Shithole Years

Abstract

Shithole Years is a collection of short stories about queer and trans kids and young adults of color fumbling their way through the world and trying to orient themselves in the unlit landscape of identity and love. In many of the stories, romantic love is a catalyst for the character’s first attempt at self-understanding. In “Another Continent,” Nelun is a member of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora who grew up in the U.S.; her queerness adds stress to the already tenuous connection she has to the island and her Sri Lankan family, even if that queer identity is never discussed. In “The Shithole Years,” young journalists find warmth in each others’ arms as a way to ward off how the heartless news cycle seems to be turning them cold. Two of the stories utilize unreliable narration to complicate the characters’ relationship to truth and expose parts of them that they’d rather not look at. In doing so, I show that forcing people to hide themselves from the world inevitably forces them to hide from themselves. This piece of fiction is a demand that the world recognize queer and trans people’s humanity, including the ugly bits.