Featuring a folio of Love Poems by Queer Writers from Guest Editor Luther “Lue” Hughes
From the Guest Editor’s Note: I’ve been having trouble starting this introduction. I want to say something about the importance of giving queer people the space to explore love in all its capacities. Be it intimate love. Be it platonic love. Be it the love of a fresh baked cookie. It’s important. Don’t get me wrong. What does it mean, then, that I have to name this importance when so many laws have been revoked, passed, and under review that directly affects us? What does it mean that I can’t simply say, “Here, read some love poems by some amazing queer writers?” Am I trying to prove anything by knowing this folio is important? I’m not sure. But, if nothing else, if nothing above is the reason for this folio, here’s one: poetry has the capability to remind us of what it means to be human. To love, yes, but to also drink some water. To reimagine a bird. To go back in time.
To purchase Volume 118 Winter Spring 2024 featuring Lue’s guest edited folio, click here.
Luther “Lue” Hughes is the author of the debut poetry collection, A Shiver in the Leaves, (BOA Editions), listed as best books of 2022 in The New Yorker, and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), recommended by the American Library Association. She is the founder of Shade Literary Arts, a literary platform for queer writers of color, and co-hosts The Poet Salon podcast with Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat. Her honors include the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Rosenberg Fellowship, the 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize, Cascade PBS’s Black Arts Legacies honoree, and named Most Influential by Seattle Magazine. Her writing has been published in The Paris Review, Orion, American Poetry Review, and others. She’s been featured in The Seattle Times, Forbes, Essence, KUOW Public Radio, The Slowdown, and more. Lue lives in Seattle where she was born and raised.
Saida Agostini ● Anna Akhmatova ● Alissa M. Barr ● Brandon Blue ● Despy Boutris ● Laura Brady ● Christine Byrne ● Cal Calamia ● Barbara Campbell ● María Mercedes Carranza ● Kwame Sound Daniels ● Trace Howard DePass ● Kami Enzie ● Tyler Fisher ● Gina Franco ● Soleil Garneau ● Nicholas Goodly ● Rebecca Ruth Gould ● Robin Gow ● Shen Haobo ● Andrew Hemmert ● Jhila Hosseini ● Kaitlin Hsu ● E. Hughes ● Betsy Hulick ● Romana Iorga ● Letitia Jiju ● Virginia Kane ● Liana Kapelke-Dale ● Haidar Khezri ● Hannah Kosak ● Anja Mei-Ping Kuipers ● Sammy Lê ● Seth Leeper ● Brooke Lehmann ● Rebecca Lehmann ● Mohammad Mokhtari ● Zain Murdock ● Bill Neumire ● Najee Omar ● James Owens ● Jere Paulmeno ● Charlie Peck ● Susan Rich ● Rainer Maria Rilke ● Helen Robertson ● Lindsay Rockwell ● Brittany Rogers ● Peter Sagnella ● Madeline Simms ● Dior J. Stephens ● Kayvan Tahmasebian ● Nicole Tallman ● Anne-Marie Thompson ● Leonard Tuchilatu ● Matthew Tuckner ● Blanca Varela ● David Joez Villaverde ● Kieron Walquist ● Evan Wang ● Adam D. Weeks ● Jim Whiteside ● Lee Woodman ● Yoona ● Liang Yujing ●