First Post: Hello!

Hey, y'all. My name is Phillip "Pip" Gordon, and this is my blog. I am the author of the recently published book Gay Faulkner: Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond (University Press of Mississippi, 2019). I've also published essays on Alice Walker, AIDS narratives, representations of bullying and suicide in LGBTQ+ YA film and literature, Harper Lee, Hubert Creekmore, and Faulkner, some more Faulkner, and then some Faulkner after that.

I am in the process of self-publishing some fiction via Amazon KDP, which is probably a bit low-class but enjoyable. More on that later, when I use this blog to plug  my self-published works.

I am currently at work on some new scholarly projects, mostly with . . . wait for it . . . William Faulkner but also focused on trans identities in Southern literature.

I work for a living as a professor; I teach American literature and LGBTQ+ Studies, rather obviously.

I hold degrees from the University of Tennessee at Martin (BA) and the University of Mississippi (MA and PhD)--I am in the process of unlearning the traditional shorthand for that latter alma mater. Here, on this blog, I will call it by its full name or UM.

I am from Memphis; I am from the South (more specifically the "mid-South").

I live, however, in the cold wilds of Wisconsin, my only connection to my distant origins the Mississippi River that runs near my house and a collection of highways connecting the Gulf to the Great Lakes region. Arriving here was like moving from earth to the moon but finding there is, in fact, a ladder tethering them to each other. Long trip down but connected, barely. It's better than nothing at all (and I tried to drink from Lethe on the journey northward, but after six years in this northern garden, I find myself looking south a lot).

This blog will be devoted primarily to LGBTQ+ art, film and literature, especially LGBTQ+ art, film, and literature from what has been considered "the South" in the context of the United States. And maybe sometimes just literature, but always with a queer eye for it, however straight said literature might appear.

If these are topics that interest you, I hope you enjoy reading. If not, find another blog to follow. The internet is large; it contains multitudes.

Recommendations for good reads and good viewing are welcome. Just, please, try to keep it queer.