Hesse Phillips on Challenges in Writing Queer History

Today we get to hear from Hesse Phillips whose historical novel, Lightborne, was released in May 2024. Hesse and I will be talking about the difficulties of writing queer history and the task of humanizing an historical figure that has often been mischaracterized and misunderstood by both the public and literary scholars.

Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

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Hesse Phillips’ historical novel Lightbourne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2022 and is now forthcoming from Atlantic Books UK. Their poetry and prose have appeared in The Bridport Review, the époque press é-zine, Sage Cigarettes, Roi Fainéant Press, Pangyrus and others, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Hesse was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania but now lives in Spain. They have a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and are a graduate of Grub Street Boston’s intensive Novel Incubator program.

Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

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