Queer Lit

From Christopher Isherwood to Djuna Barnes, some of the most prolific queer writers of the 20th century wrote in exile. Ben Robbins joins me to explain how and why queer writers connected with each other in exile and how (in)voluntary movement shaped their stories. Ben shares some surprising encounters from the archives and paints a picture of some of the locations of queer exile: Berlin, Tangier and Capri.  

References:
Networked Narratives: Queer Exile Literature 1900-1969
Funded by the Austrian Science Fund/FWF (Project DOI: 10.55776/P35199)
  https://www.uibk.ac.at/projects/networkednarratives/
Ben Robbins’ “‘Marriages ought to be secret’: Queer Marriages of Convenience and the Exile Narrative” JAAAS: Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, Dec. 2023, pp. 100–122, https://doi.org/10.47060/jaaas.v5i1.173.
Networks of Anglophone LGBTQ+ Exile Writers
http://queerexilelit.uibk.ac.at/ Robbins, Ben, and Ralph J. Poole. "Introduction: Queer Ruralisms." AmLit – American Literatures 4.2 (2024): 4-21.
Ben Robbins’ Faulkner's Hollywood Novels: Women between Page and Screen (University of Virginia Press 2024) https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5855/
Queer Second Cities
Maria Sulimma
Ben Robbins’ “Christopher Isherwood in Exile” 
https://www.huntington.org/verso/christopher-isherwood-exile
Harry Ransom Center
Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman)
Oscar Wilde
W. Somerset Maugham
E.F. Benson
John Ellingham Brooks
Romaine Brooks
John Ellerman
Robert McAlmon
Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood
Natalie Barney
Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin
Stephen Spender’s The Temple
Jane Bowles’ Two Serious Ladies
W.H. Auden
Patricia Highsmith
Allen Ginsberg
Claude McKay
Thornton Wilder
Ben Robbins. "Space, Sexuality, and Thornton Wilder's Villa Rhabani." Thornton Wilder Journal 5:1, November 2024, pp. 99-119. DOI: 10.5325/thorntonwilderj.5.1.0099
 https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/thornton-wilder/article-abstract/5/1/99/392187/Space-Sexuality-and-Thornton-Wilder-s-Villa?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Open access: https://ulb-dok.uibk.ac.at/urn/urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:3-40689
William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch
Alfred Chester’s Looking for Genet: Literary Essays and Reviews
Susan Sontag
Gore Vidal
Henry James
Truman Capote  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
     How does Ben define ‘exile’? How is this similar to and different from ‘expat’?
     How does exile relate to class status and financial means?
     Why are queer networks so important in this context?
     What does Ben say about exile and (involuntary) movement affecting narrative form?
     How do you find out where you can safely travel?

Time for a cross-over! I had the absolute pleasure on being invited to join the Amplified network and appear on their superb podcast. Here is our episode and Amplified's show notes:

"Amplified is an audio blog series about the sounds of scholarship from our team here at the Amplify Podcast Network. This month on Amplified, Stacey Copeland and Hannah McGregor are joined by Lena Mattheis to kick off a brand new series featuring the latest additions to our sustained cohort of podcasters. Lena is the creator and host of Queer Lit, a podcast about LGBTQIA2S+* literature and culture. In this conversation, we reflect on podcasting as a tool for community building and queer scholarly practice, tracing how Queer Lit emerged from Lena's teaching practice and a commitment to accessible feminist and queer knowledge creation."

What is the queerest thing you did this year? Listen to the festive special to find out how queer our guests and listeners made 2025!

References:
Liz Breslin
How To Read podcast
https://www.howtoreadpodcast.com/elaine-auyoung-one-sided-relationships/
Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (OUP, March 2026)
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/queer-forms-and-pronouns-9780198974116?q=lena%20mattheis&lang=en&cc=gb
Susan Stryker
Louise Siddons’ Good Pictures Are A Strong Weapon
https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517910730/good-pictures-are-a-strong-weapon/
Category is Books (Glasgow)
Lighthouse Books (Edinburgh)
The Bookish Type (Leeds)
Kit Heyam
Royal Vauxhall Tavern
All Of Us Strangers
Nick Cherryman
European Gay Ski Week
Oliver Slate-Green’s The Way Blood Travels
Leah Davidson
Listenqueer.co.uk
Out and Wild
Leilah King
Coast is Queer
Jack Gieseking
Our Dyke Histories podcast
Julie Enszer
Lesbian Lives 
Sinister Wisdom
The Essential Poems of Pat Parker (The 87 Press)
Caro de Robertis’ The Palace of Eros
Joelle Taylor’s Maryville
Alison Bechdel’s Spent
Allan Johnson 
https://thisisallan.medium.com/elf-and-safety-2b061323dbc1
Flora Johnson’s Christopher Popinkins

What is the queerest thing you did this year? Listen to the festive special to find out how queer our guests and listeners made 2025!  

References:
Happiest Season
Kristen Stewart
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joe Jukes
https://www.hiss.sydney/
Virginia Gay’s Cyrano
Qtopia Sydney
Queer Britain
@guildfordgaybookclub New House Art Space (Guildford) Juno Dawson’s Stay Another Day Layla McCay’s The Queer Bookshelf: A Reader’s Guide (June 2026) Libro.fm Pillion Arzner @Arznercinema

Share the queerest thing you did this year by 6 December to be featured on the end-of-year special and for the chance to win a special gift (if you are based in the UK). Send an email or voice recording to [email protected] by 6 December.

I can't wait to hear from you!