A personal reflection on writing queer stories for queer readers, representation, acearo identity, complicated characters, and making room for queer lives that are strange, messy, beautiful, and fully alive.

A core part of my life has been learning how to be myself. That has not always been easy, and for a long time it did not even feel possible. Because of that, I think I am always writing toward the places people are told not to look too closely: pain, loneliness, longing, uncertainty, desire, change, the parts of a self or a life that others would rather flatten, fear, or dismiss. I am interested in finding beauty there, not because suffering is noble, but because even difficu