What do lesbians do in Eastern Iowa?

I promise this is about books

In 2020, my partner got a voice message from the Des Moines Pride center—did he want some of their old books?

Read the rest of this essay at Image, which cut some material from the end—so, papereaters, I saved it for you:

Appendix A: What do lesbians do in eastern Iowa? 

• Mushrooms

• Bonfires

• Forage

• Fish

• Join Lambda Softball Association

• Join Practical Farmers of Iowa

• Join the Unitarian Universalist Society

• Join America’s longest-running, continuously performing drag king troupe

• Join the PTA

• Join a thruple 

• Annual summer solstice BBQ

• Run Solstice Properties, LLC

• Run a folk music festival

• Run for county supervisor

• Run a daycare

• Become barbers

• Become doctors

• Become surgeons; specialize in bottom surgery 

• Become Episcopalian priests 

• Become math teachers

• Become flower farmers

• Lesbians of Iowa “summer camp” at the nudist resort in Coggon, IA

• Iowa State University Extension Office Master Gardener Certificate

• Thrift

• Vote

• Hunt

• Quilt

• Parent

• Acid trips

• Roller Derby

• Raise money for the free medical clinic

• Raise money for the abortion clinic

• Raise money for mutual aid

• Make zines

• D&D

• Keep pet chickens

• Keep pet pigs

• Keep pet llamas, who go viral on TikTok

• Operate a lesbian feminist offset print shop

• Farm Sanctuary Official Volunteer

• All-butch weekend at a cabin with a hot tub

• RAGBRAI

• Bowling 

• Iowa State Fair

• Organize a clothes swap

• Organize a potluck

• Organize a cat beauty contest

• Organize a disability justice rally

• Organize a rave in a cornfield

• Amateur wrestling

• Bikepacking

• Burlesque

• #Girlgamer

• Crochet granny squares

• Crochet lingerie

• Coach high school soccer

• Start transitioning

• Buy a brand new truck

• Buy an old truck

• Buy a Subaru

• Buy a Prius

• Buy a farm

• Buy a Kum & Go ballcap

• Wear it while driving the wife to Lowe’s in the truck

• Make vegan cheese

• Write fan fiction

• Write lex ads

• Drive to Chicago for sex 

• Drive to Nashville for Brandi Carlyle 

• Play pool at dive bars

• Play trivia at Hy-Vee Market Grille

• Collect queer t-shirts

• Collect queer buttons

• Collect 800 lesbian romance novels 

• Donate them to the queer community lending library, with a bookshelf

As much as anything else, this essay is a love letter to all the queer people I was lucky to meet in Iowa. EVERY ONE OF YOU IS A BLESSING.

Ps. Image isn’t just online—it’s also a beautifully produced print journal. Donate $12 (the cover price) to LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library and I’ll send you one of my contributor copies. Take me up on it by replying to this installment of Papereaters with your mailing address.

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Studio News

Weaving at a rave ~

Last weekend I hauled a loom and a bunch of zines to an event produced by Acme Collective. Can independent art publishing compete with a good DJ? Papereaters, the answer is yes. Partiers sat down on the floor, absorbed in the zines, while house music shortened the lifespan of our eardrums. Artist publishing belongs in the places we least expect. Did you know there’s a body of academic research about how raves can enhance our understanding of neolithic looms?

I ate some paper & they published it ~

Highlights in the latest issue of Visual Studies Workshop’s Salon Review include “an example of India’s radical book criticism,” aka … papereating. Read the pdf online, or—since most VSW Press books are worth eating—peruse VSW’s online bookshop. I’m convinced VSW might have invented the concept of an artist-centered field; fellow artists should keep an eye out for their artist-in-residence app, with an annual deadline in January.

The friendly coding class you’ve been waiting for ~

Queer poet/gamer/unclassifiably brilliant human Nilson Carroll is teaching a five-week virtual workshop about Coding for Artists and Poets.

You’re invited ~

My home workspace will soon be available for Open Copy sessions. Here are the details.

Sexy bog bodies ~

Since October is a great month for dressing like your well-preserved body was just discovered in a remote bog, here’s a fall mood board for bog lady fashion. Some of the most fashionable bog ladies wore crop tops, mini skirts, elaborate braided hairstyles, and a lot of jewelry. That’s right: crop tops are a bronze age phenomenon. Most clothing found in bogs was dyed bright red and blue; if neon items had been available in prehistoric times, bog people would have been into that. Bog-inspired fashion no longer lacks neon, thanks to the hi-viz reflective clothing woven by yours truly with a bronze-age net making technique.

Website overhaul ~

When it comes to being an online presence, I’d probably rather be an online absence. Hermit fantasies aside, over the last couple months, I’ve been logging whatever questions trickle in via email, DMs, or come up in conversation—which range from “which of your installations are available?” (2 times) to “can I pay you to fix my jeans?” (2 times a week). Keeping a formal tally made it abundantly clear that, when faced with friendly, incidental questions, my website was pretty useless. So I’ve overhauled the main page to include a ‘menu’ of goods and services. For a long time, I was worried this would seem unprofessional. (Says the woman who just pitched you her bog fashion mood boards …. I know, I know). There’s a lot of advice out there about how artists should (or shouldn’t) present ourselves online. But artists are people, not products—and we tend to be people with broad, useful skill sets. It’s exciting to package some of the services I’ve been offering for years a little more formally—like mending and Zine School. Here’s to worrying a little less about the curator who may someday find your website, and a little more about that friend from softball—the one who loves your work.