Authors 2022

ReadOut 2022 Authors & Presenters (A-Z)

Lynn Ames

 

Lynn Ames is the best-selling author of sixteen books. She also is the writer/director/producer of the history-making documentary, “Extra Innings: The Real Story Behind the Bright Lights of Summer.” This historically important documentary chronicles, for the first time ever in her own words, the real-life story of Hall-of-Famer Dot Wilkinson and the heyday of women’s softball.

 

Lynn’s fiction has garnered her a multitude of awards and honors, including six Goldie awards, the coveted Ann Bannon Popular Fiction Award (for All That Lies Within), the Alice B. Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and the Arizona Book Award for Best Gay/Lesbian book. Lynn is a two-time Lambda Literary Award (Lammy) finalist, a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist, a Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards Honorable Mention winner, and winner of several Rainbow Reader Awards. All That Lies Within was additionally honored as one of the top ten lesbian books overall of 2013.

 

Ms. Ames is the founder of Phoenix Rising Press. She is also a former press secretary to the New York state senate minority leader and spokesperson for the nation’s third-largest prison system. For more than half a decade, she was an award-winning broadcast journalist. She has been editor of a critically acclaimed national magazine and a nationally recognized speaker and public relations professional with a particular expertise in image, crisis communications planning, and crisis management. Lynn, her wife, Cheryl Pletcher, and their various fur kids reside in Asheville, North Carolina.

 

For additional information please e-mail Lynn at lynnamesauthor@gmail.com. You can also friend Lynn on Facebook and follow her on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

 

 

Pearls reading: "This is a 5-minute reading from my upcoming biography, Extra Innings: The Dot Wilkinson Story. Dot is 100 years old and the greatest catcher ever to play women's softball. She's also a lesbian. This is her story."

K. Ancrum

K. Ancrum, is the author of the award winning thriller THE WICKER KING, a lesbian romance THE WEIGHT OF THE STARS and the upcoming Peter Pan thriller DARLING. K. is a Chicago native passionate about diversity and representation in young adult fiction. She currently writes most of her work in the lush gardens of the Chicago Art Institute.

 

My website is: kancrum.com and my work can be purchased wherever books are sold. Here is a B&N link for the book the excerpt is from: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weight-of-the-stars-k-ancrum/1127457475

 

Publications: The Wicker King (M/M), The Weight of the Stars, (F/F) Darling, (M/F) Murder of Crows: A Lethal Lit Book (F/F)

 

Pearls reading: "The Weight of the Stars, a YA soft-science fiction book: Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the “wrong” side of town. So Ryann becomes her circumstances and settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the girls are brought together despite themselves―and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And now it’s up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more."

Photo of Elizabeth Andre

Elizabeth Andre writes lesbian romance, science fiction, and paranormal adventure. She is a lesbian in an interracial same-sex marriage living in the Midwest. She hopes you enjoy her stories. She certainly loves writing them.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Trail of Hearts, prequel to the Going to the Chapel series.

K. Aten

K. Aten is an award-winning author, Technical Analyst, and Social Media Manager living in Michigan with her wife, two kids, two cats, and a dog. She’s published more than a dozen novels across multiple genres since 2018, and is currently penning for Flashpoint Publications. She loves fanfic, gravitates toward speculative fiction in both reading and writing, and will talk your ear off about books. Aten's goal with each new novel is to make people #Think, #Feel, and #Discuss. Her motto is: “Some words end the silence, others begin it." Aten writes heroines into existence one genre at a time.

 

All K. Aten's novels (listed below) can be found on Amazon, Bella Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Flashpoint Publications by searching for K. Aten.

 

  • Rules of the Road
  • Waking the Dreamer (2019 Goldie Award Winner) & (2018-2019 Rainbow Award)
  • Burn It Down (2019 Lesfic Bard Award Winner) & (2020 Goldie Award finalist)
  • Children of the Stars
  • Remember Me, Synthetica (2020 Lesfic Bard Award Winner)
  • Elemental Attraction: A Myth World Novel

Arrow of Artemis series

  • The Fletcher (2019 Goldie Award finalist)
  • The Archer
  • The Sagittarius

Mystery of the Makers series

  • The Sovereign of Psiere
  • The Lost Temple of Psiere (2021 Goldie Award finalist)
  • The Rebels of Psiere - Coming in 2022

Blood Resonance series

  • Running from Forever
  • Embracing Forever

 

 

Pearls reading: from Elemental Attraction.

MB Austin

MB Austin’s contemporary thrillers feature Maji Rios, a counter-terrorism covert operator whose work intrudes on every vacation she attempts. Someday she’ll get both downtime and the woman of her dreams.

 

MB Austin herself vacations in a past that never was, within a questionably utopian (but unquestionably genderqueer) 1850s Mediterranean, the Trencadis universe. Look for Blursday’s Revenge, a darkly funny mid-pandemic mystery that asks: murder, or Darwin award?, from Bywater Books in Fall 2022. MB lives with her wife in Seattle, an excellent town for caffeine-powered writers who don’t need too much sun. 

 

 

Pod: Just one More Page... on February 18 @ 6:05 pm - 7:05 pm EST

Len Barot has written over sixty romance and romantic intrigue novels as Radclyffe, as well as a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters, as L.L. Raand. She is a three-time Lambda Literary Award winner in romance and erotica and received the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Award by the Lambda Literary Foundation. A member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, she is also an RWA / FF&P Prism Award winner for Secrets in the Stone, an RWA FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW winner for Firestorm, an RWA Bean Pot winner for Crossroads, an RWA Laurel Wreath winner for Blood Hunt, and a Book Buyers Best award winner for Price of Honor and Secret Hearts. She is also a featured author in the 2015 documentary film Love Between the Covers, from Blueberry Hill Productions. In 2019 she was recognized as a “Trailblazer of Romance” by the Romance Writers of America.

