Category: On Books and Publishing

Book reviews and author interviews, as well essays on the state of publishing.

Bayard Rustin: A complex legacy

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date March 28, 2012

The gay civil-rights activist Bayard Rustin was born a hundred years ago, on March 17, 1912. Considered the key organizer of the historical 1963 March on Washington, Rustin was involved in movements for racial and economic justice till his death in 1987. Yet, he is relatively unknown today and often deliberately stayed in the background, in large part because public knowledge about his identity as a gay man added to his vulnerability as an outspoken civil-rights activist.

On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Interview with John D’Emilio about Allan Bérubé’s “My Desire for History”

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date June 8, 2011

On Books and Publishing Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Bright Life, Big Sex: The Susie Bright Interview

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date April 13, 2011

“I get very excited about the international sex worker organizations, who will not let these positions go uncommented upon, who speak a little truth to the power.”

On Books and Publishing Prison industrial complex Queer Politics, Culture, and History

Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date February 2, 2011

It persuasively argues that innocence is a shifting category, contingent on visible markers of race and class privilege.

Feminism On Books and Publishing

Review: Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderalla Ate My Daughter

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date January 26, 2011

Capitalism, Class, Inequality Film, Art, Television, and Media On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Make Art! Change the World! Starve!: The Fallacy of Art as Social Justice – Part I

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 12, 2010

Excerpt: For the most part, arts and social justice funding is infused with the aura of nobility, combining the portrait of the penniless but determined artist with the desire and drive to change the world.

Gay Marriage On Books and Publishing

Yasmin on the front page of Chicago Sun-Times [September 23, 2009]

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 11, 2010

This image (soon to be replaced by a larger one, bear with us) appeared on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times. Yasmin was interviewed for a cover story titled, “Are singles getting a raw deal?” which appeared on September 23, 2009 to mark Singles Week.

Animals Capitalism, Class, Inequality On Books and Publishing Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Such Beastly Love: Animals and Affect in a Neoliberal World

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 7, 2010

Excerpt: All around us, animals penetrate capital.

Capitalism, Class, Inequality On Books and Publishing Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 4, 2010

Skloot’s remarkable book parallels a deeply important story about a scientific breakthrough with an equally riveting one about the human subjects whose active and inactive participation helped make it possible.

Chicago Chronicles On Books and Publishing Queer Politics, Culture, and History Race, Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Dykewomon, Brier: It’s all relative in WC&F talk

Post author By Yasmin Nair
Post date August 1, 2010

The historic Women and Children First Bookstore witnessed an equally historic and unique family literary event when Jennifer Brier and Elana Dykewomon co-presented their separate and recent works March 20.