Published in 2000, Princess Freak by Nancy Agabian is the first [*] collection of poems and performance texts by a bisexual Armenian-American.
Agabian is the author of the memoir Me as Her Again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter, which was a finalist for a LAMDA literary award in the LGBT nonfiction category and shortlisted for a William Saroyan International Prize.
Her essays have been published in Ararat, The Brooklyn Rail, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Kweli Journal, Women Studies Quarterly and Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers. Her fiction has appeared in The Hye-Phen Magazine and the Queering Yerevan anthology Queered.
I don’t know how I got Meg to make out with me but I’m pretty sure I presented it as “Let’s play Wonder Woman.” I don’t remember if I was Wonder Woman or Wonder Woman’s boyfriend. All I know is Meg was into it […] Me and Meg lay on her twin bed and rolled around and hugged on the bedspread and then we kissed but with our mouths closed, it must have been our mouths were closed because she said “Okay now let’s really kiss,” so we opened our mouths and we rubbed our skin together, hugging our arms. I just wanted to know what it felt like to be romantically enmeshed like that.
Bumps by Nancy Agabian
Agabian published this collection eight years before her memoir, Me As Her Again. Throughout all of her writing, she shares her vulnerabilities, humor, confusion, rage, and contradictions.
The importance of which cannot be understated. If you are a Queer Armenian who grew up without any point of reference of what it means to be both Queer and Armenian, then you should read everything you can of Agabian’s work.
I hate feminine girls. I hate
feminine women who assume I have
a boyfriend and let dicks slide
in and out me all my post pubescent
life. I hate righteous dyes. I
hate righteous lesbians who
assume I wanna take a man fole, I
I wanna suck pussy all the time.Crochet Penis, Nancy Agabian
If available, please consider buying a copy at Abril Books. This book may also be available for purchase through the Queer Armenian Library’s shop at Bookshop.org. If you purchase a copy through Bookshop.org we will receive a commission.
Otherwise, please use Indiebound’s bookstore finder to find a copy at your closest independent bookstore.
ISBN: 978-1892184078. Published by Beyond Baroque Books.