 

In 2004 she founded Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies, and is the current president and publisher. Find her at facebook.com/Radclyffe.BSB, follow her on Twitter @RadclyffeBSB, and visit her website at Radfic.com.

 

Pod: Keeping the Romance (Novel) Alive: A Candid Conversation between Georgia Beers and Anne Shade on February 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST. 

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 georgiabeers.com.

 

Pod: Keeping the Romance (Novel) Alive: A Candid Conversation between Georgia Beers and Anne Shade on February 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST. 

Ginny Z. Berson

Ginny Z Berson is the author of Olivia on the Record: A Radical Experiment in Women’s Music (Aunt Lute Books).  She was a principal founder of Olivia Records and a member of The Furies collective, for which she wrote many articles.  She has been a social justice activist since the 1960’s and currently serves as Director of Outreach for World Trust Educational Services which produces documentary films, workshops and trainings on racial equity.  She is a co-founder of Neighbors for Racial Justice which works to make her Oakland, CA neighborhood safe and welcoming for all neighbors and supports alternatives to policing and incarceration. She is a lover of scuba diving, music, good books, women, and justice, not necessarily in that order. 

 

 

Pearls reading: Excerpts from Olivia on the Record: A Radical Experiment in Women's Music.

Becky Bohan

Becky Bohan has published both fiction and nonfiction. Her novel A Light on Altered Land was a 2021 Goldie Finalist. Her newest release is the suspense/romance blend The Santorini Setup. She has participated in every ReadOut!

 

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: "from The Santorini Setup: an idyllic holiday with a sexy windsurfer turns deadly when Greek intelligence and a criminal enterprise sweep Professor Britt Evans into their web of intrigue. The Santorini Setup explodes with suspense and passion as Britt risks everything to save the woman she loves."

Isis Brown

Isis Brown is an elder millennial, carb connoisseur, and lover of animals. She loves getting lost in a good book, limited series, and music. Lots and lots of music. Every once in a while she'll write a book, and hope you have as much fun reading it as she did writing it. She believes there are far too few stories centering women of color, and she aims to help with that.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Worlds Apart.

Doris Bush

Publications of adult fiction include: Anton's Place, Necessary Lies, Stars Above The Forest Dark, and No Other Man. Published Poems: Poetyr. Children's Picture Books: Grandma's Glasses, Rebecca's Song. All are available through Amazon.

 

Pearls reading: "Sweet Honey Wine is a work of fiction depicting the lives of a group of friends in New York City. The central Character is Dana Bridges. She is caught in a love triangle. A secondary character is facing gender reassignment surgery and the breakup of her relationship after revealing her plans to the man she loves. The complications of family and friends, some supportive and some not, stirs the mix and heats the plot leaving some with an uncertain future and others fighting their fate."

Giovanna Capone

Giovanna Capone is a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and editor. She was raised in an Italian American neighborhood near the Bronx, whose strong immigrant influence still resonates in her life. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, Bedazzled Ink published her first full-length book, In My Neighborhood: Poetry & Prose from an Italian-American.

 

Giovanna’s play Her Kiss, was produced and performed to sold-out audiences in San Francisco by Luna Sea Women’s Performance Project, in their first drama festival. She also co-edited two anthologies: Hey Paesan! Writing by Lesbians & Gay Men of Italian Descent, and Dispatches from Lesbian America: 42 Short Stories & Memoir by Lesbian Writers.

 

Giovanna lives in Oakland, CA where she has worked as a public librarian in city and county libraries. She also taught poetry and creative writing to children and teens, through California Poets in the Schools. Recently Giovanna has been working on a documentary film, an exciting new direction in her life. The focus is Italian social clubs in Oakland, and their significance in helping immigrants and their descendants retain their cultural identity in America. Her film is: Finding the Italians: A Granddaughter’s Journey. It will be produced through her independently established company, Capone Productions: Making Films that Make Change.

 

For more information, please see her websites: www.giovannacapone.com and http://dispatchesfromlesbianamerica.com/.

 

Pod: "Moving in Two Worlds: Telling Stories about Our Intersecting Communities and Identities, & Undoing their Stereotypes" on Sunday, February 20 @ 2:20 pm – 3:20 pm EST.

Alex CarioThe BookstaGays Podcast started in the middle of the pandemic as a side project but has turned into a passion of both of ours - you can find Sam and Alex on Instagram, Twitter, and Podcast streaming platforms at @thebookstagays.

 

I’m Alex Cario. I’m newly 30-year-old living in Tampa, Florida. I have a basset hound named Penelope that I spend most of my time with. When I’m not reading or at home with my dog, I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker that works with LGBTQ+ youth. I’m the introverted and sarcastic side of the podcast duo! I’ve been talking about books on the internet for over 5 years now, specifically on Instagram at @thebookadvocate. My favorite genres are young adult, literary fiction, and memoir - with a dash of romance, specifically with LGBTQ+ representation, characters, and/or authors. 

 

Pod: The BookstaGays: An LGBTQ+ Books Podcast on February 20 @ 10:40 am - 11:40 am EST

Celeste Castro, she/her, is an American Mexican, author from small-town, rural Idaho, where most of her stories take place. She grew up with learning disabilities, though she always kept a journal. When she was a young adult, court-ordered volunteer work helped her find her way—community outreach. In 2009, she graduated from Seattle University with a Master of Public Administration. She began writing fiction in 2015. Her writing credits include HOMECOMING, Bella Books, 2017. LEX FILES, Bella Books, 2018. THE TAKING, Bella Books, 2019, SAVE THE DATE, Bella Books 2021, IN OUR WORDS: QUEER STORIES FROM BIPOC WRITERS, Bold Strokes Books, 2021, and PRIZE MONEY, Interlude Press, 2021. In addition to fiction, she is a staff writer with Hispanecdotes, an online magazine for Latinx writers, where she publishes essays and poetry.

