synopsis of last night at the telegraph club

Two queer girls who always have the perfect insult for each other are quiet for once, leaving space for the conversations they’ve never had. A soft butch girl with a chip on her shoulder and a spectacular curling throw can’t say what she really wants to say about the Christmas party going on downstairs. A Latina dancer feels wound up like a music box ballerina. But while my story got real gay, it also got real about what it means to have to perform for the audiences in our lives. It’s not like I had to make a huge leap (grand jeté?) to make The Nutcracker gay.

Weaving fresh tales with unexpected reimaginings, At Midnight brings together a diverse group of acclaimed YA writers to breathe new life into a storied tradition.įifteen celebrated authors reclaim classic fairy tales for a new generation:Īnd an all-new fairy tale by Melissa Albert by Dahlia Adler (22nd)įairy tales have been spun for thousands of years and remain among our most treasured stories. (Jan.Today on the site, we’re looking inside an anthology that’s edited by none other than yours truly! At Midnightis a collection of reimagined YA fairy tales (with the original source material in the back) authored by some of the category’s best and queerest, and it released today from Flatiron Books! Check out more about the volume and some of the queer stories within it below: At Midnight: 15 Beloved Fairytales Reimagined ed. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. Back matter includes an author’s note explaining Lo’s personal connection to the story. Smoothly referencing cultural touchstones and places with historic Chinese American significance, Lo conjures 1950s San Francisco adeptly while transcending historicity through a sincere exploration of identity and love. Lo incorporates Chinese food and language, appending explanatory footnotes for romanized Cantonese and Mandarin terms and characters. As Lily falls deeper in love, though, she must work to balance the shifting elements of her identity with a landscape of sociopolitical turmoil that will resonate with contemporary readers. But openly exploring queerness isn’t an option-not with her mother touting “respectability,” and society’s limited perception of Chinese-Americanness as either “China doll” or “real American”-adjacent, and especially not amid McCarthyism-during which Chinese people, including those within Lily’s close Chinatown community, are targeted as Communist sympathizers.

Dawning recognition of her lesbianism comes alongside a budding connection with Kathleen Miller, a white classmate. Lily secretly gathers photos of women with masculine qualities she’s drawn toward “unfeminine” clothing and interests such as chemistry, engines, and space. The year is 1954, and American-born Chinese 17-year-old Lily Hu, a rising senior at San Francisco’s Galileo High School, discovers the existence of the Telegraph Club nightclub by chance: via an ad in the Chronicle featuring a Male Impersonator.

Synopsis of last night at the telegraph club