![]() But Gurba's is never language play just for its own sake her words always bend back to the lives, bodies, and psyches damaged by abuse: "Did you know PTSD is the only mental illness you can give someone? A person gave it to me. ![]() Mean is full of wordplay as language slips and slides through short sections, mostly narrative, but also frequently poetic, including a shaped poem and several lists. ![]() ![]() Language becomes the artful manner through which Gurba can articulate her experience while connecting it to the abuse that others have suffered. On the other hand, Mean, as Gurba describes below, makes demands on its readers, refusing them any simple accounting of the damages done to her while also challenging readers to contend with her complex, sharp, and even witty approach to talking about some of the most devastating experiences our culture creates for women, queer women, and queer women of color. On one hand, Gurba generously offers us a stark recounting of her own (and others') sexual abuse and trauma in a racist, misogynistic culture, telling deeply personal stories so we might better understand the dynamics of sexual predation in our culture. Her powerful memoir, Mean, published in 2017, reads like the queerest of gifts. For us, Gurba was an obvious choice to interview. ![]() In the following interview, guest editors Jonathan Alexander and Timothy Oleksiak sat down with writer Myriam Gurba to talk about queer generosity. ![]()
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