A Message from our Guest Editors

Whilst LGBTQ+ writers/artists/poets Frank O’Hara, David Wojnarowicz, Sarah Schulman, Edmund White, and Lee Lynch are known for their vivid 20th-century depictions of walking and sexuality, little contemporary writing about urban walking experiences by 21st century LGBTQ+ writers and artists exists. Aiming to alleviate this literary dearth and encourage and celebrate new voices, we were delighted to be invited to guest co-edit this special issue of StepAway Magazine exploring urban walking experiences by contemporary LGBTQ+ writers.

As writers and poets ourselves, our work has been influenced by issues involving the body, place, memory, walking and queer self-hood. The queer body navigating the urban environment at this point in history in 2025 is an interesting provocation within itself; the city presents a space where the queer body can feel seen in environments where this can be more difficult. Whilst many felt their sense of selfhood eroded by lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it could be argued that it hit the LGBTQ+ community harder. Many queer folks I (Lee) spoke to at the time were asking pertinent questions including: ‘Is this ‘new normal?’ ‘What spaces are available for queer people to perform their visibility?’ What is the future of those (urban) spaces that I discovered on my walk that are currently closed?’ ‘Will the queer people that once inhabited these spaces become invisible/unseen as their safe spaces in various cities and towns across the world have disappeared?’

Now that the pandemic is (at least for the time being) over, maybe our relationship to (queer) bodies, place (in terms of the city), memory and self-hood have changed and indeed been re-imagined. Do we now celebrate the ‘joy’ of being in city as a physical space in ways we may have not thought of before the pandemic?

In this special issue of StepAway Magazine, the notion of the manner in which queer individuals negotiate their way within an urban setting has been interpreted in a very diverse fashion. The work published here takes the form of diaristic montage, prose, surreal short stories and thought-provoking verse. Each response deals with the anticipation, the excitement and at times the danger that is implicit in perambulation through a public space. Within these pieces the topography of the interior life both melds and is at odds with the physical realities of the city. Moving through the various landscapes described becomes a means of escape, a source of adventure and a method of remembrance. Structurally, these three ideas (Escape, Adventure, and Remembrance) form the narrative arc of this issue.

In the first collection of work, exploring city as escape, James Chantry’s ‘Codhead’ is a surreal and defiant expression of the resilience of identity in the face of prejudice. The birthing of a new self from the realm of suppression. Eliza Mary Coe’s ‘Seoulbound’ explores the concept of negotiating a foreign city as commensurate with the realisation of one’s own sexuality. The self as an alienated or estranged being in relation to the foreign expectations of family/society convention etc. Matthew Keeley’s ‘London Bridge’ explores mirrored water as reflective of the process of understanding oneself within the fragments of the city. The final work in this section, ‘Empirical Evidence of the Existence of Angels’ by Leon Clowes shares long walks, a self-confrontation with addiction and questions how we exist in these spaces and what it means to do so. Can aspects of the self be found? Finally, Nathan Evans’ ‘The Knowledge’ is a provocative calling of how the self is found and liberated through queerness, with reference to ‘Smalltown Boy’ by Bronkski Beat (1984).

In the second collection of work, exploring city as adventure, Ben Goldnagl’s ‘Sun / Moon’ explores the idea of crepuscular liminality as indicative of an identity between spaces. In Dale Booton’s ‘Birmingham’, the city is presented as kaleidoscopic and sonically overwhelming but ultimately hopeful. Noa Smith’s ‘Adonis Gate’ (extract) explores coming to know the city as analogous with the exploration of one’s own internal psycho-topography. If the city is a masculinised edifice indicative of patriarchal relationship, can these be re-examined and built anew? Joe Walsh’s ‘Dangerous Utopia’ paints the city and by extension ‘polite’ society as a walled off, inaccessible space. Yet one tinged with excitement, possibility and danger. Jay Whittaker’s ‘Gone to Earth’ brings forth the perspective of non-human residents of the city. The foxes exist alongside the human and canine effluvia, each fashioning their own existence and meaning. Troy Cabida’s ‘All my future husbands are walking around the Southbank’ where the author plays with the idea of looking and the gaze that is desirous yet fleeting. An interiority projected on the city’s fragmented scenes. Finally, Gabrielle Lisk’s ‘The Queerest Person I Know’ relates feelings the author has about someone with the vibrant colourfulness of city experiences.

In the third and final collection of work, exploring city as remembrance, Ryan Thornton’s ‘Ways who Snickle against lost time’ is an exploration of the lost spaces that hold the ghosts of past encounters, a collapsing temporality of longing transcending epochs. Jack Westmore’s ‘Choumert Road’ is a melancholy fragment of remembrance. There is an excitement in walking but also a sense of loss. To where do we aim to walk? Lastly, Robin Lamboll’s ‘I thought of you, I think’ explores the notion of the remnants of past encounters written into the body’s self. The shrapnel of an old connection allowing the construction of new forms inscribed on the city’s exterior.

We hope you enjoy this important literary exploration of LGBTQ+ urban walking experiences.

Lee Campbell & Colin B. Osborn

Guest Editors, StepAway Magazine