Aaron H. Aceves (he/him) is a bisexual, Mexican-American writer born and raised in East L.A. He graduated from Harvard College and received his MFA from Columbia University. His fiction has appeared in Epiphany, The Florida Review, and Passages North, among other places. He currently lives in Texas, where he serves as an Early Career Provost Fellow at UT Austin, and his debut young adult novel, This Is Why They Hate Us, was released by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. It received multiple starred reviews and was named a Best Young Adult Book of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews.

Katharine “Kat” Andriotis is a retired professional photographer who moved to Southwest Florida from New York with her wife Laura and their sweet little dog Bobo in 2017. She continues to shoot for stock photography, and has added creating graphic-rich books to her retirement creative endeavors. Kat is happy and honored that her children’s book Bobo The Beauty Boy has been accepted for ReadOut23. https://katandriotis.smugmug.com

Ann Aptaker is an author of short stories and the award-winning Cantor Gold series. Cantor Gold has been recognized by the Lambda Literary Foundation (Lammy) and the Golden Crown Literary Society (Goldie). Hunter Gold is the available now. A Crime of Secrets is being released this Summer. Visit Ann on Facebook: Ann Aptaker, Author and Instagram: ann_aptaker.

Kristen Arnett is the queer author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She was awarded a Shearing Fellowship at Black Mountain Institute and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize recognizing mid-career writers of fiction. Her work has appeared at The New York Times, TIME, The Cut, Oprah Magazine, Guernica, Buzzfeed, McSweeneys, PBS Newshour, The Guardian, Salon, and elsewhere. Her next book (an untitled collection of short stories) will be published by Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House). She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.

Becky Bohan (she/her) is the author of the 2020 award-winning novel, A Light on Altered Land. Her 2022 novel, The Santorini Setup, has won a Royal Palm Literary Award and Global Book Award. She lives in North Fort Myers, FL, with her wife, Nancy Manahan.

Georgia Beers is the Lambda Literary Award, Foreword Book of the Year Award, and Goldie Award winning author of over thirty novels of women-loving-women romance. She resides in Upstate New York where she was born and raised. When not writing, she can usually be found searching for a scary movie, lifting all the weights, sipping a good Pinot, or trying to keep up with little big man Archie, her mix of many tiny dogs. She is currently hard at work on her next book. Find out more at http://georgiabeers.com

Robee Berry (she/her) is a writer, adventurer and activist. For decades the story of The Pink Divide protagonist, Lake Myers, lived rent-free in her head until the auspicious day when Lake’s girl power took root in this book. Berry is the mother to one amazing young adult and lives with her wife, two dogs and one cantankerous cat. The Pink Divide is her first book.

VIRGINIA BLACK (she/her) likes strong whiskey, loud music, and writing, though not necessarily in that order. When not penning dark speculative fiction, she is almost always reading, painting miniatures, or escaping into a role-playing game. Born in California—where even the green is brown—Virginia escaped to the green grass and rain showers of the Pacific Northwest. She lives with her wife of twenty years and their savagely witty teenage daughter. Learn more at virginiablackwrites.com. 

Benna Bos mixes cozy mystery with engaging love stories. San Francisco is the setting she is most enamored with, and it happens to be her current home. Benna loves to read, write, and go on long walks in the park with her dog.

Jenny Boyar received her PhD in English, with a focus on early lyric poetry, from the University of Rochester. A Fulbright recipient, her writing has appeared in several scholarly publications and her poetry has been published with Choeofpleirn Press and is forthcoming in FEED lit mag. Through her career in medical writing, she has collaborated on book chapters and coursework with professional organizations like the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society; she has also been a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. She lives in St Petersburg, Florida.

Dustin Brookshire is the author of the forthcoming chapbook, Never Picked First For Playtime (Harbor Editions, March 2023), and the chapbooks Love Most Of You Too (Harbor Editions, 2021) and To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012).  He is the co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023).  Dustin enjoys promoting writers through various projects: curating the Wild & Precious Life Series, founder/editor of Limp Wrist, founding chapter president of the South Florida Poets (a chapter of the Florida State Poetry Association), program director for Reading Queer, and a founding member of FLAWN (Florida Local Artist & Writers Network).Visit him online at www.dustinbrookshire.com.

