Yesterday I had the privilege of releasing an anthology that’s been near and dear to my heart for years, and like all my anthologies, there are a whole bunch of queer stories! Read on for a peek into three of them, but first, here’s a little more about the collection, which released yesterday from Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins!
Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!
From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.
With stories by:
- Dahlia Adler, Sydney Taylor Honor winner of Going Bicoastal
- Candace Buford, author of Good as Gold
- A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, authors of the Once & Future series
- Preeti Chhibber, author of Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot
- Natasha Díaz, award-winning author of Color Me In
- Kelly Loy Gilbert, Stonewall Book Award winning author of Picture Us in the Light
- Kosoko Jackson, USA Today bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due
- Aditi Khorana, award-winning author of Mirror in the Sky
- Katherine Locke, award-winning author of This Rebel Heart
- Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall Book Award–winning author of Only This Beautiful Moment
- Laura Pohl, New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls
- Sonora Reyes, Pura Belpré Honor winner of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
- Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
“P.S. I (Don’t) Love You” by Laura M. Pohl
I honestly never gave two damns about Valentine’s Day, which might have been a clue as to being someone on the aromantic spectrum. Unfortunately, I only started to figure out how I identified years after I’d left school, but I don’t think that knowledge would have spared me from the drama that takes over high school at that time of the year. In “P.S. I (Don’t) Love You”, Elis is a Brazilian exchange student who is already sure of her identity, but who still has a lot of the usual insecurities around her relationships, especially with her best friend. There’s something universal about being afraid of losing a friend when they start dating, whether you’re queer or not, and I wanted to explore that feeling within the story—while still featuring the duality that is thinking this is the silliest date of the year and feeling overwhelmed and sour about a holiday that can violently exclude your identity at the same time. Luckily, love wins for all in this one.
“A New Day” by Abdi Nazemian
Nader is already dreading this year’s Persian Nowruz celebration because his otherwise supportive mother begs him to go back in the closet when his grandmother visits. Nader is desperate to be himself, and to include his boyfriend Shawn in this festive family gathering. But when the Covid-19 shutdown alters the family’s plans, Nader’s Nowruz ends up taking more surprising twists.
“Merry Chrismukkah, Loser” by Katherine Locke
I grew up in a family that celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah, making November and December basically nonstop holiday festivities. I was raised Jewish, and I am Jewish, and while none of the Christmas celebrations were religious, I loved this blending of the holiday season in my family. I loved the festive holiday drinks at cafes, I loved the copious amount of peppermint everywhere, I loved the wintery vibes, I loved the evergreens–oh, no. I’m Jewish but I just named everything to do with Christmas. Sure, I love latkes (sour cream, not applesauce, because I respect my taste buds), and I love lighting candles, but it’s hard not to admit that Hanukkah lacks the aggressive festive vibes that are easily replicable by late-stage capitalism.
But despite loving the trappings of the Christmas season, I love Hanukkah. Not for the presents, but for the ritual, for the story, for the songs, for the boldness of the menorahs in the windows. I never feel more present, more still, more clear and calm, than I do when I’m lighting candles in Jewish ritual, be it Shabbat, Hanukkah, or another holiday.
The years when Christmas and Hanukkah overlapped? I’d say that as a kid, this was the best thing ever, but that would be lying, because they’re still the best thing ever as an adult. My siblings and I would wake up in the morning, sit on the steps, waiting for my mom’s permission to come into the living room. She often stayed up to three or four in the morning wrapping presents and she wanted to be situated on the couch with at least one cup of coffee in her before she unleashed the beasts, I mean, her children. And then we’d open presents, finishing up for a late brunch. We’d read all day or–back when we used to get actual snow on Christmas before climate change stole that particular joy–go sledding. Then around dinner time, we’d gather again and light candles. We chanted the prayers and sang the songs and ate latkes, and then we’d go back to reading our books. For Hanukkah, we received presents on one or two nights, and then we all got to select a charity or cause for another night and our parents would donate money to that cause in our name.
It felt like a magical day. And it felt like such a unique experience. I knew so many other families where one parent was Jewish and one parent was Christian, but typically they “picked” one or the other. And while we were raised Jewish, I loved that we kept–and keep–Christmas in our family tradition. I love that my dad, my Jewish parent, didn’t protest a holiday that, for my mom, has such sentimental attachment. I love that I spend every Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family and that on the years where the holidays overlap, we’ve brought a menorah there too.
I wanted to capture all of that in this story. I wanted to celebrate not both holidays, but the blending of them, the joy in family, the preservation of tradition while creating new traditions. I wanted to celebrate the feeling that in these celebrations, we feel like we’re in a snow globe, protected by the outside world, surrounded by beauty and joy, a serenity and bliss that we rarely get to experience elsewhere in our lives. I had a lot of fun writing Jordan. No surprise that they’re a lot like me in their opinions. But I had a lot of fun with Noa and Jordan’s dynamic, with the tension between them in the past, with the ways that they have to learn to make more space in their life, the way that on the rare occasions these holidays overlap, the day expands to incorporate two holidays, two traditions.
There’s not a finite amount of joy we can experience in a day. Once, every few years, I remember that.
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