Homesick By Sam Hirst

Portrait of Dr. Sam Hirst. Twitter, 6 June 2021. www.twitter.com/RomGothSam

Author Bio:
Dr. Hirst (who goes by Holly or Sam) is a self-proclaimed Gothic and Romance nerd who
completed their PhD in the Theology of the Early British Gothic (Hirst, “About”) and is an
associate lecturer, tutor, proofreader, translator, book-seller, and writer (@RomGothSam).
Some of the words they use to describe themself include “asexual, sapphic, queer…” and they
used their writing, especially “Homesick” to explore what those identities mean to them (Adler).

Description (liminality and fluidity):

Dr. Hirst’s short story “Homesick” tackles the afterlife, loneliness, and home through the
lens of an asexual, sapphic love-story between two gender-nonconforming ghosts. Marion is
bored of the afterlife as she’s run out of things to read - until she finds Sanan, another ghost
with a similar past. Together, the two travel the world and find that home can be found both in
places and people.
“Homesick” explores themes of liminality and fluidity through its setting and characters.
As ghostly women who defied gender roles while they were living, and continue to find comfort
in doing so while dead, Marion and Sanan blur the boundaries between gender and what it
means to be living - or dead for that matter. As the past and present, what was and is
intermingle, liminal space is created in the lack of boundaries. “Homesick” likewise explores
themes of fluidity in how Marion and Sanan present themselves - as ghosts, they have the
ability to choose from any of their clothing they had when they were alive, and this leads to more
fluid presentations of gender for the two ghostly companions.

Works Cited:
Portrait of Dr. Sam Hirst. Twitter, 6 June 2021. www.twitter.com/RomGothSam.

@RomGothSam (Sam Hirst). Twitter. www.twitter.com/RomGothSam. Accessed 6 June

2021

Hirst, Sam. “About.” Romancing the Gothic, www.romancingthegothic.com/about.

Accessed 6 June 2021.

Adler, Dahlia. “Inside an Anthology: Unspeakable Ed. by Celine Frohn.” LGBTQ

Reads, 11 May 2020, www.lgbtqreads.com/2020/05/11/inside-an-

anthology-unspeakable-ed-by-celine-frohn.