LOVE SPEECH ︎︎︎ 

Book
poetry/auto-theory
Published by Metatron Press
Perfect bound
84 Pages
ISBN |  978-1-988355-17-7
Watch the book trailer here
Order here



Love Speech is an auto-theoretical book that reads both like poetry and an epistle; a textile of literary mothers shot through with cultural-political feelings, threads of conversation, and moments from queer life. Love Speech takes it titles from an ethics of addressability that Judith Butler originally raises to examine what makes language such as hate speech hurtful. “Our very being exposes us to the address of another,” she says (via Claudia Rankine’s account in Citizen: An American Lyric.) Butler considers the inverse in several conversations, and Huang, too, is more devoted to theorizing and enacting love speech further.

Launched in stereo with a book tour summer 2019:

Aug. 8: Toronto, ON @ Type Books
Aug 11: Kingston, ON @ Novel Idea
Aug 12: Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea
New York City, NY @ Baby Castles


“Tender and strong, Love Speech weaves together citations of queer poetry and theory with terse revelations of how contemporary conditions of work impact our experience of love. Huang posits possibilities for joy and for survival not in a distant utopia, but locating them somewhere closer to here and now.”

– KAITLIN CHAN, founder of Queer Reads Library


THE LINK | Book Review: Love Speech by Xiaoxuan / Sherry Huang | “It’s like reading the diary of your smartest friend.”

THE CASCADE | Book Review | “Love Speech is an intimate and philosophical reflection on the manifestation of love in the life of a queer immigrant-settler. Huang carefully balances poetry and academia in this auto-theoretical piece that, admittedly, can go over the heads of readers but nonetheless has earned its place amongst academic circles focused on gender studies and philosophy.”