Electric Literature

1 week ago | electricliterature.com | Kirthana Ramisetti

Earlier this year, when I sent a note of congratulations to author Sanjena Sathian about her new novel Goddess Complex, she cheekily responded with, “Our doppelgänger books are doppelgängers of each other.”And it was true. Similarly to Goddess Complex, my new novel The Other Lata features an Indian American woman who receives messages meant for another woman with the same name. Both of our novels are about how our protagonists meet their doubles, resulting in unexpected journeys of self-discovery.

1 week ago | electricliterature.com | Tarisai Ngangura

Reading Lists Every great story begins with the right voice Can you imagine telling a story so compelling and urgent, so wondrous and propulsive, that a person who originally planned to kill you instead lets you live another day, and then the next, and the next, all because the yarns are woven so well? In the broadest strokes, this is how Scheherazade, daughter of a high-ranking political advisor, avoided losing her head: oral storytelling. By beguiling the insecure and murderous ruler,...

1 week ago | electricliterature.com | Ulrich Baer

The monstrous, the grotesque, the uncanny—horror’s tropes have long provided figures through which queerness finds articulation, with both liberatory and suppressive consequences. Here, bodies defy definition and desire warps. But the horror landscape is also shifting. No longer confined to the subtextual periphery, contemporary queer horror is carving out its own terrain, reveling in its excesses and capacity to transform traditional genres.

2 weeks ago | electricliterature.com | Vesna Jaksic Lowe

My two sisters and I squirmed on the living room couch in anticipation of hours of performances vying for the title of Europe’s best song. The Eurovision Song Contest was the only night besides New Year’s Eve that our parents let us stay up late. Mom regularly sent us to bed after the 7:15 p.m. Tom & Jerry cartoon, and we grumbled as we climbed the wooden stairs to our room, still aglow from the Mediterranean sun. But tonight was a rare chance to extend our bedtime into darkness.

3 weeks ago | electricliterature.com | Ruby Mora

Skip to content Interviews Jessica Hoppe on the societal standards that entrap marginalized communities and how storytelling can be a path to recovery In her searing and revolutionary memoir First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream, writer and mental health advocate Jessica Hoppe discusses and inspects addiction and how ingrained the culture is within BIPOC communities, notably within the Latine community. In writing that feels deeply cathartic and personal,...