Out Now: Queer We Go Again!

by Saundra Mitchell, Will Kostakis, Fox Benwell, Tanya Boteju, Kate Hart

Overview

QUEER WE GO AGAIN!

A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom…aliens run from the government…a president’s daughter comes into her own…a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer…a selkie and the sea call out to a lost soul. Teapots and barbershops…skateboards and VW vans…Street Fighter and Ares’s sword: Out Now has a story for every reader and surprises with each turn of the page!

This essential and beautifully written modern-day collection features an intersectional and inclusive slate of authors and stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335018267
Publisher:	Inkyard Press
Publication date:	05/26/2020
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	153,553
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She is the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine series, and the editor of Defy the Dark and All Out. She always picks truth; dare is too easy. Visit her online at www.saundramitchell.com.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2020

Gr 10 Up—This follow-up to the All Out anthology is an assortment of 17 short stories and vignettes by a diverse slate of LGBTQIA+ authors. As a unit, the stories serve to highlight and to normalize different queer perspectives. They range in scope and style, from short reflective pieces that feel more like essays ("Player One Fight!") to quirky magical realism ("One Spell Too Many") to reimagined folktales ("Once Upon a Seastorm"). One delightful characteristic of the collection is the inclusion of stories centering on discovering and exploring orientation, labels, and identity, alongside more action-driven ones. But despite the appeal of individual stories in the collection, the range of styles and tones may lose readers looking to sink into longer narratives with a stronger sense of cohesiveness. VERDICT This is unique in the diversity and intersectionality of the contributors, and would be useful where LGBTQIA+ and #OwnVoices stories are in demand.—Erin Downey, Boise School District, ID

School Library Journal

2020-02-09
Queer prose anthology filled with diverse characters, experiences, and identities.

Dedicated to “every queer kid out there,” this volume includes contributions from 17 writers, including editor Mitchell, who share stories starring LGBTQIAP teens. The authors are a varied group (both international and multicultural), and their fiction reflects this. The anthology covers a range of genres and narrative styles—from realistic fiction to paranormal to fantasy—and no two are quite the same. Standouts include a piece that balances the need for control in “Kick. Push. Coast.” by Candice Montgomery, about a skateboarder determined to land a new trick and talk to a pretty girl despite their label not feeling right; the hilarious and moving vampire saga about coming out, “What Happens in the Closet” by Caleb Roehrig; C.B. Lee’s pitch-perfect “Lumber Me Mine,” about a lesbian reclaiming herself post-breakup and falling for a classmate in woodshop who is ace; Mark Oshiro’s entry that tackles dating as a big, Latinx gay man in the catfishing-gone-wrong “Refresh”; and Julian Winters’ story tenderly exploring a father-son relationship, “Victory Lap.” Common themes emerge: questioning and exploring self, identities, and labels; family pressure; the desire to be seen and loved; and courage. This is a wonderful addition to queer lit for teens.

Readers will find affirmation and see themselves—maybe for the first time—in this collection. (contributor biographies) (Anthology. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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