Brian Broome’s debut memoir, Punch Me Up to the Gods, is an NYT Editor’s Pick and the winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. He is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. His work has also appeared in Hippocampus, Poets and Writers, Medium, and more. Brian was a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and an instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University’s Martin Luther King Writing Awards. Brian also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019. His film, Garbage, won the Audience Choice Award at the Cortada Short Film Festival and was a semi-finalist in the Portland Short Fest. Brian is a 2022 Writer in Residence at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California.

Brooke Campbell’s paranormal romances are as much about flawed characters finding lasting love as
they are about exploring what strength means. The first two books of The Warrior Series trilogy are
published, and she is working on a spin
–
off which
connects book 2, A Warrior for Her with the final
book in the series. The Warrior Within was a GCLS Goldie finalist in both Debut Novel and
Paranormal categories. Brooke and her wife live with their two somewhat
– benevolent feline overlords.
When she isn’t
working her day job to feed those cats, or writing, baking is Brooke’s bliss.

“A sublime gift” says Carson about re-entering Eckerd College at an age 50. Two years hence, Carson earned her B.A., and at 57, her master’s in Florida Studies from University of Florida St. Petersburg. Ten years from its first iteration as her master’s thesis, Carson’s book Becoming FLO, A Mostly True Story was published, successfully launching her second career (having lost her first to Covid), and since, developed in collaboration with book editor Nanette Wiser, created and performs “The Flo Show” the colorful, emotion-packed multimedia presentation based on her book, to audiences far and wide.

To schedule a book talk/“The Flo Show” contact the author: DebCarsonWrites@gmail.com

Felice Cohen is an author, motivational speaker and Holocaust educator. Her newly-published memoir, Half In: A Coming-of-Age Memoir of Forbidden Love, earned an Outstanding Non-fiction Book Award from the Independent Author Network. Felice’s previous book, 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (…or More) was inspired by the YouTube video of her 90-square-foot New York City studio that went viral with over 25 million views. Felice is also the author of What Papa Told Me, a memoir about her grandfather’s life before, during and after the war. Felice has been featured on Good Morning America, NBC, CBS, NPR, Time, Globe & Mail, New York Daily News, the Daily Mail and more.

Meredith Doench is the author of the Luce Hansen thriller series and Whereabouts Unknown. Her writing has also appeared in many literary journals. She is a board member of Mystery Writers of America, Midwest Chapter, and is a senior lecturer of creative writing, literature, and composition at the University of Dayton in Ohio. For more information about this author and to view book purchase information, visit www.meredithdoench.com

Carol Anne Douglas worked on off our backs: a feminist news journal for 35 years. Her lesbian novels are Lancelot: Her Story and Lancelot and Guinevere, in which Lancelot is a woman; Sister Matthew and Sister Rose: Novices in Love; and Choosing Yellowstone. She lives in DC and Carefree Community in Florida.

Darlene Duncan grew up wanting to be a published author. From the time she was old enough to read and write, her goal was to publish her stories. The dream of being a published author was delayed by the everyday necessities of life. Things like working so she could have a roof over her head and food. This energy and time drain delayed the dream, though the stories were always there percolating and occasionally bubbling to the surface.

Her favorite books are science fiction and mysteries. So, it was no surprise that her first published novel, The Origin of Deanna Dorak, was a combination of those two elements.

Her most recent publications are the first three books in The Larissa Carpenter Mystery series; A New Beginning in Coventry Beach, Lust & Distrust, and Fatal Misunderstanding. The first two of the series are already available on Audible. Her other recent release is a Dystopian future, action-adventure book titled The Legend of Erin Foster. All her books are available as Kindle books.

Susan Gore is an author and editor, as well as the full-time volunteer president of the board of the LGBTQ Resource Center of the Gulfport (FL) Public Library. She is proud of her role as editor of A Feminist Mental Health Agenda for the Year 2000 (AWP 1985) and co-editor of Coming Out in Faith: Voices of LGBTQ Unitarian Universalists (Skinner House, 2011) and, as a nonbinary person, of her contributions to equity for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer.

Patricia Grayhall is a retired medical doctor and author of Making the Rounds; Defying Norms in Love and Medicine that garnered a starred review in Kirkus Reviews, as well as feature article in Kirkus Magazine. Her book was a finalist in the American Book Fest “Best Book” Awards and a first place Firebird Award winner.. She’s published articles in Queer Forty, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Millions, Lesbian Game Changers, The Seattle Lesbian, and Seattle Magazine. NPR recently interviewed her. Patricia lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys other people’s dogs, big nature, and her second career as an author.

