More about the project

Who are you?

Hi! I'm Helen Bowell and I run Bi+ Lines. You can find out more about my work elsewhere on this website. Other partners on this project include: fourteen poems, Gay's The Word, Commonword, Manchester Poetry Library, Out on the Page, Spread the Word and The Writing Squad.

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Bi+ Lines included:

• 4 online workshops and 4 in London, Manchester, Norwich and Glasgow for poets at all stages (March - April 2023) - these are now over but you can follow Bi+ Lines on Eventbrite for future events here

• The first print anthology of bi+ poets in English, edited by me after an open submissions process (more than 2,800 poems were submitted from 40 countries!) and published by LGBTQ+ publisher fourteen poems. 

• From Autumn 2023 to Spring 2024, friendly, community-minded launch events in London, Manchester, Norwich, Glasgow, Brighton, York, Edinburgh and online featuring poets in the anthology

• Social media profiles (@bi_poets on Twitter and Instagram) to continue this community and celebrate the successes of bi+ poets long into the future

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What's the theme?

Through the workshops and the anthology, we explored the theme of 'in-betweenness'. 

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Bi+ people exist between categories. We are often seen as not being queer enough to be in a queer spaces, but neither are we straight enough to fit comfortably in the straight world. As a mixed race person with a sticky relationship to class, I've always felt a little outside of categories. And as a poet, too, I know about categories breaking down when you look too hard at them.

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So the theme for Bi+ Lines was 'in-betweenness', because I want to investigate that genre-defying existence and help bi+ people to reclaim it in their writing practice. I think poetry is very suited to exploring this, and I was excited to include genre-bending poems in the anthology too - whether that's prose poetry, visual poetry, verse drama, playing with form and fragments, collage, zines, found and blackout poetry, or even just experimenting with how a poem looks on the page.

 

And isn't defying categories one of the queerest things you can do?

 

What do you mean by bi+?

This project aims to be as inclusive as possible to people on the multisexual spectrum. If you are bi, biromantic, pan, poly, queer, fluid, heteroflexible, homoflexible, demisexual, greysexual, questioning (or otherwise feel aligned to the bi+ category) you are very welcome, as long as you're happy to be included in a project marked as bi+. Whether you know exactly what your label is or seem to change every week, whether you feel assured in your queerness or don't feel "queer enough", if you're ace, single, in a monosexual-presenting relationship or polyamorous, you are welcome and valid and valued here. Bi+ Lines welcomes trans people, and given the focus on beyond-the-binaries, I have been particularly interested in hearing from non-binary people.

 

You don't have to be out to take part in this project: anonymous contributions to the anthology were welcome and we'd love you to join the community in whatever feels safe to you. If you're still working out your sexuality, that's cool too! (And, I think, is very bi+.) Come along and we'll figure it out down the line.

 

I'll also leave Robyn Ochs’ famous definition of bisexuality below because I personally find it useful:

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I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.

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What are you doing about access?​

All events and submissions are free or pay as you feel. We had funding for a BSL interpreter at two workshops and launches, and Russell Andrews kindly interpreted our final event in Manchester. Online workshops were auto-captioned. Workshops took place at different times and days of the week to give people with a variety of schedules and responsibilities the chance to join at least one. 

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Why are you doing this?

I wanted to create a project specifically for bi+ people, who experience particular prejudices and stereotypes, and experience biphobia from both the queer community and the straight world. As a result, bi+ people are less likely to be out of the closet than their lesbian and gay counterparts, more likely to experience poor mental health, and less likely to join queer communities (Stonewall).

 

I hoped this project would give bi+ writers the chance to reclaim the in-betweenness that has been used to shut us out, and instead harness it creatively. I wanted the workshops to give bi+ poets a chance to develop their skills and write more, and hoped that the anthology would increase representation of bi+ people and exist as an object that helps future bi+ people feel less alone. I wanted all the workshops and events to be as focused on building community as developing craft and celebrating writers, and I want the @bi_poets social media profiles to keep that community going now that its initial funding has run out. Hopefully this project will do something small to reduce biphobia and its impacts on us.

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Why poetry? I'm a poet, it's all I know. I'm sorry if you're a bi+ science fiction writer - hopefully you'll find the outcomes of the project interesting and fingers crossed there will be a project some day for you too!

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And why am I doing this? Well, I'm a glutton for admin, aren't I...

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How did it all go?

Very well, I think, thanks for asking. I wrote a 25 page report on it, which you can download - alongside reading a quicker recap - here. 

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How can I hear more?

Sign up to the free Substack mailing list for updates about this and future queer poetry projects below. You can also follow us (who am I kidding, it's just me) @bi_poets on Twitter and Instagram and check back here for updates.