Book Review: “Country Queers”

“ …what it means for me to be a country queer, is that you can’t leave your folk at the door. You can’t act like you grew up with people that weren’t like the people that are acting all kinds of crazy in all kinds of ways.” – Elandria Williams

“Country Queers: A Love Letter” weaves oral history interviews and a personal narrative into a felt sense of place and belonging of rural queer and trans people. Rae Garringer succeeds in countering a popular ideology that LGBTQ+ people can only find each other, experience joy, and have safety in urban centers through the experiences they highlight throughout the book. Their own story of rural LGBTQ+ identity and relationship to place as a queer person drawn back to their roots in rural West Virginia is a throughline. Garringer generously shares their close collaborators and thought partners with the reader as well as candid conversations with movement elders, like Dorothy Allison. Conversations like the one with Allison ensure that “Country Queers: A Love Letter” enters the historical record of queer, working class social movement history.

The book follows the start of Garringer’s audio project — which also takes the format of a podcast called “Country Queers” with eventual spinoffs like “Ode to Sheep.” A wellspring of public interest leads them on a pivotal road trip, and the continuation of the audio project for 10 years and counting. The reader is brought in closely to Garringer’s evolution of their role as an oral historian developing new skills and in reflective practice. A central part of the narrative arc is a transparent look into Garringer’s process of building a project meant to increase visibility of rural queer and trans people, and their integration of new information and insight about power structures and representation in their work at the intersections of race and class. They pull back the curtain on the lack of resources available, historically and presently, to many of their interviewees as well as the scant resources to carry out the cultural work necessary to document, celebrate, and uplift historically marginalized voices.

“Country Queers: A Love Letter” is a tender personal tale, a serious archive, and full of humor. Garringer’s personal observations and astute lens on rural culture and perceptions of rural life are deeply honest and heartfelt, and often funny. The book is visually rich and multidimensional. The page edges and spaces between text are scattered with colorful sequins and compelling artifacts. Portraits of life on the road and of interviewees taken in their home spaces come from Garringer’s own camera. The end result is the feeling of going through a storied, beloved scrapbook that you’ve happened upon, with its author close by taking you through each memory. When you close the cover, there’s a slight pang that you’re saying goodbye to good friends and neighbors.

– Grace Johnston-Fennell with Out in the Open

This review was originally published in the summer 2025 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener. Browse the archives for free content on organic agriculture and sustainable living practices.