 

Website: https://www.writerceleste.com/ 


Pod: Love & Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 9:35am-10:35am EST.

Mary Ciner

Mary Ciner, 1940,  I lived in Scarsdale, NY, and graduated from Chapel Hill School in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1958. I started working for the McCory McLellan Green stores in Westport, CT soon after and worked my way up to Store Manager in Branford CT. Decided to move to Eau Gallie, FL, as it was much warmer that CT, and I worked for the same company as Store Manager. Decided since I wanted to live in a warmer climate I did not need to be working such long hours and I moved to Cocoa Beach, FL, where I went to my my first Lesbian bar. Then I moved to Sarasota, FL where I still live. At 80 years old, I could not believe, that my first ever attempt at writing — my bar story, was chosen to be published along with 24 other lesbians’ work in Bar Times. I am now a social activist for lesbians in my community.

 

To purchase the book, Bar Time: A Lesbian Rite of Passage, email Sarah at spearlman@hartford.edu; the subject line must say "Bar Time Booklet."  Include your your snail mail address in the email.  Sarah will then tell you the cost and to whom to make out the check. 

 

Pearls reading: an excerpt from Bar Time: A Lesbian Rite of Passage (ed. Sarah Pearlman).

Kimberly Dark

Kimberly Dark is a writer, professor and storyteller, working to reveal the hidden architecture of everyday life so that we can reclaim our power as social creators. She’s the author of Damaged Like Me; Fat, Pretty, and Soon to be Old; The Daddies; and Love and Errors, and her essays, stories and poetry are widely published in academic and popular online publications alike. Her ability to make the personal political is grounded in her training as a sociologist, and you can find her course offerings in Sociology at Cal State San Marcos and Writing/Arts at Cal State Summer Arts.

 

Learn more at www.kimberlydark.com, and follow her on social media as well:

 

Pearls reading: "An excerpt from the essay "I said no in three languages," from the book, Damaged Like Me."

Stefani Deoul

Stefani Deoul is the author of the award-winning YA mystery series, the Sid Rubin Silicon Alley Adventures: ON A LARP, ZERO SUM GAME, and SAY HER NAME from Bywater Books. Her backlist includes first novel, THE CAROUSEL. She is a regular contributor to the magazine Letters from CAMP Rehoboth, and her short stories appear in several collections.

As a television producer, Stefani’s resume includes series HAVEN, THE DEAD ZONE, DRESDEN FILES, and MISSING. Combining both passions, Deoul’s most recent work is writing and packaging a six-hour mini-series.

 

 

Pod: Editing: How Authors and Editors Can Stay Friends on February 19 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm EST

Sharon Deevey

Sharon Deevey is a 77-year-old white lesbian who lives in Westerville, Ohio. She came out in 1970 and was a member of The Furies. Sharon worked as a registered nurse in public health, inpatient psych, and hospice, and completed a Ph.D. in Nursing at Ohio State in 1997. She served on the board of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association and volunteered for AARP as an LGBT Aging consultant. She currently participates via Zoom in OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) and volunteers twice a week as the disc jockey for senior line dance classes. Sharon identifies as femme, still believes in polyamory, and enjoys ongoing friendships with her ex-es. Between 1989 and 2011, she published several articles about lesbian health and lesbian self-disclosure in nursing journals.  Her poetry collection, Lesbian Jottings: 1970-2010 is available online at Julie Enszer’s lesbianpoetryarchive.org/node/243. Sharon is the author of a recent memoir, The Zebra Reader: A Lesbian NET Cancer Journey, which is available from www.ronnisanlo.com and Amazon.

 

Pearls reading: "Nurse" - a poem from my memoir, The Zebra Reader: A Lesbian NET Cancer Journey.

Becca Spence Dobias

Becca Spence Dobias is from West Virginia, and now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children. She is the author of On Home (Inkshares, 2021). She misses West Virginia every day but learning to play clawhammer banjo helps.

 

 

Pearls reading: from On Home, a novel.

Meredith Doench

Meredith Doench is the author of the Luce Hansen thriller series and Whereabouts Unknown (March 2022). 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.

 

 

Pod: Just one More Page... on February 18 @ 6:05 pm - 7:05 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Whereabouts Unknown.

Carol Anne DouglasCarol Anne Douglas worked on the feminist news journal off our backs for 35 years. She now writes novels and plays. Her latest book is Sister Matthew and Sister Rose: Novices in Love, a story set in 1962.

 

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Sister Matthew and Sister Rose: Novices in Love.

Eboni Dunbar

Eboni J Dunbar (She/her) is a queer, black woman who writes queer and black speculative fiction. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife. She received her BA from Macalester College in English and her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is a VONA Alum, and the managing editor for FIYAH Literary Magazine. Her work can be found in Stellium Literary Magazine, FIYAH Literary Magazine, Drabblecast, Anathema: Spec from the margins, and Nightlight Podcast. She also has a novella, Stone and Steel, out now from Neon Hemlock.

 

 

Pearls reading: "Stone and Steel - a secondary world fantasy about a General who is discovering that the woman she loves isn't who she thought she was and she has to choose between allowing her people to suffer or her lover."

Dana FinneganDana Finnegan, a retired psychotherapist, taught English literature at the college level in her early career. A leader of the Carefree Writers’ Circle for many years, Dana published the first installment of her memoir, Ollie, Ollie, In Free, in 2018.

 

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

Sara FlemingSara Fleming, after retiring from an adequate career, moved to Carefree Resort in FL, an all-women community. There she enjoys kayaking the numerous Florida waterways, biking, and participating in the community Writers’ Circle.

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: "Pool Talk at the Women's Resort."

Ava Freeman is a writer of contemporary romance that centers the Black queer woman’s experience. Through her stories she strives to give readers rich, complex characters that always find their happily ever after. She is the author of several books including the Friends & Lovers series and her most recent story collection Sweetest Taboo.

