Gaypocalypse now
Laura Chow Reeve on A Small Apocalypse
I’ve been a fan of the fiction of Laura Chow Reeve since a chance phone call years ago: we talked lit agents and publication and the type of stories that mattered to us. I hung up thinking, This person is one to watch.
Fast forward through two presidencies and one pandemic and I was positively chuffed to learn that Laura’s debut collection had hit the shelves, subscriber! A Small Apocalypse is every bit the eerie, meditative, big-hearted paean to gay weirdos and found family and Jacksonville, Florida that the cover copy claims it to be. And, in a fashion I’m happy to dub Chow-Reeveian, it’s even more than that, too.
Although the title of the collection makes reference to what’s broadly felt to be our present set of endtimes — climate change, political factionalism, various human rights abuses, etc. — as well as the “smaller apocalypses” of daily living in a given broke and chaotic youth, Laura doesn’t feel the remedy to such things can be found in what she calls “purity politics.” In our interview, we spoke about how the redress for human suffering isn’t ensuring others’ ability to regurgitate only the most correct and humane set of beliefs. “Coalition-building looks different from that,” Laura said, and I must say I agree.
Written from a specific subject position yet open to the politically impure, A Small Apocalypse is as pluralistic as the vision of the American South it conjures, and just as warm. Regardless of where one stands in the world, there’s no reason to believe in the hope shortage (a topic I’ll be revisiting in this newsletter this very week). In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this delightful interview with Laura, and order a copy of her book!
Further reading:
“The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On” by Franny Choi
“Another Apocalypse” (graphic essay) by Laura Chow Reeve
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What a stunning cover!