Michelle Tea

The selected journals of trans, mixed-race artist and dyke erotica writer Red Jordan Arobateau. Best known for his erotic lesbian fiction, Red Jordan Arobateau was also a prolific painter who maintained and self-published a journal for roughly twenty years, documenting his life on the “abject bottom” of life in the U.S. Edited and introduced by poet and scholar Cameron Awkward-Rich with a foreword by Michelle Tea, and paintings by Arobateau, Time Also Will Make It Interesting captures Arobateau’s life as a young dyke in the criminalized cultures of 1950s-60s gay bars of Chicago and New York; his transition from dyke to trans man in late 1990s San Francisco; and his return to painting and an unfolding spirituality within that rapidly gentrifying city. Queerly messy, ornery, and stuffed with Arobateau’s wisdom, this volume is what he might have called, “a novel combined with a journal—da novel/journal! Taking all the liberty in the world! A domain where verse can be inserted, dreams recorded, my everyday political rants printed out, combined with my forté—fiction! All under one binding & title!”

In Spencer’s fantasies, the breezy, queer streets of Provincetown are utopia, a place where he can be free. And when a violent attack in his suburban Arizona schoolyard sends him to the hospital, he decides queer utopia can’t wait. One night, with the help of his best friend, the teenage witch Joy, he hitches a ride to find it. What follows is a cross-country road odyssey throughout the USA, taking Spencer from new moon rituals in Arizona canyons to Texas bus stations, from the luxe drag stages of Houston’s Montrose district to the jazz-soaked streets of New Orleans and beyond. This new novel from Michelle Tea tells the story, by turns raw, romantic, and sweet, of a sheltered boy taking his first leap into queer life, among all the complicated queers who live it.

An anarchic and unflinching cult novel "charged with reflection, anger, and the feeling of being alive" (Village Voice), tracing a year of love and lust in San Francisco's lesbian underground, with a new foreword by Maggie Nelson Valencia is a fast-paced account of one girl's search for love and high times in the dyke world of 1990s San Francisco. Fleeing Tucson and her rotten (ex) girlfriend, Michelle lands in the Mission District, where queers from all over the country are arriving in search of themselves and each other. An aspiring poet, she hurls herself into the city's riotous underbelly, stumbling through nightlife and open mics, drug adventures, and a string of hookups, breakups, and makeups. As butches and besties spin in and out of Michelle's orbit, she ponders the powerful force and casual cruelty of their desires, and of her own--all in a singular, biting, deadpan voice shot through with humor and heartbreak. Heady, beer sticky, and brimming with life, Valencia is a sharply observed and piercingly funny chronicle of a year lived close to the bone. Now with a new foreword from Maggie Nelson, this lesbian cult classic is ripe for rediscovery.

The 25th anniversary edition of Michelle Tea's classic coming-of-age story, now with a foreword by Maggie Nelson, award-winning author of The Argonauts 'Hilarious, euphoric, perspicacious and punk - the book that showed so many of us how writing can be real' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar 'One of the few truly life changing books I've encountered' Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby Fleeing Tucson and her troublesome on-and-off ex-girlfriend, Michelle lands in queer San Francisco's riotous underbelly, stumbling through her early twenties in a haze of nightlife, drug adventures, scams and a string of hookups, break-ups and make-ups. As butches and dykes spin in and out of her orbit, she considers the force and casual cruelty of their desires and her own. Heady, beer-sticky and brimming with life, Valencia is a sharply observed and piercingly funny chronicle of a year lived close to the bone. 'If you want to know how dangerous and great and awful it is to be a girl, you'll scarf Valencia right up' Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls 'Michelle Tea is an intoxicating writer, delivering sentences that land with the snap and force of a punch' Guardian

In this enchanted sibling to the cult classic Modern Tarot, literary and tarot icon Michelle Tea returns to her magical roots, offering stories, little-known history, traditions, rituals, and spells for any witch seeking a deeper spiritual practice.A self-described DIY witch and professional tarot reader, literary and feminist icon Michelle Tea provides a fascinating magical history and spiritual traditions from around the world, giving us the tools, spells, and rituals to navigate our stressed-out, consumer-driven lives. Witty, down-to-earth, and wise, she bewitches us with tales of how she crafted her own magical practice and came into her own. She also shares enchanting stories from her earliest witchy days as a goth teen in Massachusetts as well as insights from her adult practice. Modern Magic gives us the tools to tap into a stronger, distinctive magic that lies within us, one that incorporates queer, feminist, anti-racist, intersectional values. These include:Love Magic for the 21st centuryHexes for when you really need them (and an exploration of magical ethics)Sleep Magic, from dream interpretation traditions to prophetic dreamsThoughts on why magic practice is spiritual practiceMichelle shares her truth and observations about the world around us as well as her vision for what it could be. For novice and seasoned witches alike, Modern Magic is the essential guide for defining and deepening a practice that aligns with our individual political and spiritual values.