When she's not crafting her next story, you can find Ava reading (of course) or watching horror movies (have to balance out those energies). That is when her daughter lets her get a quiet moment (usually when she's sleeping). She currently lives in New York with her partner and little rebel.

 

 

Pod: More Love and Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 12:10pm-1:10pm EST.

Gloria Estela Gonzalez

Estela González writes in English and Spanish about the liminal lives of LGBT individuals, sea turtles, monarch butterflies, and those whose cultures are seen as less.

 

Her novel Arribada, slated to appear in April 2022 with Cynren Press, was a finalist for Feminist Press’s Louise Meriwether award in 2019. Estela’s work appears in magazines and anthologies such as Barcelona Review, Coal Hill Review, La Colmena, Cobalt, Cronopio, Feminine Rising, Flash Frontier, Flyway, Label me Latina, Letralia, Luvina, Resonancias, Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea, Sinister Wisdom, Solstice, and Under the Volcano.

 

Estela divides her time between Mazatlán, México, and Vermont, where she teaches Latin American literature and culture. She is now finishing a collection of stories titled The Age of Aquarius. Her new project is a novel of ghosts in the Mexican Pacific coast.

 

 

Pod: Rural Spaces and Queer Women on February 19 @ 12:10 pm - 1:10 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: ""Naca" is an excerpt from my novel ARRIBADA (Cynren Press, 4/2022). In it the protagonist, Mariana, is eight years old when she meets her future girlfriend, Fernanda. Mariana is a fair-skinned girl from an upper-class family, while Fernanda belongs to the indigenous Concaac from Northern Mexico. The chapter shows the extreme racism children learn to internalize and bully others with, and presents Mariana with ethical choices that will define her future life."

Elena Graf

Elena Graf has published four historical novels set in Europe in the early 20th century. Lies of Omission, the third volume in the Passing Rites Series, won a Golden Crown Literary Society award for best historical fiction and a Rainbow Award. The fourth volume, Acts of Contrition also won a Goldie and a Rainbow Award. She has also published six novels in a contemporary series featuring a group of senior women living in the fictional town of Hobbs, Maine. The first novel in the series, High October, was a Lesfic Bard Award finalist.

 

 

Pod: The Secret Lives of Historical Novelists on February 19 @ 2:55 pm - 4:25 pm EST

Regina Hanel

Regina lives in the mountainous suburbs of Northern New Jersey with her partner of twenty years. She earned Bachelors' degrees in accounting and biology, with a minor in German. She's also a Certified Public Accountant and works for the Federal Government protecting the taxpayer's interests. Regina loves the outdoors. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, reading, watching football, and trying out new vegetarian recipes. Her first novel, Love Another Day, received the Alice B. Readers’ Lavender Award certificate in 2012, which is given to “promising writers of lesbian fiction” and represents, to this author, a heart-warming affirmation that anything is possible through hard work and the love of creating. Other novels by this author are White Dragon, A Deeper Blue, and Cassethea of Mercia, which is her fourth and latest novel.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Cassethea of Mercia.

LaToya Hankins

LaToya Hankins resides in Durham, NC. Her work includes novels SBF Seeking, K-Rho: The Sweet Taste of Sisterhood, and various short stories. She is a book reviewer for the Black Lesbian Literary Collective and her work has been featured in various anthologies.

 

Hankins received her bachelor’s of arts degree from East Carolina University and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Hankins currently serves as the national secretary of Gamma Xi Phi, a predominately African American organization of men and women in the arts, including literature, visual art, music, theater, and dance.

 

Hankins is working on her third novel, exploring the relationship between mothers and daughters. Readers can savor her blog Caviar and Pate: Memories of a Flavorful Childhood at www.latoyahankins.com.

 

Pod: Love & Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 9:35am-10:35am EST.

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from SBF Seeking.

Christiana Harrell

Christiana Harrell was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She introduced herself to the literary scene in 2009 with her first bestseller Girl: A Story for Every Les Being. GIRL would set the stage for the author she would become and the voices she wanted to represent. In 2013, her title CREAM would become a finalist selection in the Lesbian Fiction category for the Lambda Literary Awards. To date, Christiana has published twelve titles. She enjoys reading, writing reviews, podcasting, movies, food, sleep, and preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from For Bidding or for Worse.

Cheryl A Head

Cheryl A. Head (she/her) writes the award-winning, Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries whose female PI protagonist is queer and black. Head is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and her books are listed in the Detroit Public Library’s African American Book List. In 2020, the third book in Head’s mystery series was shortlisted for the Next Generation Indie Book Award. In 2019, Head was named to the Hall of Fame of the New Orleans Saints and Sinners Literary Festival. She is a current member of the national Bouchercon Board of Directors. Head lives in Washington, DC with her partner and Abby & Frisby who provide canine supervision.

 

Website: www.cherylhead.com

 

Pod: Character, not Caricature: Writing People Who are Not Like You on February 20 @ 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EST

Pat Hulsebosch

Pat Hulsebosch is a queer Pippi Longstocking wanna-be who writes stories and poems about being a wife, daughter, mother, sister, grandmother, and, now, in her sixth decade, a great-grandmother. Since retiring from Gallaudet University she’s found a passion in story-telling about a never-boring life of teaching and learning, wonder, awe and day to day discoveries. Her work has appeared in literary journals including Columbia Journal, Lunch Ticket, Halfway Down the Stairs, Furious Gravity, Grace & Gravity, Vol. I, and The Washington Post. These days she bounces between family and her partner of 38 years in Gulfport, FL and Takoma Park, MD.

 

Publications include the following: 

 

Pearls reading: "Not Napping," this is an excerpt from a longer non-fiction story published in Columbia Journal in 2020.

