Liana Cusmano
they/them
Liana Cusmano (Luca/BiCurious George) is a writer, poet, and film-maker. They were the 2018 and 2019 Montreal Slam Champion and runner up in the 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship. They are a 2022 QWF Spoken Word Prize nominee and their first novel, Catch & Release (2022), was published with Guernica Editions.
Excerpt from Catch and Release (2022) by Liana Cusmano
"I stole a nervous glance at her. She caught my eye and smiled. Taking her right hand off the steering wheel, she placed it on my left knee, on the bare skin between the edge of my shorts and the top of my sock. Angela Damon squeezed my knee, once, twice, and drove the rest of the way to my house one-handed. When she parked the car in front of my parents’ bungalow and pulled her hand away, it felt like she was abruptly taking back a gift she had promised I could keep. She hugged me before I got out of her car, even though my jersey was still wet. I hadn’t told her about feeling sad and tired and bored, about half-heartedly thinking things like Nah, I can’t kill myself today, I have a debate tournament this weekend. I thanked her and waved, smiling, as she pulled away in her little blue hatchback. But I wasn’t surprised when the next day, Saturday, she sent me an email and asked me how I was feeling."