Happy Pride Month! It is a reminder of the struggle and beauty that our LGBTQIA community experiences in our long and very intersectional history. We honor Black queer/trans folks like Marsha P. Johnson whose resistance work led to the Stonewall Riot which would birth the Pride movement, or James Baldwin whose writings have taught us about race and sexuality, or Latinx transgender activist Sylvia Rivera who founded STAR with Johnson to address LGBTQ homelessness and other issues. There are many more whose contributions have created the blueprint for what we have today, and many of those have been forgotten throughout history. We must honor that history and the blueprint that’s been created for our future-making. We look at the increasing number of LGBTQIA presence in pop culture, and the normalization of queer relationships, however, with progress comes resistance. Drag bans, anti-trans laws are reaching several US states, and hate crimes against queer and trans people are still predominant. This demonstrates how urgent these issues are, and is a sobering reminder that visibility representation does not go far enough.
For Pride Month, we celebrate our resilience and authenticity while ensuring that our history does not get erased and that the work will continue to eliminate more barriers in the future. For those living in the LGBTQIA existence, do know that what you hold matters, and that being enough no matter where you are in your journey is okay. The work continues together in our journey.
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
I am proud to share my friend Anton Hur’s fiction debut, “Toward Eternity.” Anton is a queer Korean, award-winning translator known for his Korean-to-English translation of critically-acclaimed books such as Bora Chung’s “Cursed Bunny” & “Your Utopia, and Baek Saehee’s “I Want to Die But I Want To Eat Tteokbokki.” In his sci-fi debut book, Anton takes on a world that is becoming AI technology dominant and how technological advances are eliminating cancer and illnesses through nanites which are replacing body cells and creating immortality.
One of the characters, Yonghun who serves as a literary researcher teaches Pancit, an AI creation how to understand poetry. Yonghun would later receive nanotherapy and suddenly disappear only to reappear in a version that questions what’s real. The book explores the usage of poetry, language, and art through the complicated layers of AI and technological progression.
Anton’s writing in his debut book makes the reader question the concept of immortality and humanity’s role in technology. Through “Toward Eternity,” it aims to bring these curiosities to the forefront and discuss what makes us human in a time where technological advances become more human-like.
“Toward Eternity” is sure to provoke these questions and tantalize readers through its unique storyline. This book will be set for release on July 9th. To pre-order your copy, please visit: here.
Anton Hur short bio:
A translator and author working in Seoul. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, and raised in British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, and Thailand, but mostly in Korea. Author of Toward Eternity (HarperVia) and No One Told Me Not To (Across Books).
Happy Pride Month! Thanks for another book recommendation, I can’t wait to grab a copy of this when it comes out next month. The premise reminds me of my experience as a lit tutor to math majors in college. Lol