Sheree L. Greer is a writer, artist, teacher, and publisher living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers. She is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms, a short story collection, Once and Future Lovers, and a student writing guide, Stop Writing Wack Essays. Her work has been published in First Bloom Anthology, LezTalk Anthology, VerySmartBrothas, Autostraddle, The Windy City Times, Bleed Literary Journal, and the Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches from the Third Coast. She is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Yaddo fellow, and Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow. Her essay, “Bars,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. Her latest essay, “None of this is Bullshit” was published at The Rumpus and featured in “Memoir Mondays.”

Kelsey Jagneaux (she/her) is a historian turned Events Coordinator and book slinger at Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL. She holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in history from Louisiana State University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette respectively. After spending six years working in museums in her home state of Louisiana and her adopted state, Florida, Kelsey now curates events at Tombolo with the goal of creating a community space for readers and writers to gather and share their ideas and passion for books together!

Tenea D. Johnson is a multimedia storyteller, musician, editor, arts & empowerment entrepreneur, and award-winning author of 7 speculative fiction works, including 2021’s releases, Frequencies, a Fiction Album, and Broken Fevers, of which Publisher’s Weekly wrote “the 14 hard-hitting, memorable short stories and prose vignettes in this powerhouse collection… are astounding in their originality.” Her virtual home is teneadjohnson.com. Stop by anytime.

Sandra Gail Lambert writes fiction and memoir that is often about the body and its relationship to the natural world. She is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated memoir A Certain Loneliness which explores the intersections of disability, queerness and desire, and a novel, The River’s Memory. They were published when she was sixty-six and sixty-two respectively. Her first publication, in the eighties, was in Common Lives/Lesbian Lives. Since then her work has been published by the New York Times, The Sun, Orion, and the Paris Review. She is an NEA Creative Writing Fellow. In 2023 (when she is seventy-one) the University of Georgia Press will publish her collection, My Withered Legs and Other Essays. She lives in Gainesville, Florida. www.sandragaillambert.com  

J.E. Leak is the author of the sapphic noir-inspired Shadow series. An antiques conservator by trade, she has always been fascinated by history and the stories objects could tell if they could speak. When she isn’t bingeing 1940s noir films, she’s writing or photographing nature on the spring-fed azure rivers of Central Florida. She has an Associate of Science degree in graphic design and is a devoted night owl. Find out more at jeleak.com.

Patti Lucia is a high school English teacher who spends her days teaching students how to avoid dangling prepositions, get subjects and verbs to agree, and tell the difference between its and it’s. She hales from Massachusetts and lived in New York City in her younger, radical years. Shortly after moving to Florida, she opened a quirky, gay friendly coffeehouse and ran it
for ten years. She wrote her first book, a memoir, Wildflowers and Present Tenses, during the
pandemic in 2020. “Some people had pandemic babies,” she quips. “I had a pandemic book.” Lucia has gathered up the nuggets of gold from her coffeehouse days and sprinkled them into her debut novel, Perilous and Beautiful (March 2023), where the quirky and queer are drawn to a little seaside cafe for reasons as deep and mysterious as the nearby ocean.

Bestselling author KC Luck writes sapphic action-adventure, contemporary romance, and fiction. Writing is her passion, and nothing energizes her more than creating new characters facing trials and tribulations in a complex plot. Whether it is apocalypse, contemporary, or a little naughty, with every story, KC tries to add her own unique twist. She has written eighteen books (which include The Darkness series and Everybody Needs a Hero) and multiple short stories across many genres. KC is active in the LGBT community and is the founder of an indie collective called iReadIndies. Find out more at kc-luck.com.

JB “Joey” Marsden wrote her first short story at age ten, but, needing to make a living, spent most of her life writing academic tomes that no one enjoyed reading. Now having published six novels, she has realized her childhood dream.

Joey lives on her family farm in Illinois with her wife. Aside from writing, she enjoys reading, outdoor activities, and classic movies. Even though she can be found most often basking in the quiet of rural living, she travels for work and fun both in the U.S. and abroad.

Paula Martinac is the author of the historical novel Dear Miss Cushman (Bywater Books) and six others, including Testimony; Clio Rising, Gold Medalist, Northeast Region, 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards; and The Ada Decades, a finalist for the 2018 Ferro-Grumley Award in LGBTQ Fiction. Out of Time, her debut novel, won a Lambda Literary Award. She has received fellowships to support her writing from the North Carolina Arts Council and the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. She lives in Charlotte, NC, with her partner and teaches in the creative writing program at UNC Charlotte.

