We're here. We're queer. We're fat.

This one-of-a-kind collection of prose and poetry radically explores the intersection of fat and queer identities, showcasing new, emerging and established queer and trans writers from around the world.

Celebrating fat and queer bodies and lives, this book challenges negative and damaging representations of queer and fat bodies and offers readers ways to reclaim their bodies, providing stories of support, inspiration and empowerment.

In writing that is intimate, luminous and emotionally raw, this anthology is a testament to the diversity and power of fat queer voices and experiences, and they deserve to be heard.

We follow very different stories from each other. It's a very intuitive book, I've learned a lot about the queer and plus size community, which I am a part of, but there is a lot to learn about the community that you are a part of. I have been able to relate to a lot of stories, especially about being harassed for the body I have and not accepting myself, this is something I am working on but even after several years , it's still complicated. In my opinion, this is a book that should be read by everyone, many people do not realize the harm they cause, it can affect someone's entire life.

Cette collection unique de prose et de poésie explore radicalement l'intersection des identités fat et queer, mettant en vedette des écrivains queer et trans nouveaux, émergents et établis du monde entier.

Célébrant les corps et les vies fat et queer, ce livre remet en question les représentations négatives et dommageables et offre aux lecteurs des moyens de récupérer leur corps, en fournissant des histoires de soutien, d'inspiration et d'autonomisation.

On suit des histoires très différentes les unes des autres. C’est un livre très intuitif, j’ai appris plein de choses sur la communauté queer et plus size, communauté dont j’en fait partie mais il y a beaucoup de chose à apprendre sur la communauté dont on fait partie. J’ai pu m'identifier à pas mal d'histoires, surtout sur le fait d’être harcelé pour le corps que j’ai et ne pas m’accepter, c’est quelque chose sur lequel je travaille mais même après plusieurs années, c’est encore compliqué. C’est à mon sens un livre qui devrait être lu par tout le monde, beaucoup de personnes ne se rendent pas compte du mal qu’ils causent, cela peut affecter la vie entière de quelqu’un.

typical for an anthology: i really enjoyed some of the pieces, but others not so much. especially toward the later third of the book, i didn't enjoy many of those essays.
I went into this book looking forward to read about the experiences of being queer and fat, falling somewhat into that category, and to gain insight into these experiences and if anything could resonate with me - both pertaining to weight and to sexuality and gender identity.

The authors have a very diverse range of experiences and lives, and while most pieces are memoir-like, some of them get fantastical.
The essays that I enjoyed most were the non-fiction ones, particularly if that mused about fatness and queerness from a societal perspective. I also really enjoyed reading the essays from non-binary authors and what they had to say. eg. The Gender Nonconformity of my Fatness; A Fat Lot of Good that Did; Soft Butch.
I didn't notice any particular sort of organization of the pieces, which my brain would've appreciated.
The theme of the book is really important, and i recommend it as a way to learn from the perspectives of different people that fall under this umbrella.

As this is a lapse in the queer genre, I will recommend this book to everyone / plan to assign essays from it in my classroom.

Fat and Queer is definitely chicken soup for my fat and queer soul especially as we’re coming out of quarantine and diet companies are redoubling their efforts to show “quarantine fifteen” as a personal and moral failing and not a body’s reasonable response to collective trauma. This book came right on time and I’ll also read anything with Carmen Maria Machado. Her closing essay is a gift and a balm.

An important collection both for fat people who are looking for experiences they can relate to and thin people who want to try to understand the various ways that fatphobia can affect people's lives. Unfortunately for me as a fat asexual cis woman a lot of these were difficult to read on a personal level since many of them focus so much on the authors' need to feel sexually attractive to other people, their own sexual experiences, or how being fat contributed to their gender presentation to the point where many of them made me feel actively worse about myself instead of better or more seen. Definitely some thought provoking stuff in here but if you are looking for experiences you can relate to I think this is definitely a better book to read if you are allosexual and nonbinary or male / masc-presenting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

This is a beautiful collection of humans who learn to themselves as they exist in the way that is most true to themselves. This is an ode to rich tapestry of diversity that makes life so wonderful.

