Lambda's Emerging LGBTQ Writers Reading Series: Michael Chang, H. Melt, Leah Johnson, Maria Isabelle Carlos, & others

A 2021 WRITER’S RETREAT SCHOLARS READING featuring Michael Chang, H. Melt, Leah Johnson, Maria Isabelle Carlos, storäe michele, Marrion Johnson, Elaine H. Kim, Nahshon Dion, Mary Maxfield, A.M. Rosales, & A.J. McClenon

The Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices presents for the first time a week-long public Reading Series that celebrates the emerged and emerging queer, trans, and nonbinary Faculty, Fellows, and Writers-in-Residence to attend our 2021 virtual retreat. Join over 60 LGBTQIA+ writers as they perform excerpts of their literary art. Each Reading Series event includes ASL interpretation and is closed captioned. FREE.

The 2021 Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices Reading Series is sponsored by Books Are Magic.

Michael Chang is author of poetry collections DRAKKAR NOIR (won Bateau Press BOOM Chapbook Contest), BOYFRIEND PERSPECTIVE (Really Serious Literature 2021), and CHINATOWN ROMEO (Ursus Americanus Press, forthcoming).

H. Melt is the author of The Plural, The Blurring and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. Their next book, There Are Trans People Here, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books (fall 2021).

Leah Johnson is author of award-winning books for children & young adults including her bestselling debut YA novel YOU SHOULD SEE ME IN A CROWN. Her sophomore novel RISE TO THE SUN (Scholastic) is forthcoming in 2021.

Maria Isabelle Carlos is a writer and editor from Missouri. Her work has appeared in Passages North, Hyphen Magazine, and elsewhere. Follow her @mariacarlospoet and find her work at www.mariaisabellecarlos.com.

storäe michele (she/they) is a black queer, shape-shifting, non-binary femme, afro-futurist performer + storäe-teller. their creative practice builds a present + embodied archive of black femme futures + aliveness.

Marrion Johnson is a Black, queer writer based out of Oakland, CA. Born & raised on the South Side of Chicago, Marrion utilizes fiction to examine complex realities facing Black communities including memory, lineage, & freedom.

Elaine H. Kim is a queer Korean American fiction writer born & raised in the Midwest. When not worrying about her novel & stories, she can be found working in the labor movement or keeping up w her 10-year-old twins.

Nahshon Dion is a teaching artist from California. Her literature in anthologies and journals and forthcoming memoir Shootn’ Range shows how youth can reach their full potential and shine when their rainbow is blurred.

Mary Maxfield strives to bridge arts, academics, and social change. A current Dissertation Fellow at St. Louis University, her work explores queer identity and community formation. Find Mary online at marymaxfield.com.

A.M. Rosales is a writer, artist, and translator originally from Cochabamba, Bolivia. They hold a literature degree from George Mason University and their favorite rodent is the capybara.

Born and raised in “DC proper,” A.J. McClenon is passionate about teaching and the art of words & making, with the goal that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people,” are told and retold again.