He references studies from the book “A General Theory of Love” by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon. With the goal of restructuring masculinity, Wray’s poem’s are infused with academic works of psychobiologists who study the inner workings of human behavior. Wray’s poems, including his anthology “No Doubt I Will Return a Different Man,” capture how his physical changes embody his goals, including poems about his childhood in Arkansas. Wray’s work beautifully relies on memory and the responsibility of “redefining and reimaging what masculinity looks like” and its potential to be less violent and affirming. “Diversity is important to our festival … so we’re thinking about the queer community and making sure we have writers that reflect that community.” This was the first in-person event since the COVID-19 lockdown. “I’m really happy to bring this to the community after so long and so much time away,” said Kate Peterson, organizer of the Get Lit! event. The reading then moved on to a discussion about the state and future of queer poetry. On April 22, three queer poets, Tobias Wray, Rajiv Mohabir and Chen Chen, replenished those wells with a poetry reading at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, part of the Get Lit! festival hosted by Eastern Washington University.
Within that alternative lies brilliance, a colorful life that relies on sifting through common hardships of queerness such as homophobia and dehumanization, relying on the arts to revitalize one’s life. It made me curious, it made me ask this is not enough for me because there’s nothing here for me,” Vuong said. “Often, we see queerness as a deprivation, but when I look at my life, I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me, I had to make alternative routes. In 2020, Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong’s words resonated with millions of queer readers, poets and everyone in and out of the literary world during an A24 interview with American fiction writer Bryan Washington, in which he discussed being gay.