On March 3, the Friends of the Wesleyan Library hosted a talk titled “Queer Past, Queer Future” in the Smith Reading Room.
Wesleyan alumni Alexander Chee ’89 and Jennifer Boylan ’80 read from their recent work, discussed queer lives and storytelling, and shared their own experiences as LGBT writers.Alexander Chee is the author of the novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, an editor at large at VQR and Lit Hub, and a critic at large for The Los Angeles Times. He is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College.Jennifer Boylan, a professor at Barnard College, is the author of 15 books, including She’s Not There, the first bestselling work by a transgender American, and I’m Looking Through You, which contains a chapter on Wesleyan. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and currently serves as the national co-chair of GLAAD, the media advocacy nonprofit for LGBTQ people. Her new novel, Long Black Veil, is forthcoming in April 2017.Michael Meere, assistant professor of French and chair of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library, praised the authors’ latest publications.The Office of Academic Affairs co-sponsored the event.An accompanying exhibit titled “Queer Life, Queer Studies” is on display through May 15 on the first floor of Olin Library. The exhibit is curated by staff at Special Collections & Archives. (Photos by Rebecca Goldfarb Terry ’19)
For more information on the Friends of the Wesleyan Library, visit this website.
Olivia Drake
James Sims
Editorial Staff
Ziba Kashef