Tea Leaves

LGBTQIA+

by Jacob Budenz

Tea Leaves is an astonishing collection of fables for our time by a young writer of tremendous power and promise.

Tea Leaves presents 16 speculative short stories that place queer characters in larger-than-life situations to emphasize the surreal experience of marginalization. A queer romance spans multiple incarnations, but only in doomed cities. A gay medieval scholar must testify for his life to the otherworldly octopus who traps him in a cafe bathroom. Ignoring their better judgment, a witch brings their mortal partner on a hunt for a dangerous sorcerer and must cope with the dire consequences.

Each of the stories within Tea Leaves explores the urgency of modern queer life in encounters between the otherworldly and the queer other. In juxtaposing queer narratives with new, larger-than-life myths, Tea Leaves both exalts and lampoons the queer experience while examining the sometimes surreal obstacles of marginalization.

REVIEW

5 out of 5

This was a fun, imaginative collection of short stories that have a thread of reality running through the fantasy worlds they’re based in. Budenz has a great narrative voice, and each story was compelling in its own way. There’s a wide array of representation among the characters, and the stories differ from each other quite a bit. I will warn you, some of the stories can get quite dark, and while not every story will be a hit for all readers, it’s such a diverse collection that it’d be easy to find at least a few you’ll enjoy. I was actually impressed by how different they all are. Overall, I really enjoyed this.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacob Budenz is a queer writer, multi-disciplinary performer, educator, and witch with an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins University whose work explores the intersections between otherness and the otherworldly. A 2020 winner of the Baker Innovative Projects Grant for Simaetha: a Dreambaby Cabaret, Jake has work in journals including Slipstream, Taco Bell Quarterly, Baffling, Wussy Magazine, and more, as well as anthologies by Mason Jar Press and Lycan Valley publications.