![]() How has the representation of queer women in media changed over time and how can it still be improved? If I was the sort of person hesitant about such a thing it would not have been possible for me to write the way I do. I was very proud to be who I am and come from my communities and have a little limelight. I was never hesitant about being represented as who I am, a queer, feminist, working-class writer influenced by her time in the sex industry. It led to me having money for the first time in my life. ![]() It brought me opportunities for more paid writing and speaking gigs, and allowed me to believe that I could see my next book published as well. Valencia’s success, though modest in publishing terms, really changed my life. How did this novel impact your career and at the time were you hesitant about being represented as an author of queer literature? I could not find a lot that reflected my experience, but there was enough to inspire me and make me want to join the ranks of my counterculture heroes.īooks like Stone Butch Blues, Macho Sluts, Chelsea Girls, The Crystal Diaries, The Story of Junk, and the work of Red Jordan Arobateau, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Sarah Schulman and David Wojnarowicz were important to me. I felt it was important that is was not fiction, that it said, Hey, we’re here, we’re real, you may not see us but we see you. I felt that I was living in a story better than any I had the imagination to come up with. I wrote Valencia because I was having the most amazing life, and I am a writer, and so I wanted to document. What inspired you to write Valencia and why was it important for you to represent the experiences of queer women in fiction? I didn’t want their approval, because I didn’t approve of them. I never minded taking a stand or divulging a story that was somehow scandalous, because I grew up understanding that the masses, the mainstream, whatever you wanted to call it, was corrupt and ignorant. But it gave me a point of view with which to write. I’m so grateful I found my way out of it, both intellectually and literally. I knew from a pretty young age that something was wrong, culturally. That’s the atmosphere I grew up in, pretty fearful and xenophobic. It was mostly a racist belief, and the white people of Chelsea were nearly uniformly racist. Never mind that Chelsea had tons of crime. Even though Boston is not the most cosmopolitan of big cities, the elements of cool culture it did hold never made its way to Chelsea, and people from Chelsea avoided going into Boston because they thought they’d get robbed. ![]() I grew up a low-income Catholic family in a low-income, predominantly Catholic small, urban town five minutes from Boston. What was your upbringing like and how did it lead you to pursuing a career in writing? We sat down with Michelle to learn about her literary legacy and what her cult readers can expect to see in 2020. Today, she’s not only established a brand as a celebrated memoir author, but has published several books about modern divination and even established Drag Queen Story Hour in San Francisco. Her work has reached thousands of readers from around the world, showing the experiences of queer women long before in was on trend. For the past two decades, Michelle Tea has shared her experiences navigating queer culture, feminism, sex work and class throughout many celebrated autobiographies and non-fiction books. ![]()
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