Tag: queer

June 9, 2026

Queer Terror

A review of David Demchuk’s Red X By Derek Newman-Stille Red X taps into the collective nightmare of Toronto’s Queer community, dredging up fears from decades of violence. It circles the disappearances in Toronto’s gay village, where real life serial killer Bruce McArthur stalked the gay community for years without any substantive police investigation. McArthur proved that disappearing gay men...

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September 1, 2025

An Interview with Nathan Frechette About “Whispers Between Fairies”

I rarely talk about my own work on Speculating Canada, but because I had the opportunity to co-write Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance Press) with the wonderful Nathan Frechette, I thought this would be a good space to highlight his work. Whispers Between Fairies was written in collaboration with Nathan Frechette. For this collection, each of us would rewrite a fairy...

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May 17, 2025

An Interview with Aphy Ray

I had the opportunity to interview up-and-coming author Aphy Ray about their first book Saffron and Honey. We explored the importance of representing Queer characters, the essentialness of having asexual representation, the role of independent publishing, genre-defying books, and the need to tell stories. Aphy Ray. They/them. Queer Canadian Canadian queer fiction writer. I have other qualifications but they’re not...

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November 18, 2024

An Interview with Stephen Graham King

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview the fabulous Stephen Graham King about his work, exploring his latest work The Infinite Heist: Book 5 of the Maverick Heart Cycle. We explore Queerness, Disability, geekery and writing groups. Stephen Graham King (He/They) is a disabled survivor of metastatic synovial sarcoma, a story chronicled in the memoir, Just Breathe: My Journey Through...

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April 26, 2024

An Interview with MJ Lyons

I recently had a chance to chat with MJ Lyons about his ongoing speculative fiction writing and his exploration of fabulous smut. I think there is so much power in the ability to explore the fantastic and the unabashedly sexy, and am excited that I was able to hear from MJ about his work, including his latest work Queer Werewolves...

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December 28, 2023

An Interview of Jamieson Wolf

In this interview, Jamieson Wolf and I explore disability in SF, Queer identity, and how the two intertwine in the worlds Jamieson creates Jamieson Wolf has been writing since a young age when he realized he could be writing instead of paying attention in school. Since then, he has created many worlds in which to live his fantasies and live...

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November 17, 2023

An Interview with Jen Desmarais

In this episode of Speculating Canada, I interview Jen Desmarais. Jen is the author of Crushing It, co-author of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers, a crafter, and ghost writer. We discuss Queer writing, the interrelationship between craft-making and writing, writing with a community, and writing with a partner. Jen Desmarais is the creator of the sex education game Blush and co-author of...

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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...

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October 28, 2020

Living Through Fairy Tales

A review of Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” in Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance, 2020) Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” is a biotext, a story of Frechette’s own body and transition told through fairy tales. Frechette explores the way that fairy tales have shaped his life, from providing a world away from a harsh outside world when he was young to providing a text of...

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November 16, 2019

The Flow of Disability

The Flow of Disability A review of Elliott Dunstan’s “Oliver Gutierrez and the Walking Stick of Destiny” from Nothing Without Us (Renaissance, 2019). By Derek Newman-Stille For folks like me, who are disabled, we develop a certain intimacy with our accessibility devices. They are both part of us… and not at the same time. They are extensions of our personhood,...

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