At the bidding of the University of North Carolina Press, I gathered up a superb collection of LGBTQ+ narratives from our rich pool of local authors. Our state’s gay and lesbian and trans authors, plus some insightful straight allies, outdid themselves for this collection. Who is NOT in this anthology with ties to North Carolina? We have stories/episodes by Michael Parker, David Sedaris, Alyssa Wong, Aaron Gwyn, Garrard Conley, Brian Blanchfield, Wayne Johns, Belle Boggs, Kelly Link, Toni Newman, and the esteemed writers photographed below, who joined me on our caravan of readings across the state.

The launch at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, with (left) Allan Gurganus, Randall Kenan, and Minrose Gwin

Durham’s Regulator Bookshop with (left) Emily Chavez, John Pierre Craig, and Zelda Lockhart

In Asheville at Malaprop’s with (left) Eric Tran and Jasmine Beach-Ferrara

“The editor of the collection, Wilton Barnhardt, promises ‘a bunch of good things to read’ and delivers exactly that. If these writers weren’t connected by the natural fact of being members of, or sympathetic to, the LGBTQ community, they would be connected by their keenness of feelings and observation. What this book says is, ‘We are all kinds of people with all kinds of stories. In other words, we are just like you.’”
— MARK CHILDRESS (Crazy in Alabama and Georgia Bottoms)

UNC Press may be the first state press to produce an LGBTQ anthology from its own state’s writers, and what a tour de force it is, featuring the storytelling talent of North Carolina’s leading authors as well as up-and-coming writers. lt’s a substantive collection, perfect for a survey of gay fiction and southern fiction, not to mention queer studies—but mostly it’s a page-turning journey through the wild ride of LGBTQ lives in contemporary America.”
— LORI OSTLUND (The Bigness of the World) and ANNE RAEFF (Winter Kept Us Warm), both winners of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

You can buy the book at UNC Press website.