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Lorrie Kim writes blog posts on topics related to Harry Potter, support for LGBTQIA+ rights, the Fantastic Beasts films, figure skating, books and films and music, and fiber art. She also writes The Pensieve Papers, a column at MuggleNet.
“Life in the UK” by Xandra Robinson-Burns
Some of you may be familiar with Xandra Robinson-Burns of Heroine Training, who frequently partners with the Granger Leadership Academy and the Harry Potter Alliance. Her current essay, “Life in the UK,” collects her thoughts
January 12, 2021
A Korean Woman in Potterverse: Claudia Kim’s Nagini
Delivered on October 16, 2020 at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA. On September 25, 2018, Korean actress Claudia Kim was announced in the role of Nagini for Fantastic Beasts:
October 16, 2020
The Changing Politics of Reading Harry Potter in the Post-Trump U.S.
Delivered October 16, 2020 at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA. The way we read Harry Potter in the U.S. changed with the 2016 election. For almost 20 years, many
October 16, 2020
Review: Troubled Blood
Reading Troubled Blood by J.K. Rowling feels a bit like having dinner with a relative or old friend whose politics have grown hopelessly toxic. You remember why you loved this person so deeply for so
September 22, 2020
The Button Box quilt
It took me almost six months, but I finally completed the few last steps on the Button Box quilt I started in March as a fanwork for Linda Sue Park’s Prairie Lotus (read my review here).
September 4, 2020
HP-themed octopod fundraiser
Is it possible to continue to enjoy the Potterverse while the author continues making ever more strained statements about her anti-trans bigotry? On the one hand, I’m finding difficulty in my current attempts to reread
August 29, 2020
HP fans for Trans Rights: graphic free for personal use
After J.K. Rowling’s declarations of anti-trans bigotry, many people left Harry Potter fandom in revulsion. Others rejected the author’s bigotry but asserted their right to retain their connections to the source material and, perhaps more
August 15, 2020
10 Harry Potter Quotes that Just Scream “Trans Rights”- No Matter What J.K. Rowling Says
This is a reblog of an eloquent entry by Emma Curzon. I have thought of many of the same quotes over the past several weeks.
July 22, 2020
Discussing Nagini with Parinita Shetty of the Marginally Fannish Podcast
Ph.D. student Parinita Shetty is the creator of the Marginally Fannish podcast, in which she uses an international lens to examine fan podcasts as sites of public pedagogy. For a delicious break from quarantine life,
July 19, 2020
Octopods: a rough crochet pattern
This pattern is approximate, as I usually improvise octopods. They are just blobs with eyes! You can also check out a video of this process. Use a J-size hook and wool or merino that can
July 3, 2020
Plague, But Make It Fashion
Once in a while, you’re unmistakably called. I started making quilts in 1990. I even did it full-time for a while. I stopped in 2004, when my first kid was born and it felt too
April 25, 2020
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
The Bluebeard plotline of this deft and subtle book is the one that haunted me and kept me going, even though the anxiety of coronavirus social distancing interrupted my reading and spread it out over
March 31, 2020
Roots and Mirrors: Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park. Published March 3, 2020. Linda Sue Park must have read and loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books as much as I did as a kid. Reading about Hanna in
March 12, 2020
Masterful by Logospilgrim
Masterful: Severus Snape, A Jar of Cockroaches, and Me by Logospilgrim, published January 28, 2020. Order from Lulu.com, $18.50. Also available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Stories change according to who’s doing the reading.
February 25, 2020
Greta Gerwig’s Little Women: In praise of genre fiction
Warning: Spoilers for the film. Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women speaks from the exact moment that some of us are in, American female-identified writers 150 years after Louisa May Alcott struck it rich with this
January 2, 2020
A Permanent Scar from J.K. Rowling
This author taught us that hateful speech can be an Unforgivable. The targets of Unforgivables must defend themselves, if possible, but do not owe the caster forgiveness. Forgiveness would not remedy the caster’s harm. The
December 21, 2019
The Things You Do for Your Boss
I asked the artist mud-foot.tumblr.com to draw me a cartoon of Dumbledore telling Snape to kill him. This is what they came up with, and I’ve been laughing ever since. Perfection.
