by Alex ALberto (they/them)
In a series of genre-blending essays, Entwined tells the story of Alex Alberto’s decade-long polyamorous journey towards a new kind of family.
In these essays, Alex attempts to build two committed relationships at once when no one involved has done it before; develops a powerful bond with the woman their partner loves; sits through a tense Thanksgiving Dinner with religious in-laws; questions the need for rules and hierarchy in their relationships; experiences the intensity of a triad; wrestles with the fragility baked into the nuclear family after their father’s stroke; and explores their queerness and gender identity in English, in New York, while struggling to reconcile their newfound self in their native French-Canadian language and culture.
Entwined explores the fuzzy lines between friendship, romance, and family with various essay forms, including a play, an advice column, and a love letter.
Released February 19, 2024.
BUY NOW
Or, if you must:
A word from the author
I’m a storyteller and educator. I grew up in Montreal and currently live in upstate New York, where I’m building a farm and retreat program.
My book is about my transition into an established polyamorous life. Yes, there are challenges, but rather than wallowing in the throes of jealousy, this collection celebrates the hard work of creating a love life that resists conventional narratives.
I called my book Entwined to highlight a focus on love and commitment among my partners and their partners, creating a network of significant others bound together to make up my family. I don’t dwell on why I chose polyamory or try to persuade readers that monogamy is flawed. Entwined shows what polyamory looks like for me.
by K.G. Strayer (they/them)
Stellar Nursery follows trans/nonbinary writer and artist K.G. Strayer’s struggle for bodily autonomy. From abortion to top surgery, colliding galaxies to cellular division, Strayer’s lyric prose explores what it means to move through the modern world in a contentious body.
The state-mandated “counseling” packet Strayer receives a week before their abortion in 2014 describes the embryo in relation to coins—the height of a nickel, the diameter of a dime. Meant to make them picture holding it in their hands. Instead, Strayer’s imagination conjures a whole galaxy in its place—a star being born.
Years later in 2022, Roe V. Wade is overturned. The decision is a catalyst that sets in motion explosive consequences in Strayer’s personal life, and their access to life-saving top surgery hangs in the balance.
Strayer’s memoir is a heartfelt account of the layered ways our struggles against fascism converge in the context of lived experience.
To meet the world fully embodied—is that a choice we can all make equally?
Released February 20, 2024.
BUY NOW
Or, if you must:
A word from the author
During Pride month of 2022, I decided I didn’t want to hide anymore.
I started saying I was non-binary more and more publicly. At the same time, my Republican parents became more and more radicalized. When Roe V. Wade was overturned, I feared I would lose access to much-needed medical care.
What I needed was top surgery. Top surgery–but also the removal of expired breast implants and a double mastectomy for a high risk of breast cancer. Suddenly, a surgery I’d anticipated for most of my life—one my mother received herself—took on a new meaning. I feared state interference, but toxic rhetoric had already done the job.
Stellar Nursery is the story of my abortion, and my road to top surgery. Simple choices that have taken on cultural significance much larger than themselves. The freedom to choose belongs to all of us. No one knows us better than ourselves.
WRITTEN BY Mia Arias Tsang (she/her) & ILLUSTRATED BY LEVI WELLS (HE/THEY)
“Your world never ends how you think it will.”
In this dazzling debut collection, Mia Arias Tsang explores the shimmering complexity and torture of queer heartbreak with an urgency that will leave you gasping.
Flash nonfiction, fragmented vignettes and personal narrative combine to tell the almost-love stories of her life (thus far). From dusty university libraries to Boston-bound BoltBuses, and the icy grief of Somerville to the smoggy shores of Venice Beach, FRAGMENTS OF WASTED DEVOTION spans a country of desire, a galaxy of yearning, and seven years of failing, losing, and finding oneself in love.
Forthcoming February 6, 2025.
ABOUT the author
Mia Arias Tsang is a writer and freelance editor based in New York City. Her work explores themes of queer desire, intimacy, and disconnect. A Tin House Summer Workshop alum, her work has appeared in Autostraddle, Copy, Half Mystic Press, Fatal Flaw Magazine, and Broad Recognition Magazine, among others. She is the program manager at the literary nonprofit House of SpeakEasy and writes a newsletter called Overripe Peach. Her first book, FRAGMENTS OF WASTED DEVOTION, is forthcoming in February 2025 from Quilted Press. She lives in Queens with her cat, Peanut, and is currently working on a novel.
Photo credit: Dustin Dale Barlow (IG: @ddb_photo)ABOUT the ILLUSTRATOR
Levi Wells is a trans multimedia artist and poet. His textile and illustrative works are devoted to real and unreal creatures, 2000's cartoons, and our changing human bodies. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his partner and two cats.