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Queer writers Michelle Tea and Brooke Palmieri both believe in magic.
The protagonist of Tea’s new coming-of-age novel, Little F (Feminist Press, 232 pages, $17.95), finds it figuratively in the queer joy they experience on a cross-country road trip, while Palmieri discusses it literally in his debut essay collection, Bargain Witch: Essays in Self-Initiation (MIT Press, 296 pages, $17.95). The authors will discuss parallels between their works, among other things, during a joint appearance at Powell’s Books on Monday, Oct. 27.
Teen runaway Spencer, Little F’s main character, takes off for the coastal queer haven of Provincetown, Mass., after an attack hospitalizes him. Tea’s signature style of crafting gritty, unexpected, silly and romantic queer realities—as seen in her award-winning memoir Valencia and post-apocalyptic novel Black Wave—is on display throughout Little F as Spencer hitchhikes with a little help from his friends. As Spencer sees both joy and regional resistance to homophobia and transphobia in America, it seems unlikely that readers won’t learn something new from the young punks Spencer meets on his journey.
Tea co-founded the Sister Spit Road Show, a San Francisco-based queer feminist spoken-word troupe and tour that started in the mid-’90s and disbanded in 2006. Tea started a new iteration in 2007 that ran until 2022. Her Lambda Award-winning memoir Valencia chronicled the Bay Area lesbian scene of the 1990s. Tea is widely credited with conceptualizing the idea of Drag Queen Story Hour.
Palmieri, meanwhile, tells WW that the selections he plans to read from Bargain Witch will focus on occult history, weaving in his spiritual experiences and academic career (Tea did not respond to WW’s interview request). The Joshua Tree, Calif., author and artist holds a doctorate from University College London in radical 17th century printing history and founded Camp Books to give wider access to zines, sculptures and rare archival materials related to queer and trans history.
“Like many of my favorite books, it’s partially inspired by what people were asking me for when I was a bookseller,” Palmieri says via email. “It’s been fermenting for a while.”
Though he has wanted to write a book like Bargain Witch for a long time, Palmieri says its final form wasn’t what he first envisioned. Feedback from trusted early readers helped him realize important themes that needed to be covered, like a chapter about witches’ imps/familiars, and his dog, Frankie.
“It started out as one essay about the experience of gravitating towards witchcraft since childhood, and then I found the seeds of every other essay,” he says. “I knew I wanted to braid together three major strands: my interest in obscure histories of witches and queers, my DIY spiritual life as a transsexual—framed by my experience working in an occult bookshop in London—and all of the magic it exposed me to.”
The overall idea behind Bargain Witch, Palmieri explains, is to give readers a greater sense of empowerment and self-autonomy by comparing experiences from his life against magickal forces of aeons past. He hopes that all of his readers—queer or straight, cisgender or trans—will understand how fully they can dictate the terms of their lives.
“Communication with the divine is part of our inheritance, regardless of the fact that we have been persecuted along religious grounds,” he says. “Self-initiation—the idea that you don’t need to have been anywhere or read any particular book, you don’t need permission—is key.”
SEE IT: Michelle Tea and Brooke Palmieri at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323, powells.com. 7 pm Monday, Oct. 27. Free.
