Selby Wynn Schwartz

Nominerad till Bookerpriset 2022»Det första vi gjorde var att byta namn. Vi skulle bli Sapfo.« Lina Poletti - Sarah Bernhardt - Colette - Eleonora Duse - Joséphine Baker - Virginia Woolf - Natalie Barney - Gertrude Stein - Romaine Brooks - Nancy Cunard och många fler... Ett vimmel av författare, konstnärer, skådespelerskor, översättare och mytologiska sierskor vävs samman i Selby Wynn Schwartz tidsöverskridande roman om kreativitet, frihet och tillblivelse i Sapfos efterföljd. Efterord av Alexandra Borg »Ett verk av eggande genialitet, en katalog över intimiteter och påfund, begär och drömmar.« Jacob Brogan, Washington Post »Andlöst, sensuellt vacker... Något nytt och nödvändigt.« Lara Feigel, The Guardian

"The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho," so begins this intrepid debut novel, centuries after the Greek poet penned her lyric verse. Ignited by the same muse, a myriad of women break from their small, predetermined lives for seemingly disparate paths: in 1892, Rina Faccio trades her needlepoint for a pen; in 1902, Romaine Brooks sails for Capri with nothing but her clotted paintbrushes; and in 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: "I want to make life fuller and fuller." Writing in cascading vignettes, Selby Wynn Schwartz spins an invigorating tale of women whose narratives converge and splinter as they forge queer identities and claim the right to their own lives. A luminous meditation on creativity, education, and identity, After Sappho announces a writer as ingenious as the trailblazers of our past." This book is splendid: Impish, irate, deep, courageous. . . . Brava "--Lucy Ellmann, author of Ducks, Newburyport

"The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho," so begins this intrepid debut novel, centuries after the Greek poet penned her lyric verse. Ignited by the same muse, a myriad of women break from their small, predetermined lives for seemingly disparate paths: in 1892, Rina Faccio trades her needlepoint for a pen; in 1902, Romaine Brooks sails for Capri with nothing but her clotted paintbrushes; and in 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: "I want to make life fuller and fuller." Writing in cascading vignettes, Selby Wynn Schwartz spins an invigorating tale of women whose narratives converge and splinter as they forge queer identities and claim the right to their own lives. A luminous meditation on creativity, education, and identity, After Sappho announces a writer as ingenious as the trailblazers of our past." This book is splendid: Impish, irate, deep, courageous. . . . Brava "--Lucy Ellmann, author of Ducks, Newburyport

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho is Selby Wynn Schwartzs joyous reimagining of the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th century as they battle for control over their lives for liberation and for justice.

The Bodies of Others explores the politics of gender in motion. From drag ballerinas to faux queens, and from butoh divas to the club mothers of modern dance, the book delves into four decades of drag dances on American stages. Drag dances take us beyond glittery one-liners and into the spaces between gender norms. In these backstage histories, dancers give their bodies over to other selves, opening up the category of realness. The book maps out a drag politics of embodiment, connecting drag dances to queer hope, memory, and mourning. There are aging étoiles, midnight shows, mystical séances, and all of the dust and velvet of divas in their dressing-rooms. But these forty years of drag dances are also a cultural history, including Mark Morris dancing the death of Dido in the shadow of AIDS, and the swans of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo sketching an antiracist vision for ballet. Drawing on queer theory, dance history, and the embodied practices of dancers themselves, The Bodies of Others examines the ways in which drag dances undertake the work of a shared queer and trans politics.

The Bodies of Others explores the politics of gender in motion. From drag ballerinas to faux queens, and from butoh divas to the club mothers of modern dance, the book delves into four decades of drag dances on American stages. Drag dances take us beyond glittery one-liners and into the spaces between gender norms. In these backstage histories, dancers give their bodies over to other selves, opening up the category of realness. The book maps out a drag politics of embodiment, connecting drag dances to queer hope, memory, and mourning. There are aging étoiles, midnight shows, mystical séances, and all of the dust and velvet of divas in their dressing-rooms. But these forty years of drag dances are also a cultural history, including Mark Morris dancing the death of Dido in the shadow of AIDS, and the swans of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo sketching an antiracist vision for ballet. Drawing on queer theory, dance history, and the embodied practices of dancers themselves, The Bodies of Others examines the ways in which drag dances undertake the work of a shared queer and trans politics.

«Kva vi ville ha? Til å begynne med det halve befolkninga hadde fått berre ved å bli fødd.» Det er 1895. Midt i klesvasken og full av blåmerke føder Rina Pierangeli Faccio barnet til mannen som valdtok henne – og som ho blei tvinga til å gifte seg med. Ubøyeleg bestemmer ho seg for å byte namn, og med det: skape eit anna liv.1902. Romaine Brooks siglar til Capri. Ho har knapt nok pengar til ferja, ingen til mat. Penslane hennar er avskala og stive. Men ho er viss på at ho kan få selt eit måleri og slik forandre seg sjølv – og verda si. I 1923 skriv Virginia Woolf: Eg vil starte med å skildre mitt eige kjønn. Fortald gjennom eit kor av ulike stemmer er Etter Sapfo ei gledefylt nytolking av livet til fleire framståande feministar, sapfistar, kunstnarar og forfattarar frå førre hundreårskiftet, som kjempar for kontroll over eige liv, for frigjering og rettferd – eit eige rom. Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, Gertrude Stein, Radclyffe Hall og Josephine Baker er blant dei mange kvinnene som deler sidene i denne romanen, som er like heftig som han er lysande. Frodig og poetisk, rasande og morosam. I Etter Sapfo har Selby Wynn Schwartz skapt ei forteljing som hylla fortidas kvinnelege pionerar og kunsten deira – og som gir håp for både samtida og framtida. Boka er omsett av Oda Malmin.«Andelaust, sanseleg vakkert … Noko nytt og nødvendig.» Guardian «Etter Sapfo oppnår det berre den rausaste kunsten får til: å skape ei meir fullkommen verd av det ufullkomne i vår eiga. … Eit verk av gripande geni, ein katalog over nærleik og nyvinningar, begjær og draumar.» Washington Post«Etter Sapfo er ei bok som bør nytast langsamt, som ein praktfull solnedgang – sjølv om ho roper mot nattas uunngåelege mørke.» Boston Globe«Eit forbløffande verk.» Publishers Weekly«Ei unik bok som rommar rettferdig harme like naturleg som lyrisk fridom og glede.» Guardian, Books of the YearBlant årets beste bøker hos BBC, Guardian, New Statesman og Independent.