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And living in the Gay Area doesn’t hurt either.Ĭuriously, I don’t feel like I really “belong”–maybe that’s because it’s, as you describe, nebulous but also monolithic. Maybe not a spokesperson–because who wants that responsibility?–but I’ve definitely been around the block long enough to notice patterns and trends that are unique to queer girl culture. I’ve been writing advice columns for almost a decade now, and one specifically for queer women at, so I DO feel like an authority on the interior lives and existential angst of girls who like girls. That sounds daunting! What’s your relationship to this nebulous-but-also-monolithic thing that your book is about? Did writing this book make you feel like a spokesperson for lesbians everywhere? Or a trickster? Or an avenging angel? In writing this book you’ve set yourself up as a commentator on lesbian culture in general. She snuck in so many easter eggs–puns, inside jokes, homages to queer culture–and the immediacy and vivacity of the images make the words come alive in this wholly unique way. As the cliche goes, they are worth a thousand words, and in Kelsey’s case, I think it’s more like 10,000. I don’t think the book would be what it is without the illustrations though. Like, who needs another cucumber joke?! And there just aren’t enough references to Trader Joe’s! Etcetera. I do think the haiku mostly stands on its own–but in some instances, I was probably overcompensating. I think for that reason I had a hard time not writing at least a little prose. I am a prose writer usually–this is the first poetry I’ve written that wasn’t, like, trying to get a woman to sleep with me. What can you do with prose and illustrations that you can’t do with haiku? Anna Pulley (right) and illustrator Kelsey Beyer The haiku in your book are broken up by occasional prose-and by illustrations of cats, of course.
#The advocate gay dating advice column series
Have you heard of haibun? It’s like a series of haiku studded with prose narration. Normative wrangle, its purview multipliable, pembroke goad splat wrangle Hijack straggle normative? peek, goad solitary. Do you ever read spam emails? Sometimes they are creepily brilliant. I did find an old journal recently, in which I had written an accidental haiku about the origin of the word “emotion”:Īccidental poetry is amazing.
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So in that instance, it was just about giving the haiku a slight modification and letting ‘er fly. And that came about because a friend of mine actually did perform long-distance reiki on a cat. For instance, there’s one about how a lesbian says she can’t go out with you because she’s performing long-distance reiki on a cat. Surprisingly, not very many! I think after the book was done, I had more of those moments, because my mind was operating in a very haiku-ish way (and still is).īut certain scenarios definitely lent themselves to easily becoming haiku. You might say something and your friend goes, “Wait, that’s a haiku!” Whereas you would never say something and your friend goes, “Wait, that’s a Petrarchan sonnet!” How many of the haiku in your book were happy accidents? Haiku seems to be the only poetic form that you can create almost by accident. With illustrations of cats, of course! We asked her a few questions. That’s why Anna Pulley, a writer and sex columnist, wrote a book of haiku about contemporary lesbian relationships. Do you ever wonder what lesbians do in the bedroom? So do all lesbians, apparently.