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This collection, the first of its kind, gathers fiction and poetry
from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from
Appalachia. Like much Appalachian literature, these works are
pervaded with an attachment to family and the mountain landscape,
yet balancing queer and Appalachian identities is an undertaking
fraught with conflict. This collection confronts the problematic
and complex intersections of place, family, sexuality, gender, and
religion with which LGBTQ Appalachians often grapple. With works by
established writers such as Dorothy Allison, Silas House, Ann
Pancake, Fenton Johnson, and Nickole Brown and emerging writers
such as Savannah Sipple, Rahul Mehta, Mesha Maren, and Jonathan
Corcoran-and including a mix of original and previously published
work-this collection celebrates a literary canon made up of writers
who give voice to what it means to be Appalachian and LGBTQ.
This book borrows from the intellectual labor of queer theory in
order to unsettle-or "queer"-the discourses of "religion" and
"science," and, by extension, the "science and religion discourse."
Drawing intellectual and social cues from works by influential
theorists such as Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Eve Sedgwick,
chapters in this volume converge on at least three common features
of queer theory. First, queer theory challenges givens that on
occasion still undergird religiously and scientifically informed
ways of thinking. Second, it takes embodiment seriously. Third,
this engagement inevitably generates new pathways for thinking
about how religious and scientific "truths" matter. These three
features ultimately lend support to critical investigations into
the meanings of "science" and "religion," and the relationships
between the two.
Ruby Pickett didn't have any say about the family move to
Tennessee. Her daddy's new job will help the war effort, though no
one has told her exactly how. Brand new, government-built Oak Ridge
quickly proves a curious and intriguing place for the
sixteen-year-old's rampant curiosity.
A voracious reader, Ruby wonders at mysteries in books and sees
possible mysteries in the secrecy that surrounds Oak Ridge. She
finds a kindred spirit in Iris, a young wife and mother who has
moved to Oak Ridge with her scientist husband, and who chafes at
the intellectual emptiness of her new home and life.
Faraway events don't seem likely to answer any of Ruby's questions,
but as the war grows more destructive Ruby begins to realize that
her curiosity--like her deepening feelings for Iris--may be more
dangerous than she could possibly imagine.
A moving story set in the shadow of World War II for readers of all
ages from the author of Finding H.F.
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Lovesick Blossoms
Julia Watts
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R370
Discovery Miles 3 700
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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In a small Kentucky college town in 1953, two married women
desperately fall in love with each other, until a moment of
indiscretion threatens to destroy both their lives. In her new
adult novel, award-winning author Julia Watts creates a compelling,
emotional queer tale of power and passion. Colleagues and neighbors
of Samuel and Boots are more than willing to accept their married
status, even though Samuel “dresses like a boy†and the
pair’s relationship is one of convenience that will never be
consummated. But when Samuel meets a new professor’s wife,
Frances, at a faculty party, she soon falls in love, and learns the
difficulty of discretion in a small town—with tragic
consequences. LAMBDA award-winning author Julia Watts (Needlework,
Quiver) returns to adult fiction in this heartbreaking, yet hopeful
novel. Highly recommended for fans of Lauren Groff, Rosie Walsh,
and Alexandria Bellefleur. Â
Rabbinic tales of drought, disaster, and charismatic holy men
illuminate critical questions about power, ethics, and ecology in
Jewish late antiquity. Through a sustained reading of the
Babylonian Talmud's tractate on fasts in response to drought, this
book shows how Bavli Ta'anit challenges Deuteronomy's claim that
virtue can assure abundance and that misfortune is an unambiguous
sign of divine rebuke. Employing a new method for analyzing lengthy
talmudic narratives, Julia Watts Belser traces complex strands of
aggadic dialectic to show how Bavli Ta'anit's redactors articulate
a strikingly self-critical theological and ethical discourse. Bavli
Ta'anit castigates rabbis for misuse of power, exposing the limits
of their perception and critiquing prevailing obsessions with
social status. But it also celebrates the possibilities of
performative perception - the power of an adroit interpreter to
transform events in the world and interpret crisis in a way that
draws forth blessing.
Abandoned by her mother and raised by her loving but religiously
zealous grandmother, 16-year-old Heavenly Faith Simms (H.F. for
short) has never felt like she belonged anywhere. When she finds
her mother's address in a drawer, she and her best friend, Bo, an
emotionally repressed gay boy, hit the road in Bo's scrap heap of a
car and head south. Their journey through the heart of the American
South awakens both teens to the realization that there is a life
waiting for them that is very different from what they have known
and that the concept of family is more far-reaching than they had
ever imagined.