What it means to be sexually promiscuous in contemporary American culture, edited by cult-favorite author Michelle Tea. SLUTS, the first publication from vulgarian queer publisher DOPAMINE BOOKS, is an exploration of what it means to be sexually promiscuous in contemporary American culture. Featuring personal essays, spilled secrets, fiction, memoir, and experimental works, SLUTS asks writers and readers to investigate the many ways the notion of the slut impacts our inner and outer lives, as a threat or an identity, a punishment or an aspiration, a lifestyle, an aesthetic, a philosophy and rallying cry. From hideous and terrifying first encounters to postapocalyptic polyamory, from unionizing sex workers to backstage tableaux of sex and drugs and rock and roll, SLUTS's stories probe the liberating highs and abject lows of physical abandon. Featuring work from performer Miguel Gutierrez, hailed by the New York Times as "an artist of ordered excess"; former Nylon magazine editor in chief Gabrielle Korn; award-winning author Brontez Purnell; Whore of New York author Liara Roux; National Book Critics Circle Award winner Jeremy Atherton Lin; and a host of additional artists and writers, SLUTS reveals the knowledges provoked by a dalliance with desire. With work by BRONTEZ PURNELL * VERA BLOSSOM * MEREDITH MARAN * ROBERT GL CK * GABRIELLE KORN * CARLEY MOORE * NATE LIPPENS * CARTA MONIR * DREW ARRIOLA-SANDS * TOM COLE * JENNY FRAN DAVIS * BARUCH PORRAS-HERNANDEZ * KAMALA PULIGANDLA * ANNA JOY SPRINGER * LIARA ROUX * HEDI EL KHOLTI * JEN SILVERMAN * LYDIA CONKLIN * SAM COHEN * CHERYL E. KLEIN * JEREMY ATHERTON LIN * MCKENZIE WARK * DAVIEL SHY * FAWZY TAYLOR * CYRUS DUNHAM * MIGUEL GUTIERREZ * CHLOE CALDWELL * D-L ALVEREZ * AMANDA MONTIEL * LAURIE STONE * RYKA AOKI * VERONICA GONZALEZ PE A * TALEEN KALI * NICOLE REED * GRACE LAVERY * CRISTY C. ROAD * & more

From PEN/America Award winner, 2021 Guggenheim fellow, and beloved literary and tarot icon Michelle Tea, the hilarious, powerfully written, taboo-breaking story of her journey to pregnancy and motherhood as a 40 year-old, queer, uninsured womanWritten in intimate, gleefully TMI prose, Knocking Myself Up is the irreverent account of Tea’s route to parenthood—with a group of ride-or-die friends, a generous drag queen, and a whole lot of can-do pluck. Along the way she falls in love with a wholesome genderqueer a decade her junior, attempts biohacking herself a baby with black market fertility meds (and magicking herself an offspring with witch-enchanted honey), learns her eggs are busted, and enters the Fertility Industrial Complex in order to carry her younger lover’s baby.With the signature sharp wit and wild heart that have made her a favorite to so many readers, Tea guides us through the maze of medical procedures, frustrations and astonishments on the path to getting pregnant, wryly critiquing some of the systems that facilitate that choice (“a great, punk, daredevil thing to do”). In Knocking Myself Up, Tea has crafted a deeply entertaining and profound memoir, a testament to the power of love and family-making, however complex our lives may be, to transform and enrich us.

Dealing with jealousy and competitiveness plays out in a funny and perceptive Astro Pals take on being a Scorpio. Scorpio’s been holding a grudge ever since Aquarius called them “too intense.” Now, not only are they competing in the same Annual Autumn Schmoogleberry Pie Baking Contest, it looks like they’re competing for the same best friend, too! Will Scorpio defeat this best friend-stealer, or will they learn a lesson about not letting jealousy win the day?

The first episode in Michelle Tea’s emotionally wise Astro Pals series features Libra and a lesson about how friends can help you when you’re stuck. Trick or treat! Scorpio’s planning a Halloween party, and the Astro Pals can’t wait. Everyone has their costume ready, except for poor Libra, who just can’t decide! It can’t hurt to tell a little lie and say she can’t come to the party after all, right? But what happens when Aquarius and Gemini find out?

`I must find my own complicated junkie to have violent sex with. In 1994, nothing seemed like a better idea, save being able to write about it later.' Michelle Tea is our exuberant, witty guide to the hard times and wild creativity of queer life in America. Along the way she reclaims SCUM Manifesto author Valerie Solanas as an absurdist, remembers the lives and deaths of the lesbian motorbike gang HAGS, and listens to activists at a trans protest camp. This kaleidoscope of love and adventure also makes room for a defence of pigeons and a tale of teenage goths hustling for tips at an ice creamery in a `grimy, busted city called Chelsea'. Unsparing but unwaveringly kind, Michelle Tea reveals herself and others in unexpected and heartbreaking ways. Against Memoir is the winner of the 2019 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Best known as writer of fiction and memoir, this is the first time Tea's journalism has been collected. Delivered with her signature candour and dark humour, Against Memoir solidifies her place as one of the leading queer writers of our time.

