Assaracus Reborn (with Regards to the Supreme Court)

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that parents, on religious grounds, can opt their children out of exposure to any books with LGBTQ+ characters.

I was pretty much retired as a queer publisher. I'd announced that Brotherful would be the last Sibling Rivalry Press title and had started a new imprint to do a few little things here and there through Queer Punk Collective, but as far as really putting my very gay shoulder to the wheel, those days were done.

But fuck all this, and fuck this administration, and fuck the people cheering them on. Make a monster out of someone and they become a monster, so it's time to turn on Donna Summer's Bad Girls and get back to it.

Let's start by bringing Assaracus: A Journal of Gay Poetry back, and let's do it this fall. Assaracus broke a lot of doors down for a lot of gay writers from 2011 - 2016, and its last issue, fittingly enough, was a protest issue against the first Trump presidency, If You Can Hear This: Poems in Protest of an American Inauguration. At that point, I started focusing more on our full-length titles at SRP, but Assaracus was, in many ways, the heart of the press, and it's what gained SRP a lot of traction, goodwill, and loyalty in the literary world. Early on, it won "Best New Magazine" from Library Journal, even with that bare booty on the first cover, a cheeky nod to the title, pronounced in my world with an emphasis on the first syllable. The concept was ten gay poets sharing ten poems, so in each issue, you got a true portfolio of their work. I always was a light-handed editor. I wanted the writers to shine and to use the space however they wanted. The results were magic.

Bringing it back, I want it to feel gritty again. I want it to feel underground, because that's where they are pushing us, and there's power there. I want that punk feeling. I'm not doing this for a career, or for a job, or to climb any ladder, and I'm sure not doing it for money (although we'll have to generate money to produce each issue, and I'll put everything we make right back into it). I'm doing this because we need it. I'm doing it because LGBTQ+ people are under attack and facing erasure, and I have a platform. There's no way I can sit here and not use it.

I'll post more soon with all the dirty details. I'm going to be the editor again after a few years with my friend Joseph Harker at the helm. I'm doing this because I have to. Because I need to. I'm doing this to build bridges and save lives.

And I'm doing this to fight.

When I posted the announcement on social media today, poet/writer/friend Collin Kelley shared the news and said, "Assaracus reborn!" That was so good, I stole it to use here. Thanks, Collin. And thanks Rob J. for the pep talk that brought me to this decision. There's been so much reaction from friends and writers, and it fires me up. It makes me proud. It makes me believe in our community.

It's the brick I can offer in this uprising.

What's your brick?