Joy//Us: poems of Queer Joy

Arachne Press has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ writers, but we’ve never before published an anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry. These are joyful poems that celebrate all that is best about our community/ies and lives. This is not an ‘explain it to the straights’ book, this is for us. LGBTQ+ readers can open this book at random and find a moment of poetic queer joy for themselves, however big or small.

The poems in the book find joy in the simplest (or most complex) things. Love, sex, a quiet night in, dancing with friends, nurturing of and from our community, recognition from allies, a welcome from strangers, celebrating our cultural icons… the identity-affirming haircut, the right jeans, books, walking, food, flint-knapping… and political action.

'An eclectic collection of poetry that illuminates and celebrates, who,
how, why and where we are now.'
Trudy Howson, LGBT Poet Laureate

'A gorgeous celebratory kaleidoscope of poems on the many joys of
queerness.'
James McDermott