A collection of stories and poems and memoir about being fat and queer, this is an American book and therefore the writing reflects that. As you would expect from an anthology there is a mixture in quality but all are interesting and important in exploring the experiences of being both fat and queer. I found it particularly interesting to read so many stories of how body dysmorphia and gender dysmorphia intersect, so important to understand better. Clothes feature a lot, as does being bullied at school both of these perspectives I could relate too. Also the desperate sadness of being taken to weight watchers at 10 or 12 years old when they weren't even that overweight and all that happened was that a journey of self loathing started. This is an important collection of work, sometimes painful sometimes celebratory but always vital for these often neglected voices to be heard.

With thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of the things that first drew me to this book was the title, Fat and Queer, as I myself am both fat and queer. There are a lot of books out there that talk about weight, and a lot that talk about queer identities, but you don't often get many that talk about the two together, and how they can each play into each other.

This book collects together a number of short stories, essays, and poems that examine what it's like to be fat in a queer world, and does so from a wide variety of identities and experiences, meaning that everyone will be able to find something in this book to identify with.

As someone who is overweight, pansexual, in a polyamarous relationship, and trans, I've found that my weight has definitely played a part in my sexuality, gender, and relationships, and that it's something that you're normally told is a bad thing. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told that being fat is bad, that it's shameful, that it'll stop me from getting a partner, that it'll make me an ugly woman when I transition, that it'll make sex bad. My fatness has always been used as a weapon against me, and is something that society has tried to train me to hate about myself.

Fat and Queer shows me that I'm far from the only person who's been through this, that people from all over the world and all walks of life have had the same messages pushed on them time and time again; and that learning to come to terms with that and love yourself can be a long and hard struggle sometimes.

It's made clear across the various contributions to this book, however, that many of the things we're told about our fatness get proven wrong time and time again. Readers get to see the contributors tell about how they came to love themselves, their bodies, and how they discovered that their fatness and their queerness are linked together. Sometimes people will take issue with your sexuality or gender identity, sometimes it will be with your weight, but a lot of the time they'll try to use both against you. This book celebrates how the two of them are linked, rather than wallowing in the hurt an pain that others try to make us feel.

That's not to say the book doesn't get a little heavy at times, there are some very personal and downbeat moments in this book as the contributors are brutally honest in their experiences and how they have sometimes effected them in a negative way; but this is never the complete focus of these stories and essays. Instead, it is about the joy and peace that these people have found once they find comfort in who they are.

Whether you yourself are fat and queer, or if the you simply picked up the book because it sounded interesting to you, there's going to be something in here for everyone. Thanks to the multiple contributors, their vastly different experiences and the way they present their thoughts, this book is able to appeal to a wide variety of people, and as such is one that's definitely worth checking out.

Fat and Queer is anthology exploring the intersectionality of fat and queer identities - something that is deeply personal, meaningful, and a very important topic that is not talked about enough nor is enough positive light shed on it - which is why I was so excited to read it. And it did not disappoint. I was initially somewhat afraid to read it as experiences can be so diverse and I didn’t know how it would be handled in this book, but fortunately, Fat and Queer turned out to be inspiring and wonderfully uplifting.

Queer representation needs to be diverse and there is so much power in having people be able to see themselves in media, to know that “hey this is normal. I’m normal. There are others like me and I don’t have to feel alone.” And I think this book achieved that.

Some of the stories and poems were a little dry to me and some were harder to relate to or get invested into, but generally most were written with honestly, positivity, and a decent chunk of soul in it, which I thought was really beautiful.

Overall, this anthology comprises of lovely poems and prose. It is diverse, filled with hope, and I think that many people would enjoy reading it.

Fat and Queer is an evocative anthology that provides several #ownvoices perspectives on the lived experience of a specific intersectional marginalization in the American context. A much-needed project, this text celebrates and affirms a politicized identity in the tradition of Roxane Gay's Hunger and Tressie Cottom's Thick. Given its wide array of genres (poetry, essays, fiction) and tones, I would say this is a good book to just keep on your desk so you can flip open a random page and read a piece.

As a person who is also Fat and Queer i related to this book on so many levels! A super empowering book everyone should read!

Fat and Queer is a radical, first of its kind anthology exploring the intersectionality of fat and queer identities. Being fat and being queer can often be tough as individuals are certainly subjected to bullying and shaming for both, which was why I was interested to read this; and it turned out to be an inspiring and wonderfully uplifting book addressing issues not often explored concurrently. Fat queer people experience multidimensional forms of discrimination, not to mention those who identify as BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour). Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives is a testament to the feeling “guilty for existing in a world that didn’t want me,” to “exist[ing] as a contradiction,” to the “never manag[ing] to starve myself into heterosexuality.” The varied contributors of this anthology explore two historical forms of othering—fatness and queerness—but they complicate each category, adding energy to their relationship, and offering readers ways to (re) claim their bodies and, arguably, their queer sanities.

