovely style.

‘The Other Son’ by Omar Sakr — An autobiographical story about a father’s death and meeting a half brother for the first time, told by the middle eastern author.

‘School of Hard Knocks’ by Amra Pajalic — A Bosnian girl moves to Australia and starts high school in a rough suburb, where she is bullied. Another autobiographical story.

‘Autumn Leaves’ by Wendy Chen — A nice, if bittersweet, story about a Chinese family in Melbourne around the time of Federation. I quite liked it.

‘How to Be Different’ by Michelle Aung Thin — An autobiographical essay about being different, especially as a young child in primary school.

‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung — This story wasn’t at all what I expected. Told from the point of view of a bogan or “feral” teenage boy who enters a competition for a laugh and wins a Rotary Club trip to China. Discovering that the ordinary high school kids in China are just like him significantly changes his world view and opens his eyes to racism. A really good read, in the end, though you had to get past some racism near the start to appreciate the change in the character’s perspective.

‘Border Crossings’ by Rebecca Lim — Another autobiographical essay, this morning me focusing on our interactions and reactions to the world, especially with respect to language.

4 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog.

[Rhianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the diversity of this book. I don't identify as someone at an intersection so I don't fully appreciate the lack of representation in literature. I do know that I don't read enough diverse perspectives.
The anthology includes poems and stories organised roughly into sections. Each contribution is short which makes for a nice read.
Some of the contributions were incredibly powerful. I would be horrified to be the teacher described by Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Kyle Lynch's story about looking for work as a young Aboriginal man in an Aboriginal community was an accurate representation of a lot of the young people I've worked with.
Not every contribution was well written. I don't know if that was necessarily the point though. It's definitely worth a read to get a glimpse of the world through perspectives you wouldn't otherwise have. Or, to find a reflection of your world in print.

[St Stephen's C C]

With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits 'outsider' voices.

[Liz Derouet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, engaging content, all of such a high quality, well edited and put together.
I haven't enjoyed an anthology this much for a long time.
Full review will appear in Reading Time.

[Wendy Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous, important book. Hope it
finds its way into school curriculum, libraries and homes everywhere!

[Kate Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible and important

[Phillip Ngo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a strange one due to this book diving into more unusual topic and including swear word. But all that aside, I wish I could stop skimming too fast to put in some time to yet the word sink in.

[Emmaby Barton Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great collection and i love the concept of a diverse own voices anthology! some stories left me a bit disappointed - especially a few that i wish were more developed. but a really nice collection.

some of my favourites:
- ellen van neerven - night feet. really liked the story/character but was so short and nowhere near developed enough. wanted a lot more from it
- olviia muscat - harry potter and the disappearing pages. “the fight to not always be an inspiration” “i do not exist to be a teachable moment. i have better things to do” “she [her younger self] made me, and i thank her”
- mimi lee - fragments. depictions of mental illness and grief and the complexities of navigating this as someone caught between two cultures/places/languages. i really enjoyed this but again, left wanting more. “i want to support mum and im sure she wants to support me too. we’re just both not in the state to do that well”
- jessica walton - stars in our eyes. i read the graphic novel of this last year which i definitely loved more but fun to read this as just text also/see the differences! “if it was a one-day thing, it doesnt make it any less special or meaningful” Stars in Their Eyes: A Graphic Novel
- yvette walker - telephone. such a heart-warming story!! “she’d [her younger self] saved me”
- melanie rodriga - DNA. choosing and embracing queerness, rejecting biological determinism. “they talk about our flaws even though it was their DNA that produced us after all” “i know that DNA does not make my choices for me, i do that. i will tell me what kind of person i am and what i think and how i live and who i marry or not marry, who i love or do not love. i am not falling apart, i am moving forward”
- rafeif ismail - almitra amongst ghosts. the intro about the dangers of a single narrative. their relationship and being themselves despite compromise. “[we] found a love without stipulation and it was at once both a revelation and revolution”. “just for now though… i can keep living it”
- michelle aung thin - how to be different

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

”The danger of a single narrative is that it leaves individuals vulnerable to the dehumanisation that is at the core of all institutions of oppression” (177) – Rafeif Ismail.

It took me far too long to read ‘Meet Me At The Intersection.’ You know when something is going to carry a lot of weight and meaning for so many authors, you just want to find a good time to devour it? That has been me with this anthology. But I can now confirm that Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina have done a fantastic job editing and putting together this collection.

Each piece starts with a bio into the authors life, their experiences and what they’re writing about. This was something I really adored about the collection and enabled me to understand the authors more and why they wrote what they did. I’d love to see this introduced into further anthologies to recognise the importance of authorship and identity.

The pieces were all beautiful, strong representations of diversity, and voices and characters that have gone unheard for far too long in Australia. I felt moved by a number of them and wanted more, full length pieces, extended understandings, to read the entire works of a number of the authors.

“Beat down the door until the powers that be notice that I’m not an infant, nor an invalid, I’m a capable human with wants and aspirations and ambitions, who has every right to explore every avenue open to me and many that are not” (67) - Olivia Muscat.

Among my favourite pieces in the collection were, ‘Stars In Our Eyes,’ ‘Sheer Fortune,’ ‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts,’(second person narratives for the win!) ‘The Other Son’ and ‘Autumn Leaves.’ This is clearly a long list and an indicator of the strengths that these writers present to readers.

‘Meet Me At The Intersection’ is a stepping stone hopefully into a world of further more inclusive and encouraging literature that is human, accessible and equal. Each writer has created something incredible and should be applauded for their work. I wish them all the best in the future and have definitely gained some notable authors to read!