Penny Mickelbury was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Her parents fostered her love of reading, and their interest in The Civil Rights Movement opened the door to her career in journalism as a newspaper, radio and television reporter. Penny’s books reflect her continued interest in History and Mystery. She writes the Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mysteries (Bywater Books), and has authored two historical fiction novels. Her recently published collection of short stories (BLF Press) is a return to her roots. Penny is the recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant and a Residency at the Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat. She was also a 2019 Inductee with the Washington Post Metro Seven into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

Her novel Slow Reveal, published by York University’s Inanna Publications on May 3, 2022, is a Best of Women’s Fiction Debut 2022 and Fiction Bestseller at Berkeley distributor SPD Books. An excerpt of her novel Too Good To Be True was published in the Harrington Lesbian Quarterly.  An Edward Albee fellow for her screenplay Zero Gravity, she was a finalist in the Writers Guild East Foundation Fellowships for her screenplay Dodge and Burn. Her screenplays In The Name of Love and Out to Lunch were finalists in the Houston Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. She was awarded fiction grants from Vermont Studio Center and Summer Literary Seminars . As a journalist, she covered the tech industry, television production and visual effects.  Her work is published in Wine Spectator, Gay and Lesbian Review,Vol1Brooklyn, Bloom and San Francisco Bay Times. Interviews and excerpts are on Open-Book, the syndicated Rainbow Country radio show, Glad Day Bookshop TV and Hasty Booklist. She’s a member of the Writers Union of Canada, ELAN and Quebec Writers Federation. You can follow her on Instagram and Facebook. Links to all events, excerpts and media can be found on her website: www.melaniemitzner.com.

Maria Ingrande Mora (they/she) is an author whose Young Adult debut novel, Fragile Remedy, was selected as Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her second novel, The
Immeasurable Depth of You, will be released in March, 2023. Maria also leads workshops on
HOW TO: Love your First (Book) Draft, …Get a Literary Agent and …(Do) Self-Care for Aspiring
Authors.

Gloria Muñoz (she/her) is a Colombian American writer, an advocate for multilingual literacy
and writing and St. Petersburg’s new Poet Laureate. Her poetry collection, Danzirly/Dawn’s
Early, was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2019 Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal
Florida Book Award. She has also been honored by the Highlights Foundation’s 2022 Diverse
Verse Fellowship, Lumina’s Multilingual Nonfiction Writing Award, a Las Musas Mentorship for Latine and nonbinary authors, a New York State Summer Writers Institute Fellowship, a St.
Petersburg Arts Alliance Muse Award, a Creative Pinellas Grant, the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Prize,
the Bettye Newman Poetry Award, a Gen Yes Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award, a Think
Small to Think Big Artist Grant, and a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Jim Rolston Professional
Development Grant. Muñoz’ writing has appeared in Puerto del Sol, VIDA Review, Acentos
Review, Lumina, the Rumpus, Yes Poetry, Juke Joint, Best New Poets, Sweet, Burrow
Press, Cosmonauts Avenue, Entropy, Wildness, Cagibi, and elsewhere. She is also the
author of the chapbook Your Biome Has Found You, co-founder of Pitch Her Productions
and one-half of the songwriting team Moonlit Musíca.

Christie J Newport is an author living in Northumberland but originally from Preston, Lancashire, which is where her debut novel The Raven’s Mark is set. Christie won the inaugural Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour in 2021. She was driving to Preston when a call came through her hands-free as she was using google maps. At first Christie assumed it was a cold caller and almost hung up but then the person on the other end excitedly introduced themselves as Emma Grundy-Haigh from Joffe Books. Being the conscientious driver she is Christie quickly asked if she could call back from the next service station. The following 15 miles were the longest 15 miles known to man (and woman)! Since then, Christie’s book has been published and received incredible reviews from readers and authors. The Raven’s Mark was recently listed in Country and Town House’s Great British Brands of 2023 on a list of eight chosen books and authors by Best-selling author Dorothy Koomson. Best-selling author Lisa Jewell called it ‘the most assured crime debut I have ever read.’ New York Times Bestselling author of The Last House on the Street Diane Chamberlain said, ‘the writing is so assured, the characterizations so rich and believable, the twisty storyline so gripping and unexpected. Christie’s wife worries her head won’t fit through the front door if the high praise continues, but Christie asks for you not to worry about that and feel free to leave plenty of 5-star reviews

Lizbette Ocasio-Russe is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi. Lizbette completed her Ph.D. in Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas, her MA in English Literature from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus, and her BA in Journalism and minor in Creative Writing from New York University. She’s been published in Confluence: Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, Flash Fiction Magazine, eTropic electronic journal of studies in the tropics, postScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies, Poui: The Cavehill Journal of Creative Writing, Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters, and Tonguas: Student Literary and Artistic Expression Journal. Lizbette also has a short fiction book, Loverbar, coming out this summer distributed by Flashpoint Publications.