Fatness is measured against transness, gender expectations are measured against sexual violence, binders are measured against one’s truth and a fat nude body is measured against surveilled desires. These are bodies “too big / to be held / at once.” These are radical bodies and radical odes to those radical bodies. They can no longer stay in the closet. Instead, they are nothing short of acts of witness for how the human body continues to be an, if not the, ultimate threshold between the now and what the world can be (with continued progression). This is a richly informed and at once heart-wrenching and uplifting read packed with powerful words that pour off the pages and into your heart. It's a book with heart and soul and compassion in abundance and will capture the imagination and emotions of those who are either part of or allied with the LGBTQ+ community. It's a fascinating, courageous and captivating exploration of two, often intermingling, identities that can still today so easily be rejected by society as not conforming to ”usual” standards or ”norms”. Highly recommended.

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy for review*

I loved seeing into the various lives who contributed to this collection. Their experiences while some were heart wrenching others were so joyous. I loved every one of them.

3.5/5
In typical anthology fashion, I really loved some of the pieces, liked some, and really disliked some. Admittedly, I felt like a lot of the poetry pieces were more resonating than the prose pieces. "Heretic Body," "Soft Butch", "F-Words", "Legacy", and "Land Acknowledgement for my body" were my personal favorite pieces and I think good examples of what the whole anthology is about overall.

Queer is more than just think cis white people, so I think this book has a lot to offer, especially to plus sized and poc queer folks. Fat people deserve respect and to take up all the space they want. Diet culture is harmful to everyone and I certainly don't encourage dieting, but several pieces in here did seem to glorify and almost encourage overeating which I personally didn't like either. Overall, I think there are a lot of people out there that need this book and will find solace in it.

One thing to note: I'm sure this was written before he came out, but there needs to be a name change for Elliot Page

Content Warnings: While this is a celebration of fat and queer people, some of the stories include ranges of homophobia to fatphobia to mental illness/suicidal thoughts, to self loathing, etc. but mostly within the confounds of rising up from it.

Thank you to #for this ERC of #fatandqueer

This is an anthology of experiences by people who are, as the title suggests, fat and queer. Some of the topics brought up were the lack of representation of fat and queer people in television unless it is the funny secondary character, the pressure even within the queer community to look a certain way, and something that was new to me... the gainer community.

As is to be expected in an anthology, I related to some of the experiences a lit more than I did to others. I particularly enjoyed “A Sexy Fat Shower Time Playlist Confessional” Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr. Even though I do not identify as queer, there was a lot in this anthology that I identified with, and those I did not identify with, I learned a lot from. If you find the title intriguing, I believe there is something for you in this book.

