TRIO #21

Friday December 5 2025

I work at a book store, which requires knowledge of contemporary fiction. A lot of contemporary fiction sucks ass, so my on-the-job preferences lean toward the reissues, books long out of print and often under-appreciated during their time, which some scrupulous editor has unearthed and repackaged for contemporary audiences. Over the next few weeks, as we move into the holidays and the end of the year, I’ll use this newsletter to jot down some notes about my favourite reissues from 2025, starting with Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland.

I had a teacher in high school who mused that comedies are like smiles (they start up, then go down, then back up) while tragedies are like frowns (they start down, go up, then back down). If we trust this schema, Joe Westmoreland’s Tramps Like Us, originally published in 2001, is a tragedy: we start down, with our narrator Joe living under an abusive father in suburban Kansas, and then we go up as Joe ascends into the glittery whirlwind of gay nightlife in 1970s New Orleans and San Francisco, and finally we’re dragged back down by the emergence of AIDS in the early-to-mid 80s. However, what I appreciate about this book is Westmoreland’s ability to complicate that arc by finding moments of melancholy in the high points, and moments of joy in the lows.

One last thing: this summer I made a zine called Cause/Consequence alongside my friend, artist and animator Adrienne Scott. The zine came out of a workshop series about artistic ethics that Adrienne and I hosted at Art Metropole last winter, and includes contributions by Max Arambulo, Evelyn Austin, Esmé Hogeveen, Jessica Kasiama, Chris Mendoza, and Simone Northey. It’s little and cute and would make the perfect stocking stuffer, and you can buy it via Art Metropole or from me directly at TYPE Books Junction (I’ll be there most Sundays leading up to the holidays).

Til next time,

Cason