by Radclyffe
Tommy Graziano was born and raised in Sacramento, California, and started writing in fourth grade. Since then, he has attended the California State Summer School for the Arts program, served as editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper, and has conducted an internship at the Roseville Press-Tribune. He has plans to study creative writing at San Francisco State University.
A.J. Slater is living at home as she attends college; home to her is a little town in southern Indiana. She is studying criminology with a minor in English writing. A.J.’s three main hobbies are sports, reading, and writing. She has two dogs, two sisters (middle child), and two very supportive parents. A.J. is planning to go into law enforcement with a special interest in the K-9 unit. She has an imagination with no boundaries and hopes to be able to use it more in her writing. “Crystal Crisis” is her first publication.
Olivia Dziwak is a Canadian writer who identifies as a stress-ridden young adult, hesitant poet, and post–theatre school student. She hails from suburban Ontario, where she lives with a fantastically supportive family that is as opinionated and rant-inclined as she is. Olivia begins study at the University of Toronto in the fall of 2012 and will empower herself with fearsome political science knowledge in hopes of being well prepared for furthering LGBTQ equality and [democratically!] conquering the world in general. She also intends to remain a writer and is buoyed that her short stories have been published in various youth magazines, zines, and the Toronto Star.
Ashley Bartlett was born and raised in California. She is from Sacramento and her life consists of reading and writing. Most of the time Ashley engages in these pursuits while sitting in front of a coffee shop with her girlfriend and smoking cigarettes. It’s a glamorous life. She is an obnoxious, sarcastic punk-ass, but her friends don’t hold that against her. She currently lives in Long Beach, but you can find her at ashbartlett.com.
Julie R. Sanchez is a California native and a student at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies cultural anthropology and gender studies. Although she writes mostly long-form fiction, her short fiction has been published in First Call and the FWord. She has received the Tim Hurley Writing Award and currently works on the fiction staff of the Adroit Journal.
If you asked people who Warren Smith was, they would all give you the same answer. He is just a skinny young boy living in a small town waiting for his chance to play in the city.
Kirsty Logan is a fiction writer, journalist, literary magazine editor, teacher, book reviewer, arts intern, and general layabout. She recently completed her first novel, Rust and Stardust, and a short story collection, The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales. Her work has been published in over 80 anthologies and literary magazines, including Best British Short Stories 2011 (Salt), and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has a semicolon tattooed on her toe and lives in Glasgow with her girlfriend. Say hello at kirstylogan.com.
Sam Sommer is the author of Reservations for 4, a one-act play that was presented this March as part of the 2012 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, and Bed & Breakfast, a new gay comedy presented as part of the 2008 NY Fresh Fruit Festival and winner of Best Full-Length Play. His short stories have been published in numerous anthologies. Most recently, “Color Zap!” in Queer Fish, “Human Nature” in Gay and Gray, “Starting Over” in Best Gay Romance 2009, and “Nightdance,” the lead story in Quickies III, short fiction on gay male desire.
Joseph Aviv is a graduate student interested in intersections between queer displacement and the dynamics of families and cultural heritages. He has lived in New York, Massachusetts, and Israel. He holds a BA in art from a small liberal arts college, where he also studied psychology and literature. His MA is in gender studies and Jewish studies, and he is currently pursuing a PhD in Jewish literature.
Aimee Lukes is a twenty-year-old college student in Chicago. In high school, she started a GSA. She enjoys writing, cats, long walks on the beach, and screaming matches on the Internet.
Andrew Arslan is a full-time college student studying English literature & the law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is a real estate agent with Next Step Realty and a writer for Intellectualyst.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @AndrewArslan.
Born in Melbourne, Florida, Ariana Montoya has lived there for the entirety of her twenty years. From an early age, she was dictating stories to her older sister, and she began writing poetry by six. Now she is attending college with the ultimate goal of becoming a middle school history teacher, and working retail. However, she has never forgotten her love of the written word and continues to write.
Archer Darke is a twenty-one-year-old oddball from Manchester, England, who likes to spend her free time indoors where the famously bad English weather can’t reach her. Her hobbies include eating, sleeping, and ensuring her hamster doesn’t find a new way to escape (again), and when she’s not concentrating on those she’s busy repairing and painting cars in order to pay the bills. This is her first short story to be published. You can e-mail her at [email protected].
