More TCAF news: “The Letter Q, Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves” is a brand new anthology and I am one of the contributors, along with many other august personages! Whilst not actually debuting at this tear’s Festival, copies will be available at The Beguiling table. If you’re interested please pick one up and get it signed by me at the Koyama Press table. Below is the first of my two page “letter”.

This was a big challenge, I decided to revisit one of the most painful periods of my life, entering the public school system after eight years at a very sheltered all-Dutch-immigrant private Christian school. Spoiler alert: on the second page, I show my younger self receiving the letter and tearing it up in furious disbelief upon reading its contents. I then go on to show how certain factors made that time in my life bearable. This caused some consternation for the editors during the sketch stage. My story seemed to go against the whole point of the book. My instinct told me that all this wondrous news from the future would have been too disturbing and unhelpful to me in that situation. My first impulse was to make the requested change and soften my younger self”s reaction. Over two decades of working as an acquiescent commercial artist had knocked some of the fight out of me, I guess. My partner encouraged me to at least try to mount a defense of my choices. I did and the editors decided to let the piece stand as is. Thanks, Gordon, for the encouragement, and thank you to Sarah Moon and James Lecesne for your patience and understanding! More info here: Scholastic