Elle E. Ire

Elle E. Ire writes science fiction and paranormal romance featuring kickass women who fall in love with each other. Her novels include: VICIOUS CIRCLE, the STORM FRONTS trilogy, DEAD WOMAN'S POND, and REEL TO REAL LOVE, all from DSP Publications. Elle enjoys getting into her characters' minds by taking shooting lessons, participating in interactive theatrical experiences, paying to be kidnapped "just for the feel of it," and attempting numerous escape rooms. She and her spouse present at many state and national writing conferences. Her work is represented by Naomi Davis at the Bookends Literary Agency.

 

 

Pod: Just one More Page... on February 18 @ 6:05 pm - 7:05 pm EST

Fay Jacobs

Fay Jacobs is currently Managing Editor for Bywater Books. She has 5 published collections of humorous/activist essays with Bywater Books, was named a 2019 Champion of Pride by The Advocate Magazine and has won numerous awards for her books. She’s written for The Washington Post, Advocate Magazine, Washington Blade, Delaware Beach Life, and has authored a column for 26 years for Letters from CAMP Rehoboth and more. She’s also a sit-down comic performing her solo show Aging Gracelessly: 50 Shades of Fay all over the country.

 

 

Pod: Make it Funny! on February 19 @ 9:35 am - 10:35 am EST

 

Pod: Editing: How Authors and Editors Can Stay Friends on February 19 @ 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm EST

Jae is the author of 22 award-winning sapphic romance novels. She lives in the sunniest city in Germany, near the French and Swiss borders. The writing bug bit her at the age of eleven.

She used to work as a psychologist but gave up her day job in 2013 to become a full-time writer and a part-time editor. As far as she’s concerned, it’s the best job in the world. When she’s not writing, she is an avid reader, indulges her ice cream and stationery addictions, and watches way too many TV shows.

 

 

Pod: Love & Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 9:35am-10:35am EST.

Silk Jazmyne

Silk Jazmyne was born in New York and grew up all over as a Navy brat. She received her B.S. in Communications at Florida International University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Tampa. Her work has appeared both online and in print at Black Girl Nerds, Midnight & Indigo, African Writer Magazine, and in Ekphrastic Exhibition in Tandem: Back | Forth. She's an Account Coordinator at a boutique advertising agency by day and a speculative fiction author by night who loves the artistically strange. She currently lives and works in Florida.

 

 

Pod: Root to Fruit: Producing Speculative Fiction By and About People of Color on February 19 @ 1:50 pm - 2:50 pm EST

Tenea D. Johnson

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.

 

Pod: Root to Fruit: Producing Speculative Fiction By and About People of Color on February 19 @ 1:50 pm - 2:50 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Frequencies, a Fiction Album.

Briona Simone Jones

Briona Simone Jones is a scholar of African American literature, Feminist Theory, and Black Queer studies. Jones has published a collection of Black Lesbian writings titled Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought, the most comprehensive anthology centering Black Lesbian thought to date. Jones's forthcoming monograph coins and develops the concept of “Black Lesbian Aesthetics” to demonstrate how literature produced by women of color from 1974-1988 addressed both anti-Blackness in the Women’s movement and sexism and homophobia in the Black power movements.

 

 

Pearls reading: "No Hand, No Gaze," the introduction to Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought. 

Karin has been exclusively devoted to lesbian fiction since the publication of her first novel by Naiad Press in 1989. In addition to multiple Lambda Literary Awards, she has won the Ann Bannon Popular Choice, multiple Goldies and has been selected as a Trailblazer by the Golden Crown Literary Society. Her latest novel is Simply the Best from Bella Books. The California native is the mother of two. Her official website is Kallmaker.com or search on social media or any bookseller for “Kallmaker” – there’s only one.

 

Links where to buy:

 

Pod: Love & Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 9:35am-10:35am EST.

Lola Keeley is a writer and coder. After moving to London to pursue her love of theatre, she later wound up living every five-year-old’s dream of being a train driver on the London Underground. She has since emerged, blinking into the sunlight, to find herself writing books. She now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her wife and four cats.

 

 

Pod: More Love and Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 12:10pm-1:10pm EST.

Sue Katz

Sue Katz’s business card identifies her as a “Wordsmith and Rebel.” Her writing has been published on the three continents where she has lived, worked, and roused rabble. She has been a martial arts master, promoted transnational volunteering, and partner danced more than her feet could bear. Her fiction books, often focusing on the lives of LGBTQ elders, include A Raisin in My Cleavage: short and shorter stories, Lillian’s Last Affair and other stories, and the novel Lillian in Love. Her short story “The Lipstick Assault in Serene Manor” was recently published by Gertrude Press. She is overly active on Facebook www.facebook.com/sue.katz and check out her blog: Consenting Adult at www.suekatz.com.

 

 

Pod: Our International Writing Partnership: A Booster Against Covid on February 19 @ 10:40 am - 11:40 am EST

 

Pearls reading: "The Unexpected Primrose is a short story about an isolated elder who receives a surprise package she doesn't want, as it takes her back to her painful high school days."

sam land

The BookstaGays Podcast started in the middle of the pandemic as a side project but has turned into a passion of both of ours - you can find Sam and Alex on Instagram, Twitter, and Podcast streaming platforms at @thebookstagays.

 

I’m Sam Land. I’m a 32-year-old dog mom living in a tree house on the river in Florida. I also teach 7th grade. I’m a good time till about 11 pm and then it’s off to hit the hay. Food is a love language that I’m willing to get behind and everyone knows how much I love jalapeño poppers. I’ve been on Instagram for 3 years at @staxsonstaxs. Reading is my escape but I can’t promise I won’t dog ear the pages. My favorite genres include fantasy, young adult, and literary fiction with LGBTQ+ representation! 

 

Pod: The BookstaGays: An LGBTQ+ Books Podcast on February 20 @ 10:40 am - 11:40 am EST

Ellen LevyEllen Levy is obsessed; writing has taken over her life. She spends part of everyday living in 1910’s with her characters, Deborah and Miriam, young Jewish women in love. Ellen summers in Boston with her wife and two cats, and winters At the Resort on Carefree Boulevard in Florida with 500 older women who celebrate the hard-earned freedom to be themselves.

