If we live in stories, it means we live in the real world too. We are claiming our space, claiming our oxygen.” Joseph E. Duncan, The Revival of Metaphysical Poetry: The History of a Style, 1800 to the Present (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1959). As he approached his twenty-third birthday, for some reason he felt that he was male. And he saw it wasn’t bad. I've read this three times and I still don't understand it. I've never been the best at reading poetry and I've never learned to read it in English so maybe that's why, but I just have 0 idea what this is about. Giles said it’s always “grand to be in something that’s doing this sort of survey of work … that’s trying to, I suppose, use anthologising to communicate something broader” about who is writing poetry, and why.

Donne's Sermons: Selected Passages, edited, with an introduction, by Logan Pearsall Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1919). I Hate Darcy Pemberley by Karen Lawler (a lesbian pride and prejudice high school retelling YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT I NEED THIS IN A FULL LENGTH NOVEL LIKE RIGHT NOW BUT THIS WAS EVERYTHING) Terry G. Sherwood, Fulfilling the Circle: A Study of John Donne's Thought (Toronto & Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1984).Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, edited by John Donne, Jr. (London: Printed by J. Flesher for Richard Marriott, 1651); facsimile, introduction by M. Thomas Hester (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1977). The force of the petition measures the dire extremity of his struggle with himself and with God’s adversary. Donne pleads with God that he too has an interest in this contention for the sinner’s soul: “Lest the world, flesh, yea Devil put thee out” ( Divine Meditations 17). The drama brings home to the poet the enormity of his ingratitude to his Redeemer, confronting him bodily with the irony of Christ’s self-humiliation for us. In Divine Meditations 11 Donne wonders why the sinner should not suffer Christ’s injuries in his own person: McMillan and Chan are both acclaimed poets themselves – McMillan has won the Guardian first book award, the Somerset Maugham award and the Polari prize for his work, while Chan’s debut collection Flèche won the 2019 Costa poetry award. Encænia. The Feast of Dedication. Celebrated At Lincolnes Inne, in a Sermon there upon Ascension day, 1623 (London: Printed by Aug. Mat. for Thomas Jones, 1623). I loved each and everyone one of these stories and from what I could see from the art in the advanced ebook it's just as wonderful - Alice Oseman and Fatti Burke were particular illustrator faves. I can't wait until I have the physical copy so I can see it all nice and finished. A big shout out to authors Simon James Green who had me lolling so much with his story Penguins, Kay Staples and her trans love story On The Run that filled me to the brim with warmth and lastly, Dean Atta who has actually written a poem that spoke to me in How To Come Out As Gay.

The Works of John Donne, D.D., Dean of Saint Pauls 1621-1631, With a memoir of his life, 6 volumes, edited by Henry Alford (London: John W. Parker, 1839). Hugh I'Anson Fausset, John Donne: A Study in Discord (London: Cape, 1924; New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925).

All stories come paired up with art. The ARC also had them but I don't know if they were all final versions, they were also pretty small and had to be zoomed in which of course made the quality suffer, but I'm confident in the final version this will be fixed. In any case of course I liked some pieces better than others but I'm not going to rate them. We've all heard of those gay penguins successfully hatching an egg, right? This story was featured here and it follows a gay boy whose coming out to his family is interrupted by people being excited about gay penguins. Also, prom night! I loved the humor and the cuteness in this. His place in the Egerton household also brought him into acquaintance with Egerton’s domestic circle. Egerton’s brother-in-law was Sir George More, parliamentary representative for Surrey. More came up to London for an autumn sitting of Parliament in 1601, bringing with him his daughter Ann, then 17. Ann More and Donne may well have met and fallen in love during some earlier visit to the Egerton household; they were clandestinely married in December 1601 in a ceremony arranged with the help of a small group of Donne’s friends. Some months elapsed before Donne dared to break the news to the girl’s father, by letter, provoking a violent response. Donne and his helpful friends were briefly imprisoned, and More set out to get the marriage annulled, demanding that Egerton dismiss his amorous secretary. So, it's finally time - the queerest book of 2019! I was at YALC last year when Juno Dawson and the Stripes team unveiled Proud and to say it got me excited was an understatement. After waiting nearly seven painstaking months to be able to read it I can say I was not disappointed at all - and thanks to the people over at Stripes for letting read this early or I would have been waiting even longer!

Jay Bernard, whose first poetry collection Surge was based on the New Cross fire archives and won the Ted Hughes award, said 100 Queer Poems was “coming at a critical, contradictory juncture: widespread hatred and distrust of trans people alongside huge efforts at representation and inclusion; general acceptance of cis gay and bisexual people yet rising intolerance post-Brexit; an increasingly vocal and visible intersex population, yet few legal rights or protections for them”. Being a ‘phenomenal woman’ is not about being a certain size, or a particular shape. It’s about how you carry yourself, and how you behave. As with several other classic Maya Angelou poems, ‘Phenomenal Woman’ is about being unbowed, about holding one’s head high and being proud of who one is. In this poem, Douglas Malloch (1877-1938) shares an encouraging message for readers of all ages. Although we don't all hold prestigious jobs, we can all be the best at who we are. Our position in life doesn't make us more or less valuable. The beauty of this world is shown when each person does what he has been called to do and does it with great pride. When we measure our success by the standards of this world, many of us will feel as though we've fallen short. Douglas Malloch reminds us that success is measured by being the best at whoever you are. Like many, he came from humble roots, but he used his gift of writing to touch the lives of many people. Richard E. Hughes, The Progress of the Soul: The Interior Career of John Donne (New York: William Morrow, 1968).Some of the neighbours forbade their kids from playing with him and his brothers because his family was Batak and Christian. R. C. Bald, Donne's Influence in English Literature (Morpeth, U.K.: St. John's College Press, 1932). The publication in 1919 of Donne’s Sermons: Selected Passages, edited by Logan Pearsall Smith, came as a revelation to its readers, not least those who had little taste for sermons. John Bailey, writing in the Quarterly Review(April 1920), found in these extracts “the very genius of oratory ... a masterpiece of English prose.” Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, in Studies in Literature(1920), judged the sermons to include “the most magnificent prose ever uttered from an English pulpit, if not the most magnificent prose ever spoken in our tongue.” Welcome to being LGBTQ+. Your life is inherently political. Politicians, all over the world, are still discussing whether or not you should have the same fundamental human rights as straight or cisgender people.” While I did love what this anthology IS, and I wouldn't want to rate it on what it ISN'T, I can't help but feel disappointed that there wasn't any aro and/or ace rep. Since this book is promoted as being super inclusive, I was really hoping to have these identities represented. I thought it was a real shame that this wasn't the case. What I have seen: gay/lesbian, bisexual, transgender/non-binary rep. And that's all really great! But yeah, it could definitely have been more inclusive! Admittedly though, I was happy to see an aro/ace artist contribute to this, so I don't want to come down on it too harshly. I justed wanted to hopefully help manage people's expectations.