March 29, 2024

Queer Writers’ Panel Visits Capital’s Campus

Queer Writing

The Creative Writing Club co-hosted a Queer Writer’s Panel with Pride on Monday night.

The panel featured three local writers who are members of the LGBTQ community. These writers were Betsy Clark, Liz Rose-Cohen, and Lou Jones. The writers answered a series of questions from members of Pride and the Creative Writing Club and afterwards fielded questions from the audience of students.

Each writer said that their queer identity has had a significant impact on their writing.
Clark is a slam poet and performer who identifies as an agender pansexual. They also are the co-founder of Women Aloud! and The Other Open Mic organizations.

“When I write poetry, I have to be more honest with myself and my identity,” Clark said. “My writing serves as a reminder that I have to accept my identity so that others will.”
Jones, a poet, works to create safe spaces for queer poetry readings in Columbus. Their work is often inspired by their identity and the misconceptions it can bring.
“I write about my identity when I am angry with people’s misunderstandings about it,” Jones said.
Rose-Cohen, who identifies as a lesbian, is a creative nonfiction writer whose work largely reflects the intersection of race, queer parenting, and interfaith families. She writes about her queer identity often because it is part of the foundation of who she is.
“One thing I notice about my queer identity is that it is a part of the background in the stories I tell,” Rose-Cohen said. “[My identity] is a fact of my life.”
Each of the writers on the panel found that their identity does indeed impact their approach in performing or publishing.
“It can be awkward in a performance setting because people are afraid to address you with the incorrect pronoun,” Clark said. “So, I started a safe space poetry reading for marginalized people.”
Rose-Cohen saw two sides to being queer and how it affects her getting her writing published. She said that on one hand, many magazines and online forums are looking for a broad range of literary perspectives. On the other hand, she has to be the first lesbian writer to release work with a particular publishing company before another queer writer does.
Overall, each of the writers’ works has been received well by readers and audiences alike.
“I’ve never had a non-receptive crowd,” Clark said. “It’s really cool when you open a door for another person to see you as a safe space for these kinds of issues.”
Rose-Cohen finds her interaction as the most fun part of her work as a writer.
“Being frank, honest, and approachable with a touch of self-deprecation really disarms an audience,” Rose-Cohen said. “It brings people in who otherwise might not be open to hearing or reading about the life of someone who is queer.”
Jones, in their experience as a performing poet, said the most comfortable environment is the one that understands the issues that LGBTQ people face in everyday life.
Like most minority groups in society, the writers have their ideas on how to best approach eliminating heteronormative and gender binaries. Rose-Cohen is a firm believer in queers combating gender binaries by simply being themselves. She uses her writing as a method of being an activist in promoting LGBT rights.
Jones said the most important thing to do for the queer community is to create safe spaces.
“The places we perform are meant to be more open and it’s our job to make the place safer for us,” Jones said. “Once the scene is more open, we can begin to spread the word.”

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