The Nepean High School library has a wonderful array of books available to students that a lot of people don’t really know about. The school library has a website that is accessible through the NHS website itself, in there is a link to alexandria, an online database of all the books in the nepean library. Alexandria is great, and not just because of the excellent name choice, it lets you browse books easily and find works that could be helpful for school or just for recreational reading without having to browse shelves for a long time (not that that isn’t fun in its own right).

This is how I found Am I blue? Coming out from the silence by a collection of authors and edited by Marion Dane Bauer. This book is by a collection of authors, featuring sixteen original short stories about the experiences of gay and lesbian people. Published in 1994, there are ideas and words no longer used today, and although used correctly in context to the time frame, they are still harmful. It still gives a beautiful window into the 2slgbtqia+ experience in a different time.

Reading anthologies of short stories by various authors is something I love to do but am not in the habit of, each story has a very unique writing style and getting short snippets of that is an amazing way to start thinking about other books you’d be interested in reading.

A large number of the authors themselves are a part of the 2slgbtqia+ community and it shows. Hearing stories from older queer folks is something that became a lot harder through losing so many people in the AIDs epidemic and to have stories about queer people that were published nearly three decades ago and tell stories older than that is beautiful. While most of the stories are realistic fiction, there is truth to them as a number of authors have buried their lived experiences in these words.

There are numerous gems hidden in Nepean’s own library and this is just one I found—so why not go looking for your next read in the building with a library so nearby? Your next great read could be waiting for you.