In Rabbinic Tales of Destruction, Julia Watts Belser examines early
Jewish accounts of the Roman conquest of Judea from the perspective
of the wounded body and the scarred land. Faced with stories
saturated with sexual violence, enslavement, forced prostitution,
disability, and bodily risk, Belser argues, our readings of
rabbinic narrative must wrestle with the brutal body costs of Roman
imperial domination. She brings disability studies, feminist
theory, and new materialist ecological thought to accounts of
rabbinic catastrophe, revealing how rabbinic discourses of gender,
sexuality, and the body are shaped in the shadow of empire.
Focusing on the Babylonian Talmud's longest sustained account of
the destruction of the Temple, Belser reveals Bavli Gittin's
distinctive sex and gender politics. While Palestinian tales
frequently castigate the 'wayward woman' for sexual transgressions
that imperil the nation, Bavli Gittin's stories resist portraying
women's sexuality as a cause of catastrophe. The Bavli's resistance
to Rome makes a critical difference. While other rabbinic texts
commonly inveigh against women's beauty as the cause of sexual sin,
Bavli Gittin's tales express a strikingly egalitarian discourse
that laments the vulnerability of the beautiful Jewish body before
the conqueror. Bavli Gittin's body politics, Belser maintains,
align with a significant theological reorientation. While most
early Jewish narratives link the destruction of the Temple to
communal sin, Bavli Gittin's account does not explain catastrophe
as divine chastisement. Instead of imagining God as the architect
of Jewish suffering, it evokes God's empathy with the subjugated
Jewish body. As it navigates the ruins of Jerusalem, Bavli Gittin
forges a sharp critique of empire. Its critical discourse aims to
pierce the power politics of Roman conquest, to protest the
brutality of imperial dominance, and to make plain the scar that
Roman violence leaves upon Jewish flesh.
***"Great Reads from Great Places" selection by State of Tennessee
for Library of Congress National Book Festival ***Honorable
Mention, Foreword Indies award for Young Adult Fiction ***Lambda
Literary Recommended LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction In rural Kentucky,
16-year-old Kody loves quilting, cooking, and Dolly Parton and
helps his grandma with the challenges of his mother's opioid
addiction, until the discovery of a shocking family secret changes
everything. In this captivating LGBTQ+ young adult tale that weaves
together the heartwarming authenticity of Phil Stamper's work and
the empowering spirit of Aiden Thomas, Kody embarks on a quest for
truth, defying societal expectations and embracing his true LGBTQ+
identity. Julia Watts weaves a tender and empowering narrative that
celebrates the vibrancy of femme identity, individuality, and the
unwavering pursuit of authenticity, even in the face of shocking
revelations. Discover the power of resilience, chosen family bonds,
and the extraordinary path to self-discovery in the pages of
Needlework, a must-read for readers seeking a heartfelt LGBTQ+ tale
that captivates with its authenticity, explores the complexities of
family dynamics, and reminds us that embracing our true selves can
lead to incredible personal growth. In a glowing review, Publishers
Weekly hails Needlework as a "powerful and resonant exploration of
identity, family, and self-discovery." This remarkable novel takes
readers on a transformative journey, delving deep into the
complexities of Kody's life, his unwavering spirit, and the
extraordinary strength found within the stitches of love.
Set in rural Tennessee, QUIVER, a YA novel by Julia Watts, focuses
on the unlikely friendship between two teens from opposite sides of
the culture wars. Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven,
in a family that adheres to the "quiverfull" lifestyle: strict
evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many
children as God allows because children are like arrows in the
quiver of "God's righteous warriors." Meanwhile, her new neighbor,
Zo is a gender fluid teen whose feminist, socialist, vegetarian
family recently relocated from the city in search of a less
stressful life. Zo and hir family are as far to the left
ideologically as Libby's family is to the right, and yet Libby and
Zo, who are the same age, feel a connection that leads them to
friendship-a friendship that seems doomed from the start because of
their families' differences. Through deft storytelling, built upon
extraordinary character development, author Watts offers a close
examination of the contemporary compartmentalization of social
interactions. The tensions that spring from their families'
cultural differences reflect the pointed conflicts found in today's
society, and illuminate a path for broader consideration.
