Out Here - by Emma Barnes & Chris Tse Hardcover

Book Synopsis

A remarkable anthology of queer New Zealand voices. We became teenagers in the nineties when New Zealand felt a lot less cool about queerness and gender felt much more rigid. We knew instinctively that hiding was the safest strategy. But how to find your community if you're hidden? Aotearoa is a land of extraordinary queer writers, many of whom have contributed to our rich literary history. But you wouldn't know it. Decades of erasure and homophobia have rendered some of our most powerful writing invisible. Out Here will change that. This landmark book brings together and celebrates queer New Zealand writers from across the gender and LGBTQIA+ spectrum with a generous selection of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and much, much more. From established names to electrifying newcomers, the cacophony of voices brought together in Out Here sing out loud and proud, ensuring that future generations of queers are afforded the space to tell their stories and be themselves without fear of retribution or harm.

Review Quotes

'I was excited by the extraordinary list of names before I even read their wonderful words. Such a variety of ages and ethnicities; poetry, prose, plays, comics - so comprehensive, so inclusive, so cool! When I signed the Homosexual Law Reform Petition more than 35 years ago, I never dreamed that one day I would be able to marry a woman if I chose, or that a publication like this could possibly exist. It's the past and the future. It's a Taonga. These writers have claimed their space. Let's celebrate their voices!' --Carole Beu, MNZM, The Women's Bookshop


'It is not that queer writers haven't been writing, or even that their writing hasn't been published, but, as Jackson Nieuwland wrote in an essay for The Pantograph Punch, it hasn't been identified as queer writing, with the result that many young and queer New Zealanders have looked beyond New Zealand for the writing with which they could identify. This anthology will make a tremendous difference.' -- Anna Jackson, Victoria University of Wellington

'The diversity of our society is being increasingly realised and celebrated, even in our parliament, but the lists of books showcasing queer writing, issued by influential publishers, might be in danger of failing to reflect this. Out Here will go a long way to redressing this lack - it is broadly inclusive, it spans various genres of writing and creative expression, it sets the very new alongside the more established, and it reveals a breadth and diversity within the rainbow literary community that not even the editors were aware of. It is clear there is a desire and a need for an anthology like this, and potentially a very large market for it also.' --Paul Millar, University of Canterbury

About the Author

Emma Barnes (Ngati Pakeha, they/them) studied at the University of Canterbury and lives in Aro Valley, Wellington. Their poetry has been widely published for more than a decade in journals including Landfall, Turbine Kapohau, Cordite, and Best New Zealand Poems. They are the author of the poetry collection I Am in Bed with You (2021). Chris Tse (he/him) was born and raised in Lower Hutt. He studied English literature and film at Victoria University of Wellington, where he also completed an MA in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML). Tse was one of three poets featured in AUP New Poets 4 (2011). His first collection How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (2014) won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry and his second book He's So MASC was published to critical acclaim in 2018.