Queer & Feminist Poetry Anthology Vol. II

The Queer & Feminist Poetry Anthology Vol. II: Queer Joy & Gender Euphoria Edition is a bilingual collection in Dutch and English featuring the voices of 51 LGBTQ+ poets and spoken word artists based in The Netherlands.

This edition celebrates queer joy, gender euphoria, pleasure, pride, softness, and the power of collective imagination. At a time when queer stories are so often reduced to trauma, loss, or survival, this anthology invites you to reimagine alternative futures and center hope, love, and the freedom of becoming yourself. Through poetry and spoken word, these writers reclaim joy as something deeply radical: a form of resistance, healing, and transformation.

The anthology is published by Stichting Unwanted Words Project, an award-winning platform in The Netherlands dedicated to amplifying emerging queer, feminist, and marginalized voices through poetry, storytelling, community events, and artistic collaborations.

"Highlighting queer and feminist voices in poetry is essential to challenging longstanding structures of exclusion. This anthology reflects our valued partnership with Unwanted Words in amplifying work that not only mirrors the world, but actively reshapes it."

— Diana Chin-A-Fat, Director of Poetry International Festival

“It’s a work of profound depth, honesty and unabashed courage. A true expression of the soul and humanity in each and everyone involved in the project.” 
— Grecco Buratto, Musician/Poet/Composer

"The more difficult the times, the greater the need for joy, for lightness. We need it to survive, to connect and to resist (nolite te bastardes carborundum, like Atwood said). In this anthology you'll find voices doing exactly that and it is exactly what the world needs right now."

— Silvana Sodde, Director of The Writer's Guide (to the Galaxy)

”No word is truly unwanted - only unheard. This collection listens." 
— Evelina Kvartunaite, Founder Word Up Amsterdam