Sign-In
Cart
Unfinished Grief: Queer Love and Loss
Paperback
Series: Sexual Cultures, Book 65
Literary CriticismGLBTQIA StudiesPerformance Art
ISBN13: 9781479837281
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: Jun 2 2026
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.00
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
Takes up the work of artists and theorists who ask what happens when we learn to linger, dwell, live, and work with queer grief
What if, instead of overcoming grief, we learned to live with it? Unfinished Grief invites readers to linger within loss and to understand mourning not as an endpoint, but as a mode of relation, continuance, and care.
In this lyrical follow-up to his acclaimed After the Party, Joshua Chambers-Letson turns toward the art and theory of grief as a way of imagining queer survival. Drawing from queer of color critique, performance studies, Asian American studies, and Black studies, Chambers-Letson explores how love and loss are inseparable conditions of queer life. Engaging artists including Yoko Ono, Gertrude Stein, Bimbola Akinbola, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Joshua Rains, and Kia LaBeija, he considers the lessons art and performance teach about living with what remains unfinished.
Set against the backdrop of public and private catastrophe, from war and pandemics to the ravages of racial capitalism, Unfinished Grief insists that mourning and political struggle are entwined practices. Through sensuous, reflective prose and a deeply personal critical voice, Chambers-Letson reveals how grief can be both a sustaining and shattering site of vulnerability, creativity, and communal becoming. Intimate, meditative, and defiantly alive, Unfinished Grief reflects on the queer art of mourning in this guide to the beautiful, difficult work of staying with loss and finding life within it.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Chambers-Letson, Joshua
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital: The World of Extreme Happiness; Snow in Midsummer; The King of Hell's Palace
Ya-Chu Cowhig, Frances
Paperback
Also in
GLBTQIA Studies
Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity
Corber, Robert J.
Paperback
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together
Spade, Dean
Paperback
Transgender History, Third Edition: A Resource for Today's Struggle--And Tomorrow's
Stryker, Susan
Paperback
The Lesbian Bar Chronicles: The Living History and Hopeful Future of America's Dyke Dives and Sapphic Spaces
Karp, Rachel
Hardcover
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within Us Slave Culture
Woodard, Vincent
Paperback
Conversion Therapy Dropout: A Queer Story of Faith and Belonging
Schraeder Rodriguez, Timothy
Hardcover
As If We Were Staying: How We Build a Flourishing Future in a World That's Falling Apart
Scott, Spencer R.
Paperback
The Laramie Project and the Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
Kaufman, Moises
Fondakowski, Leigh
Pierotti, Greg
Paperback
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Serano, Julia
Paperback
Femmephilia: Love Letters to Trans Mermaids, Queer Mothers, and Marilyn Monroe
Lewis, Sophie
Paperback
Changing Our Mind: Definitive 3rd Edition of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics
Gushee, David P.
Paperback
Mechanic Shop Femme's Guide to Car Ownership: Uncomplicating Cars for All of Us
Milchtein, Chaya M.
Paperback
American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
Lang, Nico
Paperback
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
de Robertis, Caro
Paperback
Gender Rituals: Creating a Sacred Space for Your Body, Your Gender, and Your Becoming
Lawliet, Eli, PhD
Paperback
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
de Robertis, Caro
Hardcover
The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World
Downs, Alan
Paperback
Radical Relating: A Queer and Polyamory-Informed Guide to Love Beyond the Myth of Monogamy
Cassidy, Mel
Paperback
Healing the Oppressed Body: A Therapeutic Guide for Radical Self-Liberation
Gutiérrez-Glik, Andrea
Hardcover
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture
Brown, Sherronda J.
Paperback
Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color
Norris, Denne Michele
Electric Literature
Hardcover
Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers
Delaney, Anthony
Hardcover
Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America
Duberman, Martin
Paperback
The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs
Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi
Paperback
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and Beyond
Feinberg, Leslie
Paperback
A Pocket Guide to Pride Flags: An Illustrated History of Queer Community Symbols
Bjarnabur, Sindri Sparkle Freyja
Paperback
Radical Tarot: Queer the Cards, Liberate Your Practice, and Create the Future
Burgess, Charlie Claire
Paperback
Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness
Koresky, Michael
Hardcover
Queer Conception: The Complete Guide to Fertility, Iui, and Ivf for LGBTQ+ Parents-To-Be
Kali, Liam
Paperback
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Paperback
It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic
Lowery, Jack
Paperback
Queer X Design: 50 Years of Signs, Symbols, Banners, Logos, and Graphic Art of LGBTQ
Campbell, Andy
Hardcover
Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema
Maclay, Willow
Gardner, Caden
Paperback
Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance
Rose, Syan
Paperback
We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation
Brown, Leighton
Riemer, Matthew
Hardcover
The Transfeminine Guide to Physical Transition: For Trans, Nonbinary, and Other Feminine Folks
Hanrahan, Amelia Simone
Paperback
The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully Revised and Expanded Third Edition
Silverstein, Charles
Picano, Felice
Paperback
The Transmasculine Guide to Physical Transition: For Trans, Nonbinary, and Other Masculine Folks
Buch, Sage
Paperback
Cruising Utopia, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Then and There of Queer Futurity
Muñoz, José Esteban
Paperback
Notes from a Queer Cripple: How to Cultivate Queer Disabled Joy (and Be Hot While Doing It!)
Gurza, Andrew
Paperback
Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America
Smithers, Gregory
Paperback
Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America
Burton, Krista
Paperback
The Trans Self-Care Workbook: A Coloring Book and Journal for Trans and Non-Binary People
Lorenz, Theo
Paperback
Hood Wellness: Tales of Communal Care from People Who Drowned on Dry Land
Gordon, Tamela J.
Paperback
Café Lafitte in Exile: Queer New Orleans and the Story of America's Oldest Gay Bar
Palmquist, Jeffrey
Perez, Frank
Hardcover
Club Commons: Moving Bodies to Grow Movements in Queer Nightlife and Beyond
Prashar-Savoie, Anjali
Paperback
Queer Devotion: Spirituality Beyond the Binary in Myth, Story, and Practice
Burgess, Charlie Claire
Paperback
American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era
Lang, Nico
Hardcover
How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are
Iantaffi, Alex
Barker, Meg-John
Paperback