strange pairs, lieutenant

NATIONAL HOLIDAY

LESBIANISM - Why settle for less? Melbourne, 1985

Set a couple of decades before the events of Space Trash, Yes Chef follows turbo-divorced bipedal isopod Mikal Rime, a head chef tasked with putting together an unforgettable dinner party for a weapons magnate's very forgettable wife. His penchant for rare ingredients takes him places his sous chef Susan wouldn't go with a gun.

This story has been cooking in the queue for more than a year, and I am beyond excited to finally be sharing it. It's set in the Space Trash universe, but focuses on some of the aliens that don't get much screentime in Space Trash and, like many of my stories, does not end well for anyone. Cws for body horror, some gore and animal death.

since 2017, i’ve read this essay every june 12th, to mark every unfortunate anniversary of the pulse shooting in orlando. justin torres published it in the washington post the day after it happened, when i still had the image of a dance floor vibrating with cellphones in my mind—vibrating not with music but with call after call after call of people trying to reach their beloveds after hearing the news.

every year, i read it in silence, i read it out loud, i read it while crying, i read it angry. i read it, and i wish it was in spanish, and i read it and i know the translation, in any direction, wouldn’t suit because we can’t always be translated, anyway.