OLY ARTS: Uplifting Queer Voices in Olympia

Jonah (left) and Austin Barnett have launched Countershade Press, a new press for queer speculative fiction in Olympia.

We were jazzed to have Oly Arts journalist Diane Chiddister come to our house and interview us about the press and our Browsers event. Link to read is up above, but here’s an excerpt I loved:

While the original “Menagerie” had no unifying theme, the theme of loss emerged from the recent stories, including loss of friendships, of identity, and of self. The theme made sense to the two husbands.

“Part of the queer experience is to lose people, lose relationships with family, lose an identity,” Austin said. “We’re still in the era of HIV AIDS. People in our community are living with that.”

Both feel strongly about not shying away from difficult feelings.