The Small Queer Press Book Club is a continuous 2026 book club at The Pond aiming to uplift queer published works from smaller -mostly indie and micro- presses focusing on diverse stories of LGBTQIA+ life and people.
The book club will run in 2-3 month cycles, each cycle focusing on a different press.
In January and February we are exploring the works from Little Puss Press. For January we are reading “Worthy of the Event” by Vivian Blaxell:
Set against a backdrop of trans life that begins with her own transition in the 1960s, Vivian Blaxell takes us on a witty and expansive sweep through history, from Australia to Japan, to Hawai’i to Mexico, to heretofore unmapped regions of the mind.
In seven devastatingly intelligent parts, her essay covers a vast range in time and space — from the arson of a Japanese temple to a transformative encounter with a coral reef, from Nietzsche and Hegel to Indigenous metaphysics, from a perplexing relationship with a beautiful man to the unknowable minds of animals.
Fleshy and philosophical, searching and exalted, utterly distinctive and assured, Worthy of the Event belatedly establishes Vivian Blaxell as one of the major writers of her generation.
LittlePuss Press is a feminist press run by trans women. Made up of Emily Zhou, Casey Plett, Cat Fitzpatrick, & Sasha Karbachinskiy. They print queer, mainly trans, literature across genres, often highlighting works with humour and strong point of view. They believe in printing on paper, intensive editing, and throwing lots of parties. Read more about them here: https://www.littlepuss.net/about-us-1
*no reader commitment!*
- read the book, or start reading it
- show up to the discussion
- no sign ups needed
- you can go to one, or some, or all
- book club is held monthly
- 2-3 month cycles highlighting a different queer press
- the books are available at The Pond
- the books are in english, mostly fiction
There are copies of the book available at The Pond for a 10% discount!
If you want to join the bookclub remotely, or track your reading for these books, you can joining the Storygraph challenge for funsies.