Valencia
'An exuberant, hilarious record of an unprecedented and mutinous time in queer history' Maggie Nelson
Published on 5. June 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-80522-681-9 (ISBN)
Description
The 25th anniversary edition of Michelle Tea's classic coming-of-age story, now with a foreword by Maggie Nelson, award-winning author of The Argonauts
'Hilarious, euphoric, perspicacious and punk - the book that showed so many of us how writing can be real' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar
'One of the few truly life changing books I've encountered' Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby
Fleeing Tucson and her troublesome on-and-off ex-girlfriend, Michelle lands in queer San Francisco's riotous underbelly, stumbling through her early twenties in a haze of nightlife, drug adventures, scams and a string of hookups, break-ups and make-ups. As butches and dykes spin in and out of her orbit, she considers the force and casual cruelty of their desires and her own. Heady, beer-sticky and brimming with life, Valencia is a sharply observed and piercingly funny chronicle of a year lived close to the bone.
'If you want to know how dangerous and great and awful it is to be a girl, you'll scarf Valencia right up' Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls
'Michelle Tea is an intoxicating writer, delivering sentences that land with the snap and force of a punch' Guardian
'Hilarious, euphoric, perspicacious and punk - the book that showed so many of us how writing can be real' Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of Gay Bar
'One of the few truly life changing books I've encountered' Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby
Fleeing Tucson and her troublesome on-and-off ex-girlfriend, Michelle lands in queer San Francisco's riotous underbelly, stumbling through her early twenties in a haze of nightlife, drug adventures, scams and a string of hookups, break-ups and make-ups. As butches and dykes spin in and out of her orbit, she considers the force and casual cruelty of their desires and her own. Heady, beer-sticky and brimming with life, Valencia is a sharply observed and piercingly funny chronicle of a year lived close to the bone.
'If you want to know how dangerous and great and awful it is to be a girl, you'll scarf Valencia right up' Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls
'Michelle Tea is an intoxicating writer, delivering sentences that land with the snap and force of a punch' Guardian
Reviews / Votes
Valencia is one of the few true life-changer books I've encountered. One of those books that gets casually slipped to you, and then, a couple hours later, you understand you've been living all wrong -- Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby If you want to know how dangerous and great and awful it is to be a girl you'll scarf Valencia right up. The street today is full of girls if you haven't noticed -- Eileen Myles, author of Chelsea Girls Michelle Tea is an intoxicating writer, delivering sentences that land with the snap and force of a punch * Guardian * I consider Michelle Tea a literary MOTHER. I will forever tip my hat to her and the timeless and immortal text that is Valencia -- Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends An electrifying chronicle of queer life in 1990s San Francisco. Written raw, as events unfolded, Valencia is a feverish, unforgettable coming-of-age story that helped define a generation - a cult classic that pulses with honesty, and the uncontainable desire to live and write freely * Dazed *More details
Series
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
236 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80522-681-9 (9781805226819)
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Schweitzer Classification