Rebekah Weatherspoon is the author of Better Off Red, the first installment in the Vampire Sorority Sister Series published by Bold Strokes Books. She lives in Southern California but longs for the shores of New Hampshire and Maine.
Anna Meadows writes from her heritage in the Mexican-American Southwest and her passion for stories about women in love. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives with her Sapphic husband in California.
Brighton Bennett lives in Chicago and never wants to leave the Midwest. She loves Thai food, Cardinals baseball, her girlfriend, and all things lovely. She collects miniature elephants, bakes a delicious loaf of banana chocolate chip bread, and is constantly trying to keep all the plants in her apartment alive. This is her first published work, and she’s thrilled about it. She is always on the lookout for a new pen pal, so send her a line at [email protected].
About the Editors
Radclyffe has written over forty romance and romantic intrigue novels, dozens of short stories, and, writing as L.L. Raand, has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters.
She is an eight-time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery and erotica—winning in both romance (Distant Shores, Silent Thunder) and erotica (Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman and In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip written with Karin Kallmaker). A member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, she is also a 2010 RWA / FF&P Prism award winner for Secrets in the Stone. Her 2011 title Firestorm is a ForeWord Review Book of the Year award finalist. She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBT publishing companies.
Dr. Katherine E. Lynch teaches English literature and composition at a small college in the SUNY system. She writes romance novels for Bold Strokes Books under the name Nell Stark. Her novels include Running With the Wind (2007) and Homecoming (2008), and the everafter series (cowritten with Trinity Tam).
Soliloquy Titles From Bold Strokes Books
Sara by Greg Herren. A mysterious and beautiful new student at Southern Heights High School stirs things up when students start dying. (978-1-60282-674-8)
Boys of Summer, edited by Steve Berman. Stories of young love and adventure, when the sky’s ceiling is a bright blue marvel, when another boy’s laughter at the beach can distract from dull summer jobs. (978-1-60282-663-2)
Street Dreams by Tama Wise. Tyson Rua has more than his fair share of problems growing up in New Zealand—he’s gay, he’s falling in love, and he’s run afoul of the local hip-hop crew leader just as he’s trying to make it as a graffiti artist. (978-1- 60282-650-2)
[email protected] by K.E. Payne. Is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never met? Imogen Summers thinks so because it’s happened to her. (978-1-60282-592-5)
Swimming to Chicago by David-Matthew Barnes. As the lives of the adults around them unravel, high school students Alex and Robby form an unbreakable bond, vowing to d
o anything to stay together—even if it means leaving everything behind. (978-1-60282-572-7)
Speaking Out edited by Steve Berman. Inspiring stories written for and about LGBT and Q teens of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after “coming out.” (978-1-60282-566-6)
365 Days by K.E. Payne. Life sucks when you’re seventeen years old and confused about your sexuality, and the girl of your dreams doesn’t even know you exist. Then in walks sexy new emo girl, Hannah Harrison. Clemmie Atkins has exactly 365 days to discover herself, and she’s going to have a blast doing it! (978-1-60282-540-6)
Cursebusters! by Julie Smith. Budding psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she’s sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help. (978-1-60282-559-8)
Who I Am by M.L. Rice. Devin Kelly’s senior year is a disaster. She’s in a new school in a new town, and the school bully is making her life miserable—but then she meets his sister Melanie and realizes her feelings for her are more than platonic. (978-1-60282-231-3)
Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren. Eric Matthews survives a terrible car accident only to find out everyone in town thinks he’s a murderer—and he has to clear his name even though he has no memories of what happened. (978-1-60282-214-6)
Mesmerized by David-Matthew Barnes. Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena Albright learns about the many forms of love and finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older brother, the victim of a hate crime. (978-1-60282-191-0)
The Perfect Family by Kathryn Shay. A mother and her gay son stand hand in hand as the storms of change engulf their perfect family and the life they knew. (978-1-60282-181-1)
Father Knows Best by Lynda Sandoval. High school juniors and best friends Lila Moreno, Meryl Morganstern, and Caressa Thibodoux plan to make the most of the summer before senior year. What they discover that amazing summer about girl power, growing up, and trusting friends and family more than prepares them to tackle that all-important senior year! (978-1-60282-147-7)
