Queering the Burbs #01

Queering the Burbs #01 is Joe Erbentraut’s first printed zine. It is a collection of 16 essays and interviews, some of which originally appeared in Joe’s Substack newsletter of the same name and others which are appearing for the first time here.

The essays center on the experience of being queer in the western Chicago suburbs and more broadly on the feeling of being somewhere where you don’t belong but doing the work to try and change that. Interviews in the collection include conversations with activists and artists Annie Hex, Scott Naylor, and Lyndsay Hartman. Cover art by Jaime Torraco.

“These are stories about finding your people and channeling your power in a place and moment in time where those quests feel impossible. From Chappell Roan and Hallmark movies to queer proms and Rae Dunn women, these are stories about getting and staying more than a little bit weird. This is a collection about budding queerness on sometimes hostile ground. Just try and stomp it out, I dare you.” — Joe Erbentraut

A portion of the proceeds from online sales of the Queering the Burbs zine will be donated to Belong: Fox Valley, a local nonprofit working actively to create LGBTQ-inclusive spaces in the Tri-Cities.