Baby Remember My Name: An Anthology of New Queer Girl Writing
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.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.