Queer Book Club

The queer book club is a space where like-minded people come to read and discuss works by queer authors.

The queer book club is a space where like-minded people come to read and discuss works by queer authors. Whether these works are classics of queer literature, or novels that were recently published, and whether we read stories about coming out, falling in love, or surviving bigotry, at the queer book club there is always space for thoughtful discussions and sharing personal experiences.

Are you looking for a queer space in which you can be yourself and share experiences and stories with others? Are you looking for a place where you can discuss queer literature? Then the queer book club is the place for you.

This Book club will be hosted by Looi van Kessel, assistant professor in literary studies and gender studies at Leiden University, who specializes in LGBTQIA+ literature. The sessions will be held in English.

Monday 16 March, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Sarah Schulman’s People in Trouble (1990)

Against the background of the AIDS crisis in New York, Kate is navigating a love triangle with her husband Pete and her lover Molly. As Kate is figuring out how she can incorporate her response to the AIDS crisis in her artwork, she joins Molly in her involvement with the radical activist group that is loosely based on ACT UP. Schulman’s novel is witty and biting at the same time. Rumor has it that the musical Rent stole most of its plot from this novel.

Monday 13 April, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Muhammad Abdelnabi’s In the Spider’s Room (2016)

Hani was out for an evening stroll near Cairo’s Tahrir Square when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. An informant had identified him, and he was thrown into the back of a police truck. There began a seven-month nightmare as he was swept up, along with fifty other men, in the infamous Queen Boat affair that targeted Egypt’s gay community.

Finally free, but traumatized into speechlessness, Hani writes down the events of his life—his first sexual desires, his relationship with his mother, his marriage of convenience, and his passion for Abdel Aziz, the only man he ever truly loved.

Monday 18 May, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Charlie Porter’s Nova Scotia House (2025)

In this recent novel Johnny looks back on his relationship with Jerry, who died 29 years earlier due to the complications of AIDS. Johnny is still living illegally in Jerry’s rent controlled apartment, but as the skyscrapers of London continue to creep up to the property, Johnny realizes that he needs to do something different with his life. Nova Scotia House is a novel about remembering the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic while trying to foster new communities in a London that is radically changed because of gentrification.

Monday 14 September, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Alana S. Portero Bad Habit (2023)

Set against the heroin epidemic that ravaged Madrid in the 1980s and the city’s vibrant party scene that dominated its nightlife in the 1990s, Bad Habit follows Portero’s unnamed protagonist as she grows up in a blue-collar suburb that has no place for her. Forging ahead, she discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a lively party scene animated by junkies, pop divas, and fallen angels. But with each step she takes forward, she finds herself confronted by a violence she does not yet know how to counter; in this exciting, often terrifying, world each choice can truly be a matter of life and death.

Monday 12 October, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask (1949)

In this queer classic, Yukio Mishima dramatizes his own youth as a gay adolescent who grows up in a Japan that is on the brink of entering the Second World War. While right-wing militarism is on the rise, Kochan is struggling with his homosexuality and trying to fit into society. As Kochan becomes obsessed with queer European imagery, such as paintings of Saint Sebastian and Joan of Arc, he tries to cover up his desire for other men by dating a girl named Sonoko. The result is what Mishima describes as a “reluctant mascquerade”.

Monday 16 November, 19:30 – 21:00, Dok B

Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby (2021)

Torrey Peters debut nove tellst the story of three persons—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex. Reese and Amy seem to have a loving relation, until Amy detransitions and becomes Ames. At the same time, Ames’ lover Kate becomes pregnant, which opens the possibility for Reese and Ames to raise the child they always wanted but thought they could never have. Detransition, Baby is a witty novel about the complexity of transgender experiences, detransitioning and the search for chosen family.