Before we get to the book\u2014we had a new podcast this week! It’s mostly a few excerpts from our reading last week, featuring Sara Matson, Bridget Gordon, and Juli\u00e1n Martinez. Of course, you’ll hear some music from Brendan, and a poem from me, too. If you’re wondering whether we’ll have a reading put up on YouTube ever again<\/a>, the answer is that we’d like to. Adam is our Video Guy, from cinematography to editing, and he’s got a lot on his plate right now (go watch Haunt Season<\/em><\/a>). Doing the podcast thing is more in our wheelhouse, though. Brendan is smart enough to know how to record things live, although our first time trying was literally at the reading. So have a little sampler of reading. You gotta come out to see the whole thing, but hors d’oeurvres are better than starving, right? Yes, you will starve without poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n What I’ve Been Reading This Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I suppose I’ve spoiled the title.1<\/a><\/sup> But a book by someone I’ve wanted to read for a while\u2014I see them around my neighborhood, I’ve seen them around at events. A book by someone who makes a lot of the Chicago indie lit scene go<\/em>, don’t I owe it to this author to give their actual work<\/em> a shot, too? Well, making the rounds at AWP this year, I stop by the Haymarket table, and whaddyaknow. I could not put off this author any longer. I’m talking, of course, about There Are Trans People Here<\/em> by H. Melt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There Are Trans People Here<\/em> by H. Melt:<\/strong> Poetry is an art form that demands precision in language. Poetry doesn\u2019t always hold the promise of communication<\/a>, but it does promise a certain care put into language. So when you come across a collection of poems that seems relatively straightforward, it\u2019s good to ask \u201care other poets just trying to code talk with Robbie Coltrane<\/a>, or is a deliberate choice being made?\u201d H. Melt\u2019s poems have music image metaphor, they have juxtapositions, they have enjambments and voltas, they do all the poem things. These poems don\u2019t often surprise, but that\u2019s not necessarily a weakness. What these poems lack in moongazing, they make up for in crisp clarity. There is a directness here that you have to realize is necessary. It might not occur to you, maybe because you\u2019re the type of person who willingly picked up a book of poems by a trans poet and read it, but the direct (“Let us hope for a day \/ when we no longer \/ need to pray for \/ our safety.”) and sometimes pedestrian-seeming demands of this book (“At the trans museum \/ admission is free \/ for trans people”) are controversial to some people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might also just not know about Magnus Hirschfeld, who “established the Institute for \/ Sexual Science in Berlin \/\/ a hybrid \/ health clinic \/ & lecture hall \/ library & archive \/ proving we exist \/\/ in 1933 \/ nazis burned \/ Hirshfeld’s books.” I knew about the research into gender and sexuality that was happening in Weimar Berlin, and I’ve heard the name Magnus Hirschfeld, but I had forgotten what he did and had forgotten Hitler’s “most dangerous Jew in Germany” epithet for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This book was published in 2021. Trans people have been under explicit attack by just about everyone before, during, and after 2021. Conservatives and bigots2<\/a><\/sup> alike have been in a hyper-panic about the fact that the gender binary is a myth, and it\u2019s resulted in Republicans trying to legislate trans people out of existence and Democrats openly wondering if they should adopt a \u201cwe hate trans people too\u201d platform. A book like this\u2014which is<\/em> full of wonderful poems, is a blast to read, and will<\/em> teach you about some things\u2014is a necessary statement. No matter what the politics are, trans people have existed and will continue to exist. They deserve liberation, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? How about some G.L.O.S.S., since H. mentions them in the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7378-768x1024.jpg\")