Kate Rounds comes from a deeply rooted feminist journalism background as a Senior Editor at Ms. Magazine and Executive Editor at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Kate also served as Editor in Chief of the Hudson Reporter for 15 years. Catboat Road is her first novel.

Sander Santiago is a Queer-Trans BIPOC writer bringing LGBTQ+ narratives to the literary world. In addition to his debut book, Best of the Wrong Reasons, Sander is a published poet and academic. Having completed a Master’s of Science degree from Purdue University in 2017, he is featured in several scientific journals and has been a guest speaker for Ignite Talks in Fort Collins, CO. He currently resides in South Florida with his partner, best friend, and their many pets. As a Colorado native, he spends too much time telling Floridians how great the mountains are.

coming soon

coming soon

Eden “Simchah” Robinson is a body-positive and LGBTQ-inclusive personal trainer based in San Francisco. This is her first book. She’s been interviewed on various podcasts, including Coming Out Pod, The Late Bloomers Clvb, The Only One In The Room, and Am I The Crazy One?

To check out more of her writing, follow her on Instagram at @writing.eden
To learn about her fitness training, check out her website www.fangirlfit.com

Tiffany E. Taylor lives with her spouse and their daughter in the idyllic little coastal town of Gulfport, Florida where the sapphic invasion is in full force.

When a major stroke felled her in the summer of 2017, causing her to lose complete function in her dominant right side, she thought her budding writing career was over. Through sheer determination and hard work, however, she found a way around those obstacles. Tiffany hopes her journey through the world of stroke survival will serve as an inspiration for disabled people everywhere.

The Taylors belong to the butch/femme community of which she writes about so passionately.

Anne E. Terpstra (she/her) writes heartfelt, sex-positive fiction that is grounded in realism and centers LGBTQ+ characters. Beyond Any Experience is her debut novel.

Anne graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia and has degrees in journalism and technical theater. She has worked as a copy editor and proofreader, and she is a member of the Chicago Writers Association. In addition to being an author, Anne is a potter and photographer. In all of her pursuits, she enjoys exploring the unexpected angle or unappreciated detail.

Anne and her wife live in Chicago with their son. When she isn’t writing, throwing pots, or taking photos, she procrastinates by baking and gardening.

Ryan Williams-Jent (He/Him/His) is a husband, dog dad, Cheez-It connoisseur and comic book superfan. He and his husband live in St. Petersburg where he’s the proud Managing Editor for Watermark, the LGBTQ news source that’s served Central Florida and Tampa Bay since 1994. Learn more at WatermarkOnline.com. 

Audrey Wilson is an award-winning writer and the author of Only Human and Wrong Girl Gone. She has a BA from Columbia College Chicago, and has written over a dozen award-winning short and feature screenplays in addition to her novels. As a screenwriter, she is represented by Aligned Talent Group. Her career in film, radio, and television also earned her a regional Emmy nomination in 2018. Audrey lives in the Chicago suburbs with her partner and their rescued cats and dog, and is currently working on her next project. Learn more by following Audrey on social media at @dreamerbyday91 and visiting AudreyWilsonAuthor.com

Sara Yager feels fortunate to have found the Carefree community since it inspired her to make films and also begin writing. She writes short pieces and haiku, taking common experiences and everyday events and trying to find some humor in them. Her short films have won several People’s Choice awards at Carefree film festivals.

Erin Zak resides near the Gulf Coast of Florida where she spends a lot of her time with her wife
and their two cocker spaniels, Hanna and Eleanor. When she’s not writing, she’s feeling bad
about not writing, obsessively collecting Star Wars memorabilia, and planning the next trip to
Disney World. Falling into Her, Erin’s first book, was a Goldie finalist. Breaking Down Her Walls and Create a Life to Love were both Lammy finalists. Find Erin online at www.erinzak.com.