 

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pod: The Secret Lives of Historical Novelists on February 19 @ 2:55 pm - 4:25 pm EST

JB Marsden

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.

 

JB Marsden has 6 books published by Sapphire Books available on Amazon: Reclaiming Yancy, The Travels of Charlie, Bobbi and Soul, Prairie Hearts, Family Ties, and Yancy in Love.

 

 

Pearls reading: "Virago, excerpt from the 1st chapter."

Paula Martinac

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 from North Carolina Arts Council and the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and teaches fiction writing at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 

 

 

Pearl reading: excerpt from Testimony.

Elizabeth McCain

Elizabeth McCain is a performance artist, storyteller/story coach, spiritual counselor, and an Interfaith minister and author of a compelling memoir, A Lesbian Belle Tells OUTrageous Southern Stories of Family, Loss, and Love. Her memoir is an expansion of her award-winning one woman show about her stories of her Mississippi roots, coming out in Washington, DC in the 90s, family rejection, and finding love and belonging. Filled with poignancy, humor, and heart,
her memoir was nominated for best lesbian memoir of 2021 by Lambda Literary Society, and The Golden Crown Literary Society.
 
Elizabeth has performed in Pride festivals, queer theater festivals, retirement centers, and at government agencies, spiritual retreats, house concerts, colleges, and universities. Whether counseling, coaching, or performing, Elizabeth’s passion is to help LGBTQ women heal, reframe, and share their stories of loss in community so they can live with more joy.
 
She will be performing her show, “Porch Stories; OUTrageous Confessions of a Southern Lesbian” on March 13, 2022 in The Intersections Arts Festival in Washington, DC. Elizabeth lives in the DC area with her spouse and their two spoiled dogs. To book Elizabeth for a performance, workshop, book reading, or to purchase a signed copy of her memoir, go to www.elizabethmccain.com. 
 

 

Pearls reading: "A reading from A Lesbian Belle Tells OUTrageous Southern Stories of Family, Loss, and Love: chapter one, “Becoming a Lesbian,”  about my last boyfriend and my first girlfriend."

Lois McGuinness

Lois McGuinness, a longtime member of the Carefree Writers’ Circle, focuses on creative nonfiction. She made her literary debut in the 2020 ReadOut.

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: "The Queen of Denial."

Melanie Mitzner

Melanie Mitzner’s novel Slow Reveal will be published on May 17, 2022 by Inanna Publications, York University, Toronto. Awarded an Edward Albee Fellowship for her play Personal Effects, her screenplay Dodge and Burn was a finalist in the Writers Guild East Foundation Fellowships. In the Name of Love and Out to Lunch were finalists in the Houston Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. She received a fellowship from M.E.T. Theater and fiction grants from Vermont Studio Center and Summer Literary Seminars. An excerpt of her novel Too Good to Be True was published in Harrington Lesbian Quarterly. She writes for Vol1Brooklyn, Wine Spectator, Hamptons, The Groovy Mind, Society for Curious Thought, Broadcast Week, Millimeter and Video Systems. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. For more information, visit her website: www.melaniemitzner.com. She lives in New York and Montréal.

 

Link to pre-order Slow Reveal.

 

Pearls reading: an excerpt from Slow Reveal.

S.A. Mossman

S.A. Mossman is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. She began her career writing and directing with projects including; the documentary short Charm City Roller Girls about the women’s roller derby league in Baltimore, Maryland, and the dramatic thriller short Art/Form about a sex worker turned artist taking solace in violence against men after the accidental death of a man that drunkenly attacks her. Her work has screened at Cannes, Cambridge Film Festival, Austin Music Video Festival, and the Independent Horror Movie Awards. Her debut novel Deadalus Detectives: Tree of Life will be released in late 2022. 

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Last Night at the Fremont.

Esther Newton

I am a retired professor of anthropology and women’s studies, currently splitting my year between Michigan and Florida. I loved teaching and mentoring all students, but most especially queer students. My writing and research include numerous articles and essays all dealing with the culture and history of LGBTQ people, and five books, Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America, Womenfriends (with Shirley Walton), Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town, Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas, and My Butch Career: A Memoir. All these books, except Womenfriends, are still in print.  Currently I am the subject of a documentary film in final stages of post-production titled Esther Newton Made Me Gay.

 

 

Pearls reading: "Old Movie Star," a short essay about the experience of being the subject of a documentary film in production, Esther Newton Made Me Gay,   https://www.esthernewtonmademegay.com/.

Rita Potter

Rita Potter has spent most of her life trying to figure out what makes people tick. To that end, she holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and an MA in sociology. Being an eternal optimist, she maintains that the human spirit is remarkably resilient. Her writing reflects this belief.

 

Rita’s stories are eclectic but typically put her characters in challenging circumstances. She feels that when they reach their happily ever after, they will have earned it. Despite the heavier subject matter, Rita’s humorous banter and authentic dialogue reflect her hopeful nature.

 

She lives in a small town in Illinois with her wife, Terra, and their cat, Chumley, who actually runs the household.

 

Rita is a member of American Mensa and the Golden Crown Literary Society. She is a graduate of the GCLS Writing Academy 2021.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Upheaval: As We Know It - Book 1.

Fiona Riley was born and raised in New England where she is a medical professional and part-time professor when she isn’t bonding with her laptop over words. She went to college in Boston and never left, starting a small business that takes up all of her free time, much to the dismay of her ever-patient and lovely wife. When she pulls herself away from her work, she likes to catch up on the contents of her ever-growing DVR or spend time near the ocean with her favorite people. 

 

Fiona’s love of writing started at a young age and blossomed after she was published in a poetry competition at the ripe old age of twelve. She wrote lots of short stories and poetry for many years until it was time for college and a real job. Fiona found herself with a bachelor’s, a doctorate, and a day job, but felt like she had stopped nurturing the one relationship that had always made her feel the most complete: artist, dreamer, writer.

