Pride Month Author Spotlight: Audre Lorde

Happy Pride Month, HubPages community! In this issue of the newsletter, we thought we'd highlight one of our favorite queer authors of all time—Audre Lorde. 

Lorde was an author, poet, and activist who dedicated her entire adult life to exploring the complex intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality while actively working to combat racism, sexism, and homophobia. She was born in New York in 1934 and spent much of her career reading, writing, traveling, speaking, and educating. 

Pride month is a great time to read some of her work if you haven't already. If you like nonfiction, we recommend starting with Sister Outsider, a collection of speeches and essays (composed between 1976 and 1983) that explores topics like class, sex, race, sexuality, age, policing, violence, and war from Lorde's perspective as a Black lesbian radical feminist. If you're interested in learning more about Sister Outsider before diving into the full text, check out  Abdulghaffah Abiru's review of the book on Owlcation. 

If you're more of a fiction fan, you might like Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. The novel is actually a biomythography—a unique, semi-fictional genre that combines elements of history, myth, and biography. It follows Lorde from youth to early adulthood as she grows up in Harlem, experiences racism, travels, gets an education, and explores relationships with men and women. 

Happy Pride!

Image Credit: Elsa Dorfman, CC-BY-2.5 via Wikimedia Commons; Canva

Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes

Hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes look quite similar, and it can be difficult to remember which one you are supposed to use in a given situation. Here's a quick and handy guide that includes keyboard shortcuts. 

• Hyphens (-): Hyphens should be used with compound modifiers (e.g., lead-bearing ore, light-footed dancer), compound words (e.g., attorney-at-law, ex-wife), and in some other cases. They should not be used to express date or number ranges. To create a hyphen, just press the hyphen key on your keyboard. 
• En Dashes (–): En dashes should be used to express ranges (e.g., 10–20 donuts, April 19th–June 28th, etc.) To create an en dash on a Mac keyboard, press and hold the "Option" key and then press the hyphen key. To create an en dash on a Windows keyboard, press and hold the "Alt" key, type "0150," then release the "Alt" key.
• Em Dashes (—): Em dashes should be used like parentheses to separate additional information from the bulk of a sentence (e.g., My neighbor—who just moved in last month—never picks up his newspapers). They can also be used in other cases to follow lists or emphasize ideas (e.g., Lions, tigers, and bears—oh my!). To create an em dash on a Mac keyboard, press and hold the "Option" key, press and hold the "Shift" key, then press the hyphen key. To create an em dash on a Windows keyboard, press and hold the "Ctrl" key, press and hold the "Alt" key, then press the hyphen key.  

Fun Fact: En dashes are so called because they have the same width as a capital "N." Em dashes are so called because they have the same width as a capital "M."

RozlinMohsin, From UAE, 24 Fans, 13 Hubs, Joined 4 months ago

Rozlin Mohsin

Rozlin is a newer member of the HubPages community and a passionate cook who enjoys sharing scrumptious recipes on Delishably. Check out their chutney kheema seekh recipe here. 

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