As I made my way into the Sheffield Central Library room, where Fiona Moorcraft from the charity SAYiT was hosting a panel of LGBTQ+ writers and readers for LGBTQ+ History Month, I couldn’t help but feel the magnitude of excitement and admiration emanating from the audience’s faces and into the room. Each member of the Panel introduced a book or two which they experienced as a comforting, validating, or invigorating portal into a queer world which they lacked in their own lives as they grew up.
The panel consisted of Fiona Moorcraft, Liz Bassett, Amber Birchill, Rosie May, and Elizabeth Capman. They each reflected on the fact that it was quite hard to find queer panellists to speak on the experience and role of queer literature in their own lives let alone others’ and noted that that’s why there weren’t queer people of other genders, for example, with them.
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson seemed to be a favourite amongst these panellists as three of the five initially selected it as their golden choice to share with the audience during this event designed to shine light on queer literature which has moved queer souls and how or why it’s done so. The poet amongst the panel, Liz Bassett, was the first to speak of the wonders this book created for her. She described the way it felt like a direct connection for her to a gay person in a world where she felt disconnected and far from all other gay people. She spoke of the emotions of knowing that queer people are somewhere out there but also feeling just how out of reach they are, how there’s an ‘invisibility’ standing between you and them. The panel discussed the way despite being extremely memorable in providing them solace in their queerness, specifically from a women loving women source not just a gay male one, the book still never gave them the satisfaction of being explicit when it came to relationships between queer women.
They discussed remarks about queer readers often having to write as they’re reading, even if just in their own minds, to fully paint queer interactions and experience explicit queerness through literature. The panel also discussed the immense changes to those sorts of realities that have come with time, and especially in more recent years where various gender and sexual orientations as well as desires and interests have been represented in literature through different genres. Elizabeth Capman said she never saw her bisexuality represented in literature growing up, but saw the vast change in that when she was older.
The crowd was constantly in silent awe as the panellists shared their explorations and stories surrounding queer literature just until every next moment where they collectively couldn’t hold their laughter in anymore. Eventually the floor was opened for the audience, and thought-provoking yet personal engagements took place between the audience and the panel. The event concluded with the audience purchasing queer literature that their heart desires.
SAYiT’s SAYiT’s My Mind on Paper – How We View Ourselves in Queer Literature took place in Sheffield Central Library. See more LGBTQ+ History Month events from SAYiT here
