Have the Girls on My Street Disappeared or Have I Just Stopped Seeing Them: A Collection of Stories, Poems, and Essays

Abstract

This collection of stories, poems, and essays by Cynthia Lynn Schneider, entitled "Have the Girls on My Street Disappeared or Have I Just Stopped Seeing Them," is an exploration of girl- and womanhood, and especially queer femininity, as an experience that is simultaneously glittering and inherently treacherous. Schneider's work across three genres––poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction––works in unison to advance the conversation around the rooted aspects of femininity while also utilizing conventions and techniques that distinguish the genres from one another. In this project, Schneider poses many questions: How can women and femme individuals exist in a world in which violence and oppression are inevitable? When they find fragments of tenderness, where can they set them down? And, as the title suggests, what can be preserved through observation, recognition, and the acknowledgment of mutual weariness?