Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing [Paperback]

Michelle Tea (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2007

Michelle Tea, a favorite on the spoken-word scene and beloved in literary circles for books such as Valencia, Chelsea Whistle and most recently Rose of No Man's Land, has gathered new work by twenty-two of the most outstanding emerging voices in queer girl writing. Fiction is matched in excitement by graphic novel excerpts and personal essays. Certain to become a literary touchstone for a new generation of writers and readers, Baby Remember My Name speaks to the broad range of queer girl experiences in work that is brave, irreverent, funny, sensitive, and hot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A passel of largely young West Coast women writers offer queer coming-out and coming-on stories in this bright, muscular collection put together by the SF-based Tea (Rose of No Man's Land). The anguish and confusion of first love marks "Ryan: An Excerpt" by Amanda Davidson, where young narrator "A" scribbles a feverish note to her friend Ryan, a kindred spirit and not-yet-lover: "A pony bucks around within my loins." In her "Coming Out versus Sex versus Making Love," Meliza Bañales reveals a version of "The Rules" in which oral sex pushes love-making into just having sex. Rhiannon Argo's narrator in "Boots for Tula," can't quite decide whether the erratic bisexual lover of the title is her girlfriend or not. Coming out is as political as it is sexual in Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's "Snow Fight," set in a tough, multilingual Harlem public school. Similarly, Dexter Flowers's "Titties at Stake," takes her rebellious vegan narrator through breast-awareness activism in topless marches and demonstrations. Several other pieces, such as Claudia Rodriguez's "Juan the Brave," express the pain of being male in a female body. Two of the selections are comic strips, by Katie Fricas and Nicole Georges respectively, that reflect modern-girl domestic conflicts. Tea has orchestrated 22 fresh, energetic voices. (Feb.)
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About the Author

Michelle Tea is the Lambda Award-winning author of Valencia, Chelsea Whistle, Rent Girl (with illustrations by Laurenn McCunbin) and most recently Rose of No Man’s Land, among others. Tea is the co-founder of the San Francisco-based, all-girl spoken word troupe Sister Spit and is also curator of the monthly Radar Reading series at the San Francisco Public Library. She lives in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (January 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786717920
• ISBN-13: 978-0786717927
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #395,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars unbelievably disappointing, January 18, 2009

By 

Hedonist - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing (Paperback)

I love Michelle Tea's writing, particularly "Valencia" and "Rose Of No Man's Land." Perhaps of some of the disappointment I felt about this anthology was my own fault. I thought it would consist of a lot of hot erotica between queer women of all different gender identities and partner preferences within the lesbian spectrum. Instead, it depicted a world where all queer girls were either FTMs, hard butches, or masculinity-loving femmes. Therefore, I think it should have been called "Tough Girls and FTMs--an anthology of Butch/Femme and FTM writing". There's nothing wrong with butch/femme relationships and FTMs who previously identified as lesbian, but in my book, "queer girl" encompasses a lot more than masculine-identified women or transgendered men and the femme women who love them. The soft butch, the sissy emo tomboi, the tough femme, the glamour dyke, the genderswitch...they were nowhere to be found. It is sad when a book about "queer girls" can read just as gender-restrictive as your typical novel about high school cheerleaders (the desperate to be topped femmes) and the football players (the masculinity-obsessed tough boys--or should I say, tough bois). In this book, the representations of masculinity and femininity that the various dykes/FtMs exhibited were not progressive at all, but rather rooted in a 1950s notion of gender dynamics. The fact that all were born female did little to dissuade this notion.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, August 18, 2009

By 

Reading Reader (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing (Paperback)

Lesson learned: Really, really wanting a book to be good does not, sadly, make it good. The stories contained in this anthology were certainly written by queer women, mostly about queer-related topics, but I found the writing to be sub-par across the board. Many of them read like journal entries or first drafts. Overall there was a lot more ego than skill, and very little subtlety or inspiration. Sorry, folks.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Story Sure to Please Any Fan of Queer Literature, November 3, 2008

By 

PDN "Valley Gay Press" (Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing (Paperback)

Valley Gay Press Book Review by A'Ja Lyons
"Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of Queer Girl Writing" edited by Michelle Tea

Michelle Tea, author of 'Rose of No Man's Land' and acclaimed spoken word artist, has gathered a collection of queer core writings that will please any fan of the genre. While not every story features a queer protagonist, the writing is truly queer; not just lesbian, gay, or transgender. All of the writings embrace truth and individuality, defy conventional notions, and further shake up this already liberal writing genre.

In 'Keep Your Goals Abstract' by Page McBee, a woman emotionally deals with her father's suicide and funeral. Her mother's insistence that she keep many of her fathers' belongings delivers deep emotional blows, as she seeks a farewell to disturbing memories and future solace with a lover.

'Juan the Brave' by Claudia Rodriguez, is a story about a young Transgender Latino boy who refuses to allow the neighborhood children to call him 'Erica.' No matter what anyone thinks of him, as those around him attempt to figure him out, Juan stays true to himself.

The most heartwarming tale is Jenna Henry's 'Sunshine in the Fat End.' A preteen girl named Jessie has to care for her autistic savant brother while her irresponsible mother spends her time doing drugs with her boyfriend. Jessie finds consolation with Gloria, her trailer park neighbor, a teenage girl not much older than she is, who is the sole provider for herself and her little brother.

Most of the stories have dark undertones, a few others, like the comic strip piece by Katie Fricas, are fairly lighthearted. Within this collection is a story sure to please any fan of queer literature.