Dirty Bis strives to unite and amplify Bi+ voices. To do this, we perceived a continued need to centralise Bi+ culture and demonstrate to ourselves, that we do much more than simply exist. The Big Bi Bibliography: Edition Literary Bis strives to serve as a reference list for literary bi+ culture. Gradually, we will have Big Bi Bibliographies of multiple disciplines. Expect: The Big Bi Bibliography of Film and Television, Musicians, Artists, Models, Actors, Academics, Chefs – Tarot Readers? You see our angle.
To start this literary edition of the Big Bi Bibliography, however, we have eight authors, fiction, nonfiction and poets – which we will keep updating, so do continue to check back!
Antonia Angress, Sirens and Muses.
Antonia Angress was born in Los Angeles and raised in San José, Costa Rica. A graduate of Brown University and the University of Minnesota MFA program, she was a Winifred Fiction and a College of Liberal Arts Fellow.
Demystifying the inner workings of the art world, the majority of the action in Angress’ debut novel Sirens and Muses occurs at an elite school thriving amidst the 2011 financial crisis.
Featuring a brilliantly bisexual love triangle between Louisa, a scholarship student, the Delphian Karina and Preston, a modality-manipulating political agitator. It comes as joyous news that Angress is currently working on her second, equitably bisexual, novel.
Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much.
In 2021, Zaina Arafat, an international educator and Recipient of the Arab Women/Migrants from the Middle East fellowship at Jack Jones Literary Arts, debuted You Exist Too Much.
Vignetting between the United States and the Middle East, You Exist Too Much, traces an innominate Palestinian American bisexual woman.
The protagonist navigates a disembodying alienation, an awareness that, with the cost of authenticity being her lineage, wholeness would, enduringly, be a fantasy. Capturing the deficiencies of borders and binaries, of training our minds in ideologies and not criticality, it is unsurprising You Exist Too Much was awarded the 2021 Lamda Award For Bisexual Nonfiction.
Essie Dennis, Queer Body Power.
Essie Dennis is an author, multiform artist and influencer. A 2022 Changemaker of the year nominee, Dennis is the founder of Not A Bad Period, an Instagram account platforming the stories of those similarly affected by endometriosis.
Featuring testimonies from figures such as Yasmin Benoit, R.K Russell and Jackson King, Queer Body Power navigates, in spirit agnate to that of her multifaceted media presence, the distinct reality queer bodily experience and how this influences our self-perception.
In this multi-perspective approach, Queer Body Power becomes a dialogue of encouragement. We are goaded to question, amongst others, our beauty standards, food attitudes and social media’s flooding influence.
Shiri Eisner, Bi: Notes For A Bi Revolution.
It is challenging to navigate bisexual literature or activism without encountering Shiri Eisner. Mizrahi, bisexual, genderqueer and disabled, Eisner’s very existence is intersectional.
Lamda-nominated, Eisner debuted Bi: Notes For A Bi Revolution in 2013. Spearheading work that endures today: furnishing the bi+ community with the language necessary to express our often disenfranchised oppression.
The genderqueer writer and activist continue her work, momentarily moving away from long-form and embracing the multimedia advent.
Rachel Krantz, Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non Monogamy.
Award-winning journalist, founding editor of Bustle and the current host of podcast Help Existing, Rachel Krantz is the author of Open: An Uncensored Memoir Of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy, a work synergising the scientific and the salacious.
Open, a betoken of polyamorous, kink-friendly, bisexual lived experience, is underpinned by Krantz’s inaugural non-monogamous relationship with the sinistral Adam.
Bolstered by interviews with authorities such as Dr Tara Brach, Monk Tashi Nyima, and Dr Ryan Witherspoon, Krantz explores the nuances of polyamory – and how unethically Adam, an academic of the psychology of romantic and sexual desire, does it.
Sarah Nnenna Loveth Nwafor’, Already Knew You Were Coming.
Sarah Nnenna Loveth Nwafor’ is an ancestrally guided queer Igbo-American poet, educator, and facilitator.
In their debut chapbook, Already Knew You Were Coming, Nwafor, while lyrically wrestling with queerness, gender and codependent tendencies, embraces the fantastical in worlds where moons have tongues – and a banshee scream is a politic.
Dedicated to all the lonely black girls, Nwafor is the lyrical equivalent of an opera, tracing the formation of genderqueer, Igbo-American selfhood and bending not only gender but genre.
Charmee Taylor, Confessions Of A Bisexual: An Interactive Memoir.
Charmee Taylor is a bisexual author, activist, actor and social media personality. Los Angeles-based, the Scorpio beams behind Bi Astrology’s bon mot moments. As of this summer, Taylor is the Hot Bi Summer podcast host and founder. A seasonally unrestricted listen, despite neologistic hinting.
This year, in collaboration with Party Trick Press, Taylor released Confessions Of A Bisexual: An Interactive Memoir.
The work takes us alongside Taylor’s journey, from that of baby queerness to claiming our right to authentic, unapologetic pride. The end of each chapter features a space for reflection, buoying the reader to intuit: ourselves, the environment surrounding us and, concerning both, our actualising intentions moving forward.
Check out our review of Confessions Of A Bisexual
Tanya Turton, Jade Is A Twisted Green.
Toronto-raised and Jamaica-hailing Tanya Turton is the debut author of Jade Is A Twisted Green, a coming-of-age novel centring Jade, a young queer woman mourning the tragic loss of her twin sister navigating life’s unending capacity for regeneration. Igniting flames with her ex, Jade must consider: does she desire to live by habit – or vision?
Woven through Turton’s debut is the gratuitous love she pours into the world. Turton is an established intersectionality-centring activist. The founder and executive director of Adornment Stories and NiaZamar: Redefining Beauty, Turton is the Afropolitan Canada 2020 Entrepreneur winner, a recognition for her invaluable contributions to the Toronto community.
From Zaina Arafat’s mediation of Middle Eastern and queer identity to Rachel Krantz’s experience as one of the estimated 36% of bisexual women who suffer psychological abuse. These authors demonstrate the complexity of bisexual existence and its transcending presence across all identity markers.
In our multifacetedness, the diverse injustice and privileges we experience, we queer traditional senses of community and we emerge creatively stronger for it.
The Big Bi Bibliography is only possible because of all we already are. In curating this bibliography, Dirty Bis hopes to emphasise this. To continue battling bi+ invisibility, marginalisation and injustice however we may.
Enjoy,
Team Nonchalant x
Last Updated on 26th May 2023 by Nonchalant Magazine
Currently living in Berlin, yet tragically, not a fan of techno, Maedbh (she/her) is an English and Philosophy graduate (UCD, Dublin) and freelance writer. To date, her writing explores and celebrates queer identity, life and culture.
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