In this delightful collection of prize-winning stories, queer, gender-nonconforming, and trans characters struggle to find love and forgiveness, despite their sometimes comic, sometimes tragic mistakes. With insight and compassion, debut author Conklin reveals both the dark and lovable sides of their characters, resulting in stories that make you laugh and wince, sometimes at the same time.
Raki Kopernik
RAKI KOPERNIK is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left and The Memory House, both Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted and nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for Fiction and the Pen Faulkner Award in Fiction. Her queer travel novel, No One’s Leaving, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2025. She is a fiction editor at MAYDAY Magazine and an adjunct creative writing teacher at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
You can find her here and follow on Instagram @rakikopernik
Queer Fiction Writers:
Minnesota Women Writers in Short Fiction:
Darci Schummer interviewed by Raki Kopernik
Raw talent is not necessarily a predictor of success. However, engaging regularly in your practice, listening openly to critiques of your work, and not allowing rejection to deter you will all help you succeed.
Women Writers in Indie Publishing:
Alissa Hattman Interviewed by Raki Kopernik
Share your work and allow yourself to be vulnerable, risking something on every page.
Our Small Faces by Jamie Moore Reviewed
by Raki Kopernik
This is a story about friendship: the way it changes as we discover sexuality and as we begin to understand the way our bodies are seen in the world in all of its forms.
Lilly Dancyger Interview by Raki Kopernik: Jewish Women Writers
Lilly Dancyger is the author of Negative Space, a reported and illustrated memoir selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards. She is also the editor of Burn It Down, an anthology of essays on women’s anger. Find her on Twitter at @lillydancyger. This interview has been edited for brevity […]
Sam Cohen Interviewed by Raki Kopernik: Queer Jewish Writers
In Sarahland, a collection of stories woven together by characters named Sarah, Sam Cohen brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us. The cast of Sarahs finds ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and they discover new possibilities for life itself. In each Sarah’s refusal to adhere […]
Interview with Novelist Miriam McNamara
by Raki Kopernik
Miriam McNamara was born in Ireland, raised in the Southern United States, and now lives in the Midwest. She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of two queer young adult historical novels. Her debut, The Unbinding of Mary Reade, was released in 2018 by Sky Pony […]