One of the first-ever books about astrology for kids, Astro Baby is for babies who like to gaze at bright colors, toddlers who are fascinated by images of babies and animals, older children who like learning about their zodiac signs, and grown-ups who are obsessed with their star signs. The first in Michelle Tea's charming Astro Pals series, Astro Baby shows kids that everyone has unique qualities that make them who they are. Created by superstar scribe Michelle Tea and illustrated with psychedelic abandon by Mike Perry (animator for Broad City), Astro Baby is a fun, clever spin on astrology that will captivate young and old alike.

When Sophie Swankowski surfaces from the freezing waters, she finds herself in an ancient castle in Poland and in the center of an ages-old battle. Even with her magic powers, the strength and wisdom she learns from her companions in Warsaw, and the help of her gruff mermaid guardian, Syrena, how can one thirteen-year-old from scrappy Chelsea Massachusetts, really save the world?Luckily, Sophie won't be alone. As she connects to other girls around the globe who have been training, just like her, for this very fight, she begins to think she just may become the hero she's meant to be. But when she has to face the pure source of evil alone, using all the strength she has to keep it from destroying everything, how easy it would be to simply give up and join the other side...

"Eclectic and wide-ranging. . . . A palpable pain animates many of these essays, as well as a raucous joy and bright curiosity." --The New York Times "Gorgeously punk-rock rebellious." --The A.V. Club "The best essay collection I've read in years." --The New Republic The razor-sharp but damaged Valerie Solanas, a doomed lesbian biker gang, recovering alcoholics, and teenagers barely surviving at an ice creamery: these are some of the larger-than-life, yet all-too-human figures populating America's fringes. Rife with never-ending fights and failures, theirs are the stories we too often try to forget. But in the process of excavating and documenting these queer lives, Michelle Tea also reveals herself in unexpected and heartbreaking ways. Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, this is Tea's first-ever collection of journalistic writing. As she blurs the line between telling other people's stories and her own, she turns an investigative eye to the genre that's nurtured her entire career--memoir--and considers the price that art demands be paid from life. Michelle Tea is the author of numerous books, including Black Wave, Valencia, and How to Grow Up. She is the creator of the Sister Spit all-girl open mic, and founded RADAR Productions, a literary nonprofit that oversees queer-centric projects. Currently she curates Amethyst Editions, a queer imprint of the Feminist Press.

An urgent proclamation of what life is like for American women without the security of a financial safety netIndie icon Michelle Tea--whose memoir The Chelsea Whistle details her own working-class roots in gritty Chelsea, Massachusetts--shares these fierce, honest, tender essays written by women who can't go home to the suburbs when ends don't meet. When jobs are scarce and the money has dwindled, these writers have nowhere to go but below the poverty line. The writers offer their different stories not for sympathy or sadness, but an unvarnished portrait of how it was, is, and will be for generations of women growing up working class in America. These wide-ranging essays cover everything from selling blood for grocery money to the culture shock of "jumping" class. Contributors include Dorothy Allison, Bee Lavender, Eileen Myles, and Daisy Hernández.

The beloved literary iconoclast delivers a fresh twenty-first century primer on tarot that can be used with any deck. While tarot has gone mainstream with a diverse range of tarot decks widely available, there has been no equally mainstream guide to the tarot-one that can be applied to any deck-until now. Infused with beloved iconoclastic author Michelle Tea's unique insight, inviting pop sensibility, and wicked humor, Modern Tarot is a fascinating journey through the cards that teaches how to use this tradition to connect with our higher selves. Whether you're a committed seeker or a digital-age skeptic-or perhaps a little of both-Tea's essential guide opens the power of tarot to you. Modern Tarot doesn't require you to believe in the supernatural or narrowly focus on the tarot as a divination tool. Tea instead provides incisive descriptions of each of the 78 cards in the tarot system-each illustrated in the charmingly offbeat style of cartoonist Amanda Verwey-and introduces specially designed card-based rituals that can be used with any deck to guide you on a path toward radical growth and self-improvement. Tea reveals how tarot offers moments of deep, transformative connection-an affirming, spiritual experience that is gentle, individual, and aspirational. Grounded in Tea's twenty-five years of tarot wisdom and her abiding love of the cards, and featuring 78 black and white illustrations throughout, Modern Tarot is the ultimate introduction to the tradition of the tarot for millennial readers.

Desperate to quell her addiction to drugs, disastrous romance, and nineties San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it's officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird.While living in an abandoned bookstore, dating Matt Dillon, and keeping an eye on the encroaching apocalypse, Michelle begins a new novel, a sprawling and meta-textual exploration to complement her promises of maturity and responsibility. But as she struggles to make queer love and art without succumbing to self-destructive vice, the boundaries between storytelling and everyday living begin to blur, and Michelle wonders how much she'll have to compromise her artistic process if she's going to properly ride out doomsday.