Tag: gender

May 24, 2021

Belonging Takes Place Beneath the Surface

Belonging Takes Place Beneath the Surface A review of Karleen Pendleton-Jimenez’ The Street Belongs To Us (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021) By Derek Newman-Stille America is a thin veneer over a much more complex world, and in 1984 when Muscatel Avenue is torn up there are new possibilities and potentials in the mud. In The Street Belongs to Us, Karleen Pendleton...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

May 20, 2020

An Experiment in Gender

A review of James Alan Gardner’s Commitment Hour (Eos, 1998) By Derek Newman-Stille I was originally trained as an anthropologist (for my Bachelor’s Degree and my Master’s Degree), so I always find books that explore the notion of anthropological researchers fascinating. James Alan Gardner’s Commitment Hour centres on a story of a scientist and his assistant visiting a small town...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

April 10, 2020

An Interview with Dr. Kelly McGuire About Pandemic and Outbreak Narratives

In light of the current COVID 19 pandemic, I wanted to interview Dr. Kelly McGuire, a professor and chair of the Women and Gender Studies Department at Trent University who has taught courses on epidemic and outbreak narratives and who researches medical history among her many research interests.  Interviewer: Derek Newman-Stille   Spec Can: Could you tell us a little...

Categories Interviews Comments: 0

December 31, 2018

A Gingerbread House Waiting For An Old Lady

A Gingerbread House Waiting For An Old Lady A review of Kate Heartfield’s “Path Of White Stones” in Over The Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins (Exile, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille We like to assume that we own our houses – that we select them and buy them and that they become ours… but don’t we also become...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

December 24, 2018

Woke Beauty

Woke Beauty A review of Nicole Lavigne’s “Fairest Find” in “Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins” (Exile, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Nicole Lavigne tells a tale of a prince who measured his life by the fairy tales he was  told as children and finds himself confused when he encounters the complexities of life outside of story...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

December 22, 2018

Planted

Planted A review of Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” in Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins” (Exile, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” is a suburban fairy tale about loneliness and transformation. It is a tale about overcoming the distance that traditional modes of masculinity place between our bodies and the fear of...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

December 4, 2018

Skin Deep

Skin Deep A review of Nathan Caro Frechette’s “Skin” in Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales from the Margins (2018, Exile) By Derek Newman-Stille Selkies are creatures from Scottish folklore (but also noted in the Orkneys and Shetlands) who are capable of transforming from seal to human by shedding their skin. In many selkie tales, female selkies are stolen...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

October 8, 2018

Magical Autobio

Magical Autobio A review of Ronnie Ritchie’s “Star Kid” in We’re Still Here: An All Trans Comic Anthology (Stacked Deck Press, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille In the comic “Star Kid”, Ronnie Ritchie intertwines autobiography and ideas of magic. They use ideas of astology to understand themself, sharing their early fascination with sun and moon symbolism and the relationship between these...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

October 2, 2018

A Green Monster Who Isn’t Envy

A Green Monster Who Isn’t Envy A review of Morgan Sea’s “Abominatrix” in We’re Still Here: An All-Trans Comic Anthology (Stacked Deck Press, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille In “Abominatrix”, Morgan Sea plays with the notion of Marvel Comics’ She Hulk and produces another gamma powered superhero. Sea’s hero is a Trans woman who adores She Hulk, and decides to take...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

May 4, 2018

WONDERful

Wonderful A review of Cait Gordon’s A Night at The Rabbit Hole in Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland edited by Colleen Anderson (Exile, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille Alice in Wonderland is a story that plays with identity, disrupting the power that normativity has on our society. Cait Gordon has tapped into that power that Wonderland has to resist normativity and creates...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0