OKAY, this short story was a wild ride. There were ones I loved and ones I hated and a lot right in the middle. I had very high expectations for this, and honestly, they weren't fulfilled. A breakdown of my ratings for the stories are as follows:
Fat Queer Freaks- Hannah Props: 2.5
Sweet Revenge- Leah Harris: 4
Seven Nights of Noodles- Jay Audrey: 2
Lessons Learned and Unlearned- Edward Kelsey Moore: 4
Faithful Food- Ruth Gibbs: 4.5
Cherry Popsicle- Jay Audrey: 4
Cantaloupe Season- L.J. Stiler: 4.5
The Gender Nonconformity of my Fatness- Caleb Luna: 4.5
Incorrect Attribution- A Collision of Fatness and Gender- Alyssah Roth: 3.5
A Sexy Fat Shower Time Playlist Confessional- Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr.: 3
A Fat Lot of Good that Did: How an Art Studio Transformed My Eyes- Jerome Steuart: 3.5
About My Breasts Since You Asked- Sheree Vernon: 4
Heretic Body- Ninamarie Ochoa: 4
Soft Butch- Nora E. Derrington: 4.5
F-Words- Jonathon Hillman: 4
You're Too Fat to Be Androgynous- Nicole Oquendo: 3.5
Enough- Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini: 4
How I Found Fat Acceptance and My Nonbinary Truth- Benny Hope: 3
To All the Fat Queers on the First Day of School- Hannah Propp: 4
Fat Top/Switch- Emilia Phillips: 3
I'm Not Masc of Center Because I'm Fat- Emilia Phillips: 2.5
She Doesn't Need Any More Dresses- M.P. Armstrong: 3
So Not a Big Deal- Haley Sherif: 5
They Does Not Fit Like a Thundershirt Should: Nicole Oquendo (after: Wren Hanks): 3.5
Growing Up Fat Made Coming Out Harder (But Now I'm Queer, Fat, and Thriving)-Samantha Puc: 5
And Then...- K.M. Steigleder: 4
The End of the World- C. Adán Cabrera: 4
Land Acknowledgement for My Body- Alix Sanchez: 4
Legacy- Miguel M. Morales: 3.5
Montra of the Fat F***** No. 27 'Develop a Skin Thicker Than the One You're In'-Dan Vera: 4
Seven Unsalted Appetities- Your Fat Friend: 4
F A T Q U E E R P O E M- Miguel M. Morales: 3
Pop Goes Perfection- Johnathan Hillman: 4.5
Dropping Fictions and Gaining Visability- Bruce Owens Grimm: 2
Large and In Charge- F. Cullinae: 1
Him- D. Nolan Jefferson: 2.5
The Haunted House- Bruce Owens Grimm: 3
Grown- Johnathan Hillman: 3
The Trash Heap Has Spoken- Carmen Marie Machdao: 3

This was a lovely collection, and there's a broad enough range of themes and formats in it that most people should find something in it for them. It great to see a collection centring the overlaps and intricacies of the fat queer experience. Some pieces in here are wonderfully written and it's incredibly important for this type of collection to exist today.

<b>Thanks to Netgalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for a review.</b>

<i>CW: homophobia, fat phobia, eating disorders, mental health</i>

I did everything I could to don't end this book soon because I've never felt omething like that when reading a book.Fat And Queer is an anthology from multiples fat and queer authors who used their voices in poetries and proses. Although I could relate to some of them (Like Growing Up Fat Made Coming Out Harder (But Now I'm Queer, Fat, and Thriving), specially when it said "Any time I saw queerness after that—on screen or in real life— I felt hyper-aware of how my family reacted to the scene), there were others that were really hard to read and it would be deeply appreciated the use of trigger warnings.

In general, it was a beautiful reading and it made me think so much about how fat bodies are treated in and out of the queer community. My favorite story has to be The Haunted House, I just couldn't stop reading it and wish for more when it eneded it. There were some typesetting errors on some stories that difficulted the reading and sometimes it made impossible to read whole paragraphs but besides that (and the lack of trigger warnings) there's no much to complain.

I was given a copy of FAT AND QUEER through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. FAT AND QUEER is an anthology that touches upon different experiences of what it's like living as a fat queer person in today's society. With any anthology, this had some pieces I utterly adored (Ex. THE TRASH HEAP HAS SPOKEN- Carmen Maria Machado & A FAT LOT OF GOOD THAT DID- Jerome Stueart) and some that just didn't resonate with me, but were by no means bad! I can happily say that every piece in this book is special and important. I know how rare positive queer representation is, and can already see how influential and important this book will be for fat queer readers.
With that said, I had a few issues with this collection. The first was that a known transphobe (RuPaul) was praised right at the beginning, and considering this is supposed to help uplift queer voices, it felt like a slap in the face as a trans reader. The second fault was the deadnaming of Elliot Page, which I hope will be corrected before the book is released. Lastly, I would've liked a list of trigger warnings at the start of the collection, or at the start of each piece. There was certain points where topics such as sexual assault and self harm were brought up abruptly and it was rather triggering. Other than those few critics, I genuinely enjoyed my time with this! I would highly recommend this collection, considering positive fat rep is always so difficult to find in media.
TWs/CWs: Fatphobia, homophobia, self harm, mentions of/attempted suicide, drug use/addiction, alcohol use/addiction, eating disorders/ED behaviors, sexual assault, emotional and financial abuse

A stunning collection of prose and poetry exploring the intersection of queer and fat identities. I loved the depth of the essays, they were wide reaching and encompassed people of colour and the whole spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community. I learned so much through reading this and really appreciated the unapologetic nature of the essays and the celebration of queerness and fatness. The collection was honest and authentic and some of the essays were pure gold! Loved it!