Poetry. LGBT Studies. "About 'it gets better,' they were never wrong, the path-forgers, the ground-breakers. How it gets better is another question, for a new century has brought changing minds, but also new hardships. That is why this extraordinary book matters. Teaching is such a sacred office, and we who teach today know the attentiveness that must be brought to the profession. These poems track, record, memorialize, and meditate on that office. There are poems of the student one lost, the student who reached out at last, of the daily commitment that teaching who you are requires, of why it matters. There is nothing like this thoughtful collection of trenchant, witty, poignant, blunt, and luminous poems on the art of teaching by LGBTIQ poets assembled with judicious vision by Megan Volpert. THIS ASSIGNMENT IS SO GAY is a beautiful and necessary book, not just for teaching, but for us all."—Cynthia Hogue