• Because I tend to be a late adopter of certain trends and habits.
• Because even as late as 2017 the message I hear in the conversations about books, and stories in particular, is that the most important stories (and the stories most valued) out there are about A Man and A Woman.
• Because if not “important” or “valuable”, then what One-Man-One-Woman stories often get called is “universal”.
• Because If not A Man and A Woman, then the other best/important/valuable stories are sagas of families, as distinguished by sexual reproduction and hereditary bloodlines.
• Because I’m a queer writer writing a queer book, and I’d like to get a sense of the conversations I hope to step into.
• Because my knowledge of queer books has centered for too long on Books By Gay Men, and it’s time to rectify that.
• Because in trying to figure out why I wasn’t enjoying Call My Be Your Name (the movie) I kept asking myself “Would I keep watching this is if it were about a man and a young woman?” and I realized I would not.
• Because calling Call My Be Your Name a queer story when the story itself invests so much of its energy in not calling queerness by its name feels inaccurate.
• Because if CMBYN is a straight story by/about queer people I’d like to start finding queer books by queer people, because, again, I’m a queer person writing what I hope is a queer book.
• Because, in the end, queers are my people, and I’ve spent too long convinced otherwise.

You can follow along with my year of queer reading on Goodreads.