Last December we had the pleasure of publishing this excerpt from Alex Alberto’s book, Entwined, focused on their relationship with their metamour, a term for a partner’s other partners. As Alex explained:
“I often describe my book as an unexpected love story with metamours. While my initial interest in non-monogamy was about the freedom of developing sexual and romantic intimacy with multiple people, I eventually discovered metamours could become an anchor for me, and a core part of my family. I’ve experienced powerful platonic love with my metamours over the years; a mix of friendship, fondness, intimacy, and trust that stemmed from our romantic love for the same human.”
At the time, Alex was also busy raising funds to produce a short film based on a section of the book. Last month, that short, “Coming Out Polyamorous for Thanksgiving,” was released and is available to watch on YouTube.
I was excited to talk to Alex about the journey to publishing the book—including starting the Quilted Press collective to publish Entwined and other nonfiction titles—creating a short film with no prior experience, and all the creative projects they have planned for the coming year. Alex hopes to offer future workshops and other community-building activities, and I’m excited to see how it all shapes up!
I’m always eager to hear how popular culture influences our internal blueprints, so we discussed what books, TV shows, movies and other pop culture is doing a good job of sharing poly relationship realities. Alex name-checked Sally Rooney’s popular novel, Intermezzo, as well as the poly relationship established in the science fiction book Iron Widow, and the 2017 movie Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (which you can easily stream for free on Tubi).
When I asked Alex about the need for people in poly relationships to share their stories, they explained:
“It is a really important part. You know, for me: I’m queer, I’m trans, I’m polyamorous. I’m so tired of coming out. It’s just every time I think it’s the last time—then there’s something else to explain to people. It’s difficult because there’s a balance of, you don’t owe personal information to people, but then, when you feel like you have to actively hide or when it sort of affects how you’re living your personal life, then even if you don’t want to share personal information for the sake of being seen, it’s almost just for the sake of being able to operate in a way where you’re not hiding.”
I hope you enjoy this latest conversation since I’ve been having a blast chatting with all these smart and talented people who are harnessing their creative powers to share more stories with the world. I have a couple more scheduled for the next two coming Sundays in December—including our last QLP Book Club selection, Alejandro Varela’s Middle Spoon on Sunday, December 14 at 1 p.m. ET—and if you missed any, you can find previous podcast episodes and conversations here.
For more books about polyamory, open relationships and other loving relationships outside the binary, check out the Queer Love Project’s Bookshop.org shelves—or leave a comment about any recommendations you might have.
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