 

A series of bizarre events afforded her some unexpected extra time, and she found herself reaching for her favorite blue notebook to write, never looking back.

 

Pod: More Love and Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 12:10pm-1:10pm EST.

E.F. Schraeder

Schraeder is the author of Liar: Memoir of a Haunting (Omnium Gatherum, 2021), the story collection Ghastly Tales of Gaiety and Greed: Unauthorized and Haunted Cedar Point (Omnium Gatherum, 2020), and two poetry chapbooks. Awarded first place in Crystal Lake Publishing’s 2021 Poetry Contest, E.F. Schraeder was also semi-finalist in Headmistress Press’ 2019 Charlotte Mew Contest.

 

 

Books:

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Judy Garland Is Not a Sunrise, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (release date, tbd).

Riley Scott

In addition to having published poetry and short stories, Riley Scott has worked as a grant and press writer and a marketing professional. She holds a degree in journalism. She has five WLW romance novels published by Bella Books—Conservative Affairs, Small Town Secrets, Backstage Pass, A Time to Speak, and On the Rocks. Her first YA title—Take Your Shot—is coming out in 2022. She lives in Pensacola, Florida, with the love of her life and their three beloved dogs.

 

 

Pod: Just one More Page... on February 18 @ 6:05 pm - 7:05 pm EST

Anne Shade

Anne Shade loves writing stories about women who love women featuring strong, beautiful BIPOC characters from her idyllic suburban home in West Orange, NJ. Anne is the author of four novels, Femme Tales, queered retellings of three classic fairytales and short-listed for a 2021 Lambda Literary Award, Masquerade, a roaring 20s romance, Love and Lotus Blossoms, a coming of age, and coming out story listed as a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2021, and Her Heart’s Desire, a coming out romance. Anne has also collaborated with Editor Victoria Villasenor for the Bold Strokes Books anthology, In Our Words: Queer Stories from Black, Indigenous and People of Color and with Bold Strokes Books authors Julie Cannon and Erin Dutton for the My Secret Valentine anthology. When Anne isn’t busy writing she’s crafting and making plans for her future bed & breakfast.

 

 

Pod: Keeping the Romance (Novel) Alive: A Candid Conversation between Georgia Beers and Anne Shade on February 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST. 

Image of Nisi Shawl

Nisi Shawl is best known for fiction dealing with gender, race, and colonialism, including Nebula finalist Everfair, an alternate history of the Congo. They’re the coauthor of Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, a standard text on inclusive representation, and cofounder of the Carl Brandon Society. Their criticism and essays appear widely, in one case as part of a volume of the Library of America. Shawl edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler; Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany; and New Suns: Speculative Fiction by People of Color. Awards include the World Fantasy Award, two Locus Awards, and FIYAH’s Ignyte Award. They live in Seattle, just one block away from a beautiful, dangerous lake full of currents and millionaires.

 

Many appearances - see website. Current titles authored or co-authored in print include: Writing the Other: A Practical Approach/Talk Like a Man/Filter House/Everfair. Current titles edited or co-edited in print include: WisCon Chronicles 5: Writing and Racial Identity/Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, Octavia E. Butler, and African American Voices/Stories for Chip/New Suns.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from short story "The Things I Miss the Most."

Stephanie Shea

Stephanie Shea is a self-proclaimed introvert, who spent her days in corporate daydreaming of becoming a full-time novelist. Her favorite things include binging TV shows, creating worlds where no character is too queer, broken or sensitive, and snacks. Lots of snacks. Someday, she hopes to curb her road rage and get past her anxiety over social media and author bios.

 

 

Book Links:

 

Pod: More Love and Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 12:10pm-1:10pm EST.

 

Pearls reading: exceprt from Whispering Oaks: "A missing sister, an unexpected romance, an impossible mystery...

Nothing ever happens in Whispering Oaks. The air is clean; uncorrupted by a tawdry downtown. Birds twitter. Crime is nigh non-existent. It’s the picture-perfect suburb with all the effects of classy restaurants and diverse nightlife. Not to mention block parties marked by face-forward flattery and back-biting.
Cassidy Linden hates it. Rather, the false mystique of it all disturbs her.

Nothing ever happens in Whispering Oaks. So, when Cassidy’s younger sister vanishes one night, it’s not just surprising, it’s unfathomable—the only trace of her disappearance a trail of red petals and her cell phone left in the grass of her backyard.

No witnesses.
No suspects.

A police department who claim to be doing everything they can, and the poorly-timed return of a family friend.

When a one-night stand with the charming, enigmatic Ashlyn Castille reveals an unforeseen connection, Ashlyn and Cassidy realize they have more in common than either expected.
But one thing is certain, seventeen-year-old girls don’t just disappear. Someone must have taken her. Can Cassidy prove it in time to bring her little sister home? Or is she a fated anomaly?

The perfect mystery for a perfect suburbia."

Chris Stark

Chris Stark is an Anishinaabe and Cherokee lesbian writer, organizer, and trainer. Her first novel, Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation, was a Lambda LIterary Finalist. Her second novel, Carnival Lights, was released recently and is a Minnesota Book Awards finalist.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Carnival Lights on Saturday, February 19th at 9:00am EST.

 

Pod: Moving in Two Worlds: Telling Stories about Our Intersecting Communities and Identities, & Undoing their Stereotypes on Sunday, February 20th at 2:20pm-3:20pm EST.

