Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home - Paperback

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

Lambda Literary Award finalist

In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha ran away from America with two backpacks and ended up in Canada, where she discovered queer anarchopunk love and revolution, yet remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place. This passionate and riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares, of immigration court lineups and queer South Asian dance nights; it reveals how a disabled queer woman of color and abuse survivor navigates the dirty river of the past and, as the subtitle suggests, "dreams her way home."

About This Memoir

This memoir blends poetry and prose to chronicle a transformative journey across borders, identities, and communities. Piepzna-Samarasinha's narrative captures the raw reality of leaving behind trauma while building new communities in Canada's queer anarchopunk scene. The book addresses immigration experiences, disability justice, and the complexities of survival as a queer femme of color.

Lambda Literary Recognition

As a Lambda Literary Award finalist, Dirty River joins the ranks of significant LGBTQ+ literature that centers marginalized voices. The author's previous poetry collection Love Cake won a Lambda Literary Award, establishing her as an important voice in contemporary queer literature.