Rabbinic tales of drought, disaster, and charismatic holy men
illuminate critical questions about power, ethics, and ecology in
Jewish late antiquity. Through a sustained reading of the
Babylonian Talmud's tractate on fasts in response to drought, this
book shows how Bavli Ta'anit challenges Deuteronomy's claim that
virtue can assure abundance and that misfortune is an unambiguous
sign of divine rebuke. Employing a new method for analyzing lengthy
talmudic narratives, Julia Watts Belser traces complex strands of
aggadic dialectic to show how Bavli Ta'anit's redactors articulate
a strikingly self-critical theological and ethical discourse. Bavli
Ta'anit castigates rabbis for misuse of power, exposing the limits
of their perception and critiquing prevailing obsessions with
social status. But it also celebrates the possibilities of
performative perception - the power of an adroit interpreter to
transform events in the world and interpret crisis in a way that
draws forth blessing.
Open the Bible, and disability is everywhere. Moses stutters and
thinks himself unable to answer God's call. Isaac's blindness lets
his wife trick him into bestowing his blessing on his younger son.
Jesus heals the sick the blind, the paralyzed, and the possessed.
For centuries, these stories have been told and retold by
commentators who treat disability as misfortune, as a metaphor for
spiritual incapacity, or as a challenge to be overcome. Loving Our
Own Bones turns that perspective on its head. Drawing insights from
the hard-won wisdom of disabled folks who've forged difference into
fierce and luminous cultural dissent, Belser offers fresh and
unexpected readings of familiar biblical stories, showing how
disability wisdom can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with
the complexities of the flesh. She talks back to biblical
commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame,
challenging interpretations that demean disabled people and
diminish the vitality of disabled lives. And she shows how Sabbath
rest can be a powerful counter to the relentless demand for
productivity, an act of spiritual resistance in a culture that
makes work the signal measure of our worth. With both a lyrical
love of tradition and incisive political analysis, Belser braids
spiritual perspectives together with keen activist
insights-inviting readers to claim the power and promise of
spiritual dissent, to nourish their own souls through the
revolutionary art of radical self-love.
In Rabbinic Tales of Destruction, Julia Watts Belser examines early
Jewish accounts of the Roman conquest of Judea. Faced with stories
of sexual violence, enslavement, forced prostitution, disability,
and bodily risk, Belser argues, our readings of rabbinic narrative
must wrestle with the brutal body costs of Roman imperial
domination. She brings disability studies, feminist theory, and new
materialist ecological thought to accounts of rabbinic catastrophe,
revealing how rabbinic discourses of gender, sexuality, and the
body are shaped in the shadow of empire. Focusing on the Babylonian
Talmud's longest sustained account of the destruction of the
Temple, Belser reveals Bavli Gittin's distinctive sex and gender
politics. While Palestinian tales frequently castigate the 'wayward
woman' for sexual transgressions that imperil the nation, Bavli
Gittin's stories do not portray women's sexuality as a cause of
catastrophe. The Bavli's resistance to Rome makes a critical
difference. While other rabbinic texts commonly inveigh against
women's beauty as the cause of sexual sin, Bavli Gittin's tales
express a strikingly egalitarian discourse that laments the
vulnerability of the beautiful Jewish body before the conqueror.
Bavli Gittin's body politics, Belser maintains, align with a
significant theological reorientation. While most early Jewish
narratives link the destruction of the Temple to communal sin,
Bavli Gittin's account does not explain catastrophe as divine
chastisement. Instead of imagining God as the architect of Jewish
suffering, it evokes God's empathy with the subjugated Jewish body.
As it navigates the ruins of Jerusalem, Bavli Gittin forges a sharp
critique of empire. Its critical discourse aims to pierce the power
politics of Roman conquest, to protest the brutality of imperial
dominance, and to make plain the scar that Roman violence leaves
upon Jewish flesh.
Vermillion, Georgia, is the small town that time forgot, or at
least that's how it feels to fifteen-year-old Rufus. As if being a
scrawny ginger called "Matchstick" isn't bad enough, Rufus is also
gay, an artist, and the son of conservative religious fanatics. He
doesn't have a prayer of fitting in in the Bible Belt—at least
not until he meets Syd, a spiky-haired girl in black eyeliner. Sick
of being the adult her mother can't seem to be, Syd hides behind a
snarky attitude and takes refuge in classic movies, and eventually,
her friendship with Rufus. As isolated as they feel in Vermillion,
Rufus and Syd soon discover they're not as alone as they thought.
Josephine, an aging free spirit who once ran a repertory cinema in
Chicago, and Cole, a middle-aged gay man living with a brain injury
as a result of a violent homophobic attack in his youth, offer help
as the two teens struggle to discover who they are, what they want,
and where they might belong. But not everyone in their town is so
freethinking or open-minded. When things become unbearable, where
do two outspoken atheists turn? Trusting in each other and standing
together is their only chance of making it through the opposition
on all sides.
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