La Bastarda
This coming-of-age story from Equatorial Guinea chronicles a teenage girl's quest to find out who she is.
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Trifonia Melibea Obono is a journalist and a professor at the National University of Equatorial Guinea. Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate in gender studies and human rights from the University of Salamanca, Spain.
Lawrence Schimel is an award-winning author and anthologist, and has been internationally recognized for his queer anthologies, gay and lesbian erotica, and children's books. His writing has been translated into over twenty languages. He served as cochair of the Publishing Triangle, an organization of lesbians and gay men in the American publishing industry, for two years, and also served as the Regional Advisor of the Spain Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for five years.
"Obono's voice is assured and vital, and her tale of queer rebellion in Fang society is an exceptional take on the coming-of-age novel." --Publishers Weekly
"The story will stay with you long after you've closed the book." --BUST Magazine
"An invaluable contribution to lesbian and gay literary culture." --Cheryl Clarke, author of Living as a Lesbian
"A breakthrough novel that tells the world, from an Equatorial Guinean perspective, that there is so much necessary life outside of, beyond, before, and after patriarchy. For those of us who have been told that we do not exist. That we cannot exist. That we should not exist. This groundbreaking story full of love and nurturing is a spell for remembering that we do exist, we have existed, and that we must support each other to exist and thrive as who we are." --Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of M Archive: After the End of the World
"Though I live a world away from Equatorial Guinea, I saw so much of myself in Okomo: a tomboy itching to be free and to escape society's rigged game. I cheered her on with every page, and wished--for myself and all girls--for the bravery to create our own world." --Maggie Thrash, author of Honor Girl
"A unique contribution to LGBTQ literature." -- Kirkus Reviews
