Title: Proud
Author: Juno Dawson, Caroline Bird, Simon James Green, Dean Atta, David Levithan, Cynthia So, Kay Staples, Tanya Byrne, Alice Oseman, Michael Lee Richardson, Karen Lawler, Fox Benwell, Jessica Vallance, Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Genre: Contemporary
Format: E-Book
Length: 352
Publisher: Stripes
Publication Date: 7th March 2019
My Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
A stirring, bold and moving anthology of stories and poetry by top LGBTQ+ YA authors and new talent, giving their unique responses to the broad theme of pride. Each story has an illustration by an artist identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Compiled by Juno Dawson, author of THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN.
A celebration of LGBTQ+ talent, PROUD is a thought-provoking, funny, emotional read.
Contributors: Steve Antony, Dean Atta, Kate Alizadeh, Fox Benwell, Alex Bertie, Caroline Bird, Fatti Burke, Tanya Byrne, Moïra Fowley-Doyle, Frank Duffy, Simon James Green, Leo Greenfield, Saffa Khan, Karen Lawler, David Levithan, Priyanka Meenakshi, Alice Oseman, Michael Lee Richardson, David Roberts, Cynthia So, Kay Staples, Jessica Vallance, Kristen Van Dam and Kameron White.
My Review:
Finally, I got around to reading Proud, and I thoroughly enjoyed the anthology. It contains 10 short stories and two poems and a piece of art accompanies each one.
It is a beautiful collection of work, and each piece has a story to tell tackling important subjects like homophobia, transphobia, anxiety, misgendering, etc. There were some that I loved more than others but each one was important and moving.
Dawson opened this anthology with an emotive forward and introduction talking about the trials and tribulations the LGBTQ+ community have faced. While progress has been made, there is still so much more that can be done.
What I also loved about this anthology is that it introduced me to authors I’ve not heard of before and reading their contributions here made me excited to check them out. This collection was heartwarming, sensitive, funny and powerful.
