In celebration of February’s LGBTQ+ History Month, the Book Society and University of Sheffield Library invite all students to participate in their LGBTQ+ book group, the latest event in their Reading for Diversity Reading Group programme.
Since 2021, these groups have offered students the opportunity to come together to critically engage with, reflect on, and discuss books from diverse and often underrepresented voices and perspectives.
The LGBTQ+ Reading Group will take place on Tuesday 28th February at 7pm in the Digital Commons in the IC. We will be discussing On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong’s stunning debut coming-of-age novel. Part epistolary, part autofiction, part lyric essay, the novel follows the early life of a gay Vietnamese refugee negotiating the weight of his selfhood in a hostile environment. At its heart is a brief, tender relationship between the novel’s narrator, Little Dog, and Trevor, a teenager who seems doomed by the expectations of white American masculinity.
Students can register for the session at www.tinyurl.com/lgbtreading.
Reading groups are often timed to celebrate awareness months and/or complement exhibitions in the Digital Exhibition Space on Level One of the IC. Books are chosen by University of Sheffield students, and all shortlisted and discussed books are added to the Reading for Diversity Leganto Reading list, available as both print and copies via StarPlus, the Library catalogue, where possible. Books discussed in previous reading groups include A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum and Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola.
For more information about the Reading for Diversity programme and to sign up for the LGBTQ+ book group session, visit the University Library workshops webpage or email Book Society at booksoc@shef.ac.uk. Information about other events run by the Book Society can be found on the ‘University of Sheffield Book Society’ Facebook group.
