Longtime romance community member, activist, and author Corey Alexander/Xan West passed away this week. May their memory always be for a blessing.
Friday 21 August 2020 at 4:30pm ET, I am hosting a virtual Kaddish for Corey Alexander. There will be a brief Minchah (afternoon service) and RB Lemberg will lead us in the Mourner’s Kaddish.
You may register here: http://bit.ly/KaddishforCorey
My goal is to create a safe and welcoming space for everyone mourning Corey’s death to say Kaddish together before Shabbat starts.
Everyone is welcome. If you don’t want to say Kaddish, or aren’t Jewish, please, please feel welcome to pray or be present with us in a way that gives you peace. Transliteration and translation of the Mourner’s Kaddish are available at MyJewishLearning.
A memorial service is in the works and details will be provided soon. There is also a virtual guestbook in progress. This minchah is to say Kaddish and join together in mourning and support.
May we come together to honor the deceased and be a comfort to those who mourn, and be a light in the world as much as Corey was a light for everyone.
Thank you for this opportunity to mourn as a community.
Corey was definitely a blessing to me as a reader, both as an author and a reviewer. They set a very high standard for compassion and inclusion in their books and short stories, and in their reviews.
Corey’s Book Corner https://coreysbookcorner.wordpress.com/ led me to many of my favorite authors. Romancelandia has lost an irreplaceable treasure.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I read a couple of Xan’s romances that focused on “service kink” and they were very inclusive. What a tragic loss. My heart goes out to their family & friends.
Oh god, I hadn’t heard about this because I’ve been off social media for a while now. I knew Corey/Xan from my erotica writing days and I’m gobsmacked at their passing. Thank you for giving a space to mourn this sudden loss.
May their memory be a blessing. Two of my closest friends were friends of Xan’s, and they always had such lovely things to say about them.
Really heartbreaking. I’ve been going through their old reviews and buying up the stand-outs I missed the first time. I’ll be thinking of Corey through every great read I wouldn’t have discovered without them.
Thank you for hosting this. It’s been such a shock to learn of their passing. Corey was such a light in the community and will be greatly missed.
Thank you for this. May their memory be for a blessing.
This Friday is also Rosh Chodesh Elul, making it an even more meaningful time to remember someone who was such a vital part of our romance community. The new moon, and especially the new month of Elul, is a time for reflection and _teshuvah_, turning ourselves toward being more inclusive and welcoming in the coming year.
I just heard. What a terrible loss. Their memory will always be a blessing to the queer lit and queer romance community.