Cuíer

“A valuable addition to the significant body of gay, lesbian, and queer Brazilian literature, foremost because of the outstanding selection of writers it brings together… Cuíer’s very diverse voices not only represent male gay or lesbian desire but, moving way beyond binary limitations, give expression to the full spectrum of human sexuality and queer identities, including those that refuse any such identification… A precious gem.” —World Literature Today

“The latest offering from Two Lines Press’s chic Calico series is, like all its predecessors, expansively and thoughtfully curated…it will not deign to explain itself to us, if it does not want to. And this quality might well characterize all of the books in Two Lines’s Calico series, but I find it especially apt here—in the lives of people for whom mystery might be a form of survival.” —Asymptote

“This anthology of translations is as much a gift as a collection, attempting to encapsulate the multitude of experiences that make up queer Brazil. Poetry and prose from some of Brazil’s most profound writers appears on the page in the original Portuguese and in English translation, underscoring the importance of translation as an act of seeing and understanding… A must-read for those seeking to expand their global world view of queer life and literature.” —Emily Dziuban, Booklist

“This eclectic bilingual anthology from queer Brazilian writers, both living and dead, is as expansive and full of life as the country itself…enticing and poignant.” —Publishers Weekly

“A lively collection… American readers will easily connect with the universality of queer experiences portrayed, from romance, to coming out, to struggling with identity and with AIDS, but will find them enlivened and made fresh again by uniquely Brazilian details.” —Passport

“A concise and enlightening overview of the last fifty years of LGBTQ literature from South America’s largest country. Spanning Brazil’s regional boundaries and including legends such as Ana Cristina Cesar, Caio Fernando Abreu, and Wilson Bueno, as well as newer voices such as Marcio Junqueira, Cristina Judar, and Angélica Freitas among many others, Cuíer is nothing less than divine!” —John Keene, author of Counternarratives

“Oppression and liberation, struggle and joy, lots of sex and community, complicated childhood awakenings, coming-out euphorias, adulthood analyses—Cuíer merges the universality of queer experiences with the specificity of the Brazilian culture, creating an inspiring collection of angles and stances, forms and attitudes, that carries through to the very last, moving piece.” —Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir

“Fabulously queer in both senses of the word: it’s unlike anything you’ve encountered before, yet ever familiar.” —Rabih Alameddine, author of The Wrong End of the Telescope

“Cuíer: Queer Brazil is a thrilling collection of joyous and ruinous life in all of its contradictions. Like Kafka’s parables or Lispector’s The Passion According to G.H., the work in this volume makes a profound ethical statement: to depict honestly one’s life at oblique angles, often beautiful, often terrifying, can be both personal and revolutionary.” —Patrick Cottrell, editor of McSweeney’s 62: The Queer Fiction Issue

“This glorious collection of poetry, art, essays, and stories shows queer Brazil in its complex and multifaceted representation. You’ll be blessed with new authors to fall in love with and see a side of Brazil hidden so often from our eyes.” —Hannah Oliver Depp

“A truly wonderful collection of Brazilian queer writing, a perfect introduction to voices and narratives that otherwise might not have made it to the US readers.” —Anton Bogomazov, Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.)

Praise for the Calico Series

“A fantastic and deeply philosophical addition to Two Lines’s Calico series of collected works in translation.” —Booklist, on Elemental

“[Elemental‘s] mission is to show, by removing these texts from their natural habitats and plonking them on a stage devoid of context with no illumination but the harsh gaze of the quizzical reader, just how good translations can be. And I’m very pleased to report that the exercise is remarkably successful.” —Kit Maude, Akimbo Books (Rochester, NY), on Elemental

“Stone, earth, water, ice, wind, and burning heat. The stories here dig deep and unexpectedly into life’s fundamentals—the elements and the passions—bringing into English, many for the first time, writers of stature from across the globe. A celebration of both storytelling and translation, Elemental is essential, a gift that opens up the pleasures of new worlds.” —Hugh Raffles, author of The Book of Unconformities, on Elemental

“Marvelous…a credit to the art of both poets and translators.” —Cynthia Hogue, author of In June the Labyrinth and co-translator of Joan Darc by Nathalie Quintane, on Home

“Unbelievably exciting… These are poems to read and reread, repeating the lines as though they were a secret between yourself and the page.” —The Paris Review, on Home

“The poems in this anthology abound with vivid imagery and moving remembrances of the past. They’re also a powerful demonstration of how, using only a handful of words, a poet can create an entire world—as Mohamad Nassereddine does in ‘The Mechanic’s Heresy.’ Observe: ‘When the mechanic in blue / stares up at the sky, / for a minute, he thinks himself God.’ Haunting and resonant throughout.” —Words Without Borders, on Home

“This remarkable anthology of Chinese speculative fiction offers seven tales of societal responsibility and individual freedom… By turns cryptic and revealing, phantasmagorical and straightforward, these tales balance reality and fantasy on the edge of a knife.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review of That We May Live

“With enthralling and precise language, this first book in Two Lines Press’s Calico series of collected translated literature impresses… This collection of speculative Chinese fiction is compelling and provocative, exploring the thin line between reality and absurdity. ” —Booklist, starred review of That We May Live