Andrea Gibson (author of LORD OF THE BUTTERFLIES) interviewed on Bitch Magazine

“The most common queer narratives offered up by mainstream pop culture feature a central dramatic transformation. Once a surgery is performed, a same-sex marriage is legal, or a kiss on a Ferris wheel elicits cheers below, protagonists arrive at happiness as if it’s a fixed destination. Getting to these feel-good endings requires queer characters to gain recognition by straight culture, and that recognition is contingent on fitting a binary, slotting into a relationship that looks as much as possible like a hetero coupling, and participating in a commodified version of self-actualization.

In their fifth collection of poetry, Lord of the Butterflies, Andrea Gibson resists such tidy narratives in favor of dramatizing a life that’s vibrant with constant transformation. ‘Every answer/is a grave. the questions are the warm rain/ I walk through now to find my way,’ they write. Gender, sexuality, happiness, and health are part of an ever-shifting field; they are acknowledged as a source of endless creation. The collection ends with a whispered voice that urges us to keep moving toward a yet-unimagined future: ‘There will be music for you, /one day.’”