Misa Sugiura

Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. Her first novel It’s Not Like It’s A Secret, won the Asian Pacific Islander American Librarians’ Association’s Award for Young Adult Literature; her highly acclaimed second novel, This Time Will Be Different, made the Best of 2019 lists of YALSA, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. Her short story, “Where I’m From” appears in Come On In, a young adult anthology of stories about immigration. Her latest book, Love & Other Natural Disasters has been praised by the American Library Association as "hilariously awkward" and "honestly poignant." Misa was born in Chicago, earned a B.A. in English at Princeton University, and taught English as a second language in Japan before moving back to the States to earn her M.Ed at Stanford University. She taught English at a local public high for several years before “retiring” to be a stay-at-home parent. Currently, she lives and writes under a giant oak tree with her husband, two sons, and two cats.

 

 

Book links:

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Love & Other Natural Disasters: "a young adult lesbian rom-com featuring four girls of color. Nozomi has a crush on Willow, who is heartbroken by her recent breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Arden. Nozomi encourages Willow to enter a fake dating relationship to make Arden jealous, pinning her hopes on the rom-com trope that fake relationships lead to real feelings. Things get complicated when Nozomi has to spend time with Arden's new girlfriend, and Nozomi starts feeling a connection with her."

Photo of Anondra Williams

Anondra "Kat" Williams is writer, poet, radio host and all around lover of words. Her first foray into writing was black girl love released in 2011 and her second book SistaGirl released August 2013. Both are a collection of short stories and poetry, detailing everyday love and life between women who love women. Since then she has written her first novela Pat Greene, a third collection of short stories About Love and is in the process of finishing Savannah, her first full length novel.

 

In 2009 she started Shades Retreat: Personal, You. Shades Retreat is a empowerment, growth and change retreat for queer women of color.

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Pat Greene: "Pat Greene wanted to tell her story and I was willing to listen. It turns out her story is my story and your story. A story full of highs and lows of loving women from the 1950's till her now. Join in as Pat speaks from the heart, sharing the good and bad of being a black woman, of being a lesbian and more importantly being all of that and more while surviving. From Mississippi to Michigan, journey along the great migration that is Pat Greene. Get to know Pat through the women she thought she loved, pretended to love and the one who taught her what love really is. This is Pat Greene and her story."

Elizabeth Woodcraft

During her time as a lawyer in London, Elizabeth Woodcraft represented lesbians seeking custody of their children, as well as victims of domestic and sexual abuse, women from the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, and anti-apartheid protestors. Good Bad Woman and Babyface (HarperCollins), her two crime novels feature barrister Frankie Richmond. Good Bad Woman was short-listed for a CWA prize for best first crime novel, and won a Lambda award in the US (Kensington). The London Times wrote ‘Move over Rumpole.’

Her most recent books are set in the Sixties - Motown, milk bars and ban-the-bomb marches. The Saturday Girls and The Girls from Greenway are published by Bonnier Zaffre.

Pod: Our International Writing Partnership: A Booster Against Covid on February 19 @ 10:40 am - 11:40 am EST

Catharine Wright

Catharine Wright is an eighth generation Vermonter who teaches courses such as Outlaw Women and Writing Gender and Sexuality at Middlebury College. She has earned several writing prizes and published fiction and poems in magazines such as The Feminist Wire, Blue Mesa Review, Negative Capability, Pleiades, Hurricane Alice, and Narrative Northeast. She has collaboratively written and edited two nonfiction books, Vermonters At Their Craft, and Social Justice Education. She just completed a novel about a town clerk and lesbian mother who leaves her civil union partner to find new love in a small town.

 

 

Pod: Rural Spaces and Queer Women on February 19 @ 12:10 pm - 1:10 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Tipton's Town Clerk.

Sara Yager

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.

 

Pod: Writers’ Groups: Going Deep, Soaring High, Bringing Out the Best on February 20 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST

 

Pearls reading: twelve poems.

Kenni York

Kenni York has penned  33 books including her LGBT titles Testing My Gangsta and A Savage Stole my Soul. She is passionate about using her voice and talent to tell stories representing her community. Her literary accolades include 2013 AAMBC Female Author of the Year Award Nominee, 2013 National Association of Professional Women Inductee, 2013 Continental Who’s Who Award Recipient, 2014 and 2015 Who’s Who in Black Atlanta Entrepreneurial Award, 2015 Literary Jewels Editor of the Year Award, 2018 The Secret Place Book Club Author of the Year,  2018 and 2019 ACHI Author of the Year Award Nominee and Entrepreneur of the Year Award Nominee, and 2018 & 2019 ATL’s Hottest Author of the Year Award Nominee. In addition to being an author, Kenni is also an accomplished screenwriter. Her film catalog includes feature films The Secrets That Bind and At Least I Didn't Kill Him. Her film accolades include 2020 and 2021 ATL’S Hottest Film/TV Producer of the Year Award Nominee, 2021 Exceptional Screenplay Award from Short Filmz Film Festival as well as 2021 Best Global Screenplay of the Season from the Best Global Shorts Film Festival in recognition of her LGBT script Call Me Dre.  Kenni is a member of Kappa Theta Epsilon Incorporated, a sorority for professional lesbian women. 

 

 

Pearls reading: excerpt from Testing My Gangsta: "Solo's not your typical hustler. Growing up with nothing but an older brother, Skinny, as a guardian Solo learned two things: how to get money and how to pull bitches. Without a stable female role model, Solo, a female identifying as a male, takes to the only things he's been taught in order to survive and be happy. Familial ties start to loosen as Solo grows tired of Skinny dissing him publicly about his sexuality and underestimating his ability to take a leadership position in the hustle he's helped Skinny to perfect over the years. The time comes when each of them has to show the other exactly who they are and what they're capable of. Blood or not, respect is always lost when you allow someone to test your gangsta."

Erin Zak grew up on the Western Slope of Colorado in a town with a population of 2,500, a solitary Subway, and one stoplight. She started writing at a young age and has always had a very active imagination. Erin later transplanted to Indiana where she attended college, started writing a book, and had dreams of one day actually finding the courage to try to get it published.

 

 

Pod: More Love and Romance Writing: Building Our Happily Ever Afters on Sunday, February 20th at 12:10pm-1:10pm EST.

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