Queer Lit

Come along for a deep dive into mixed pronouns in queer, trans and nonbinary narratives with none other than Sue Lanser, your favourite narratologist’s favourite narratologist. Sue and I talk about why we might need to rethink the concept of gender disguise narratives, where we find mixed pronouns in literary histories and why mixed pronouns often become sensual in literature. My favourite bit: Sue asks me about my personal hero, the Grinch.

This conversation is part of a miniseries that accompanies my book Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026). I hope you like hearing more from your host, but not to worry: we will be back to our usual format in just a few weeks.    

References
Sue Lanser’s The Sexuality of History
Sue Lanser’s Narrative Theory Unbound
Sue Lanser’s “Trans-forming Narratology” Narrative 32.2 (2024)
Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body
Le Roman de Silence
Michel de Montaigne’s Journal de Voyage
Margaret Cavendish’s Assaulted and Pursued Chastity
Lyly’s Galatea
Chevalièr(e) d’Éon
Alex Myers’ Revolutionary
Deborah Samson
Jenny Fran Davis’ Dykette
Isaac Fellman’s Dead Collections
Spiel, Katta, Os Keyes, and Pınar Barlas. 2019. ‘Patching Gender: Non-Binary Utopias in HCI’. Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 2, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3310425.
The Grinch
Dr Seuss
Jim Carrey
Benedict Cumberbatch
Les Feinberg
Maggie Nelson
Harry Dodge
Jen Manion
Dean Spade      

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
     What role does narrative agency play in the difference between external and intrinsic pronoun ascription?
     Why does Susan suggest that we need to revisit Shakespeare’s and other’s gender disguise narratives?
     Susan mentions how characters that are perceived as masculine but use she/her are much more frequently ridiculed than characters viewed as feminine who use he/him. Why do you think that is?
     How has feminism expanded what ‘she/her’ can mean?
     How does mixing pronouns do similar or different work from singular they?
     Why does the Grinch, according to Lena, have big they energy?

It was an incredible honour to have THE Susan Stryker join me for a chat about ambiguous pronouns, trans literature and linguistic creativity. Susan’s wealth of knowledge on pronouns across languages and literary history was incredibly enriching and allowed me to speak about some of my favourite examples of ambiguous pronoun use in literature.

This conversation is part of a miniseries that accompanies my book Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026). I hope you like hearing more from your host, but not to worry: we will be back to our usual format in just a few weeks.  

References:
Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix”
Susan Stryker’s Transgender History
Susan Stryker, Stephen Wittle, Aren Aizura (eds) The Transgender Studies Reader
Susan Stryker’s Changing Gender: The History and Future of a Concept (August 2026)
Sara Taylor’s The Lauras
Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s The Sleeping Hermaphrodite (1620)
Teagan Bradway
Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer (2019)
Lal Zimman
Rivers Solomon
Aphra Behn’s “To The Fair Clorinda” and “The Widow Ranter”
Thomas(ine) Hall
Nathaniel Bacon
Mel Y. Chen
Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Andrea Gibson’s “Your Life”  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
     Which pronouns are ambiguous when it comes to gender in English? Which ones are ambiguous in your first or favourite language?
     What creates ambiguity when we use pronouns? How might this ambiguity be productive?
     Susan explains why gendered pronouns in English function in an unusual way compared to other languages. What is something new you learned about this?
     We speak about why literature can teach us something about pronoun use that we might overlook when focusing on grammar. What is that?
     Can you name one of the examples of ambiguous pronoun use in literature we discuss?

Welcome to a miniseries about gender nonconformity pronouns in literature! In this episode, the amazing linguist Laura Paterson asks me many clever questions about singular they in literature. We talk about the function of pronouns, common misunderstanding about singular they, and neutral versus gender-nonconforming use of this fantastic third person pronoun. Whether you would like reading recommendations (Virginia Woolf, Lamya H, Rae Spoon…) or some insight into what singular they can do in creative and academic writing, this episode might have some answers – or questions – for you.  

References

Lena Mattheis’ Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026)
Laura Paterson (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns (Routledge, 2023)
Anna Livia
Lamya H’s Hijab Butch Blues (2023)
Rae Spoon’s Green Glass Ghosts (2021)
Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body (1992)
Anne Garréta’s Sphinx (1986)
Charlie Josephine’s I, Joan (2022)
The Globe
https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/identity-in-i-joan/
Kit Heyam
Laura Paterson and Georgina Turner (eds) Approaches to Discourses of Marriage (Routledge, 2024)
Lal Zimman  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
    What is a pronoun?
    How does Lena define gender-nonconformity pronouns?
    Why is it relevant whether a narrator comments on pronoun use or not? Which examples does Lena provide?
    Which literary texts do Laura and Lena mention? Which one would you like to read and why?
    What do Laura and Lena discuss about pronouns in academic writing? Do you have an established practice for this?

What is queer food, you ask? Let’s find out! Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias tell me all about the connections between gender and food, cooking and sexuality, and recipes and community. The amazing book Queers at the Table is a product of the queer food conference Alex and Megan ran in 2024 (returning in 2026!) and consists of essays, stories, comics and endlessly inspiring reflections on queer cooking and intellectual inquiry. Lesbian chefs, feminist cafes, queer community cookouts – this episode has them all.  

References:
Queers at the Table (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025)
Alex Ketchum’s Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses (Concordia UP, 2022)
https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/ingredients-for-revolution (open access)
Megan Elias’ Food on the Page (Penn Press, 2017)
Queer Food Conference
https://www.queerfoodconference.com/
@queerfoodconference
Alex Ketchum’s How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences (Microcosm, 2026)
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/63461
Alex Ketchum’s Digital Queers and High Tech Gays (MIT Press, 2027)
@dr.alexketchum
http://alexketchum.ca
Alex Ketchum’s Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication (Concordia Uni Press, 2022)
https://press.library.concordia.ca/projects/engage-in-public-scholarship (open access)
https://www.justfeministtechandscholarshiplab.com/
Greggor Mattson
Prism Comics
Queer Food Foundation
The Female Glaze
@thefemaleglaze
The Nonbinarian Bookstore
https://thenonbinarian.gay/
Bishakh Som’s Spellbound
Cait McKinney’s Information Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies
The Ripped Bodice
Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
     How do Megan and Alex define queer food?
     Megan thinks about what ‘not queer food’ might be and whether we would want to define this. What is your opinion? Is there ‘straight’ food?
     How is gender connected to food? Were you surprised by anything we mention?
     What connections do Megan and Alex draw between sexuality and food?
     Alex and Megan speak a lot about community. Can you name two examples of how community makes food queer?
     How might food be linked to queer knowledge production?

The incredible author Lauren J. Joseph joins me to talk about her new book Lean Cat, Savage Cat – out on 26 February 2026. Lauren talks about the genre-bending ambiguity of the novel, about characters that have followed her from the stage to the page, and about writing across languages. We touch on the intricacies of first-person narration, but also on what it’s like to write a novel versus writing a PhD.  

References:
Lauren J. Joseph’s Lean Cat, Savage Cat (2026)
Lauren J. Joseph’s At Certain Points We Touch (2022)
Ben Robbins
Alexander Geist
David Bowie
Bryan Ferry
Morrissey
Hildegard von Bingen
Marty Supreme
Timothée Chalamet
Essen
Dortmund
Karstadt
KaDeWe
Romy Haag
Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy: Low, Heroes, Lodger
Narcissus and Echo
Céleste Albaret
Proust
American Psycho
Pedro Lemebel’s My Tender Matador
Jean Genet