November 9, 2019
J.K. Rowling, Giftedness, and the Ghost of Ravenclaw
Notes from a talk delivered at LeakyCon in Boston, MA, USA, on Saturday, October 12, 2019. A shorter version of this talk was delivered at the Harry Potter Conference of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia,
November 9, 2019
Eulogy: J.K. Rowling’s love letter to Europe on NoBrexit Day
The Guardian printed a letter by J.K. Rowling, among others, from A Love Letter to Europe: An outpouring of love and sadness from our writers, thinkers and artists, published October 31, 2019, the date that
October 31, 2019
Review and Q&A: Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon
Figure skater Adam Rippon, the first U.S. athlete to medal at a Winter Olympics while being out as gay, has released a memoir called Beautiful on the Outside. I’ve been following gay issues in figure skating
October 21, 2019
“And my soul, Dumbledore?” The Snape-Dumbledore Relationship
Notes from a talk delivered at LeakyCon in Boston, MA, USA, on Sunday, October 13, 2019. Posted by request. Thank you for coming to think about what is, to me, the most difficult relationship to
October 13, 2019
Review: When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
I didn’t intend to see Snape parallels when I picked up this book, but they’re plentiful. The narration alternates between a middle-school Korean girl, Sun-hee, and her young adult brother as they live with their
August 2, 2019
Review: Circe by Madeline Miller
This book was thrill after thrill. It gave me something I have not often encountered: ancient Greek mythological stories that were new to me. I did not know what happened after the Odyssey and its
August 2, 2019
Rough notes on Discussing HP in 2019
At MISTI-Con 2019, Irvin Khaytman (author of The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) and I conducted a conversation on “Discussing HP in 2019,” during a time when fandom is grappling with a
July 26, 2019
Sons of an Illustrious Father, Boot and Saddle in Philadelphia, July 21, 2019
Weeks after an international tour playing for audiences of thousands, Sons of an Illustrious Father swung through Philadelphia for a sweet hello of a concert. They’re not even from here, but it had the feel
July 23, 2019
Notes on Claudia Kim’s Nagini
I was honored to be part of the keynote panel at MISTI-Con 2019 alongside Bayana Davis, Constance Gibbs, and Lawrence Neals, “Evanesco Representation, Accio Inclusion: Diversity in Harry Potter.” Moderator Robyn Jordan of Black Girls
July 23, 2019
Sons of an Illustrious Father, Teragram Ballroom in L.A., June 27, 2019
The beautiful photos of Sons of an Illustrious Father from the June 19, 2019 issue of Vogue Mexico have been making me happy all week. These busy musicians are in the middle of an insane
June 28, 2019
For Pride: “Don’t Cha” covered by Sons of an Illustrious Father
Happy Pride month. Want to see something that feels really queer? Not rainbow-themed platitudes from otherwise anti-gay corporations, but the kind of nervy, wary seductiveness that makes you think of lipstick and riots? Sons of an
June 20, 2019
Mini Adventure Mapping with Xandra Robinson-Burns of Heroine Training
I met a magical cartographer at Granger Leadership Academy in March 2019. Xandra Robinson-Burns is an essayist who runs Heroine Training, providing lessons on how to apply love of fiction and magic to daily life,
March 30, 2019
Granger Leadership Academy 2019: Hogwarts House comments
Hello, alums of Granger Leadership Academy 2019! Thank you to those who were part of our discussion on March 23, “The Functional, Thriving Activist.” A few people have asked about the descriptions of ourselves, by
March 24, 2019
Grindelwald’s rhetoric: Trying for metaphor in the age of Brexit and Trump (FBCoG #7)
Seventh blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Yes, the Fantastic Beasts film series is about World War II. It is significant that Queenie and Tina Goldstein are Jewish, and that will become more apparent
December 8, 2018
Leta Lestrange, Time to Come Home (FBCoG#6)
Sixth blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Did Leta Lestrange temporarily host an Obscurus before passing it to Credence? That was a listener theory from Episode 75 of the SpeakBeasty podcast and it seized
December 6, 2018
Triggered by Grindelwald (FBCoG #5)
Fifth blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Grimmson, a “beast hunter for hire,” is the opposite of Newt Scamander. When the Ministry wants someone to kill Credence to prevent Grindelwald from using him
November 26, 2018
Patriarchy, Racism, Divorce, and Vengeance (FBCoG #4)
Fourth blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Content warning for discussion of sexual assault and racism. Previous blog posts about Crimes of Grindelwald: Closer Than Brothers: What does it mean? Your Brother Seeks to
November 25, 2018
Credence in Search of His Story (FBCoG #3)
Third blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The first two posts: “Closer Than Brothers” and “Your brother seeks to destroy you.” Who is Credence Barebone? He’s not Credence Barebone. That name was given
November 24, 2018