Historical Fiction Writing Workshop: Queer Travel Guides

Handle real archival queer New England travel guides from the 1970s–2000s and write your way into local LGBTQ+ history with Jessica Taylor!

In this intimate writing workshop, you'll come into the Queer History Boston archives and work directly with original LGBTQ+ travel guides to New England from the 1970s through the 2000s — the actual documents that helped queer people find the bars, guesthouses, bookstores, and beaches that made community possible across the region.

Queer history is so often erased, left out, or written around. That means queer storytelling asks something special of us: we have to imagine into the gaps. But in this workshop, you'll have real historical documents in hand — and that's where it gets exciting. What do these guides tell us? What do they leave out? And what stories are waiting inside them?

Writer and researcher Jessica Taylor will guide a group of just eight participants through hands-on time with the materials and structured prompts to get you writing. All levels welcome! We're excited about activating the archive and letting your imagination run wild with some genuinely incredible primary sources.

Jessica Taylor is a writer, researcher, and long-time volunteer in LGBTQ community archives. Her work has appeared in Public Books, Sapiens, and Arc Poetry, and she has taught at the University of Toronto and Harvard. She is currently writing a history of queer romance and a time-travel heist novel.

Space is limited to just 8 participants — grab your spot!

All ticket sales go directly to support the QHB archives!