Atlanta’s LGBT Authors

Most of you know I’m from Atlanta, though I don’t come out of my hidey-hole often. There are many very talented LGBT authors in Atlanta and the surrounding area, and this is just a handful. If you know of an author not listed, please leave their name in the comments so readers can check them out. ~ B.

Listed in no particular order.

Karin Slaughter

A New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of fifteen thrillers, including UNSEEN, CRIMINAL, FALLEN, BROKEN, UNDONE, FRACTURED, BEYOND REACH, TRIPTYCH, FAITHLESS, COP TOWN, and the e-original short stories “Snatched” and “Busted.”

Slaughter was born in a small southern Georgia community, and now resides in Atlanta. She is widely credited with first coining the term “investigoogling” in 2006.

Karin’s next standalone novel, THE TRUTH ABOUT PRETTY GIRLS, arrives June 30, 2015.

 Book Blurb

Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.

Kate isn’t the only woman on the force who’s feeling the heat. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes. When she and Kate, her new partner, are pushed out of the citywide search for a cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach the boiling point. With a killer poised to strike again, they will pursue their own line of investigation, risking everything as they venture into the city’s darkest heart.

Relentlessly paced, acutely observed, wickedly funny, and often heartbreaking, Cop Town is Karin Slaughter’s most powerful novel yet—a tour de force of storytelling from our foremost master of character, atmosphere, and suspense.

From Amazon

Shae Connor

Shae Connor lives in Atlanta, where she’s a lackadaisical government worker for a living and writes sweet-hot romance under the cover of night. She’s been making things up for as long as she can remember, but it took her a long time to figure out that maybe she should try writing them down. She’s conned several companies into publishing her work and adds a new notch on her bedpost each time another story is unleashed onto an unsuspecting universe.

A member of the Romance Writers of America and the Rainbow Writers chapter, Shae was first published in 2010 and has a lineup of short stories, novellas, and novels including Model Student, Sand & Water, En Fuego, and a host of anthology appearances, most notably in the Rainbow Award–winning Playing Ball. Shae’s third novel, Wayward Son, book 2 in the Sons series, will be released on May 11 from Dreamspinner Press.

Shae is part Jersey, part Irish, and all Southern, which explains why she never shuts up. When she’s not chained to her laptop, she enjoys cooking, traveling, watching baseball, and reading voraciously, and she’s director of the Dragon Con on-site publication, the Daily Dragon. You can find her hanging out on Twitter most any time @shaeconnor, but for the more direct route, you can visit her website at shaeconnorwrites.com.

Book Blurb

Five years ago, Evan Day lost his lover in the Afghan sand, and in the fallout, he lost his military career and his family. With help from friends, he reinvented himself as porn star Trevor Hardball, but his scars are hidden, not healed. When Riley Yeats falls into Evan’s lap in a bar, he awakens a part of Evan he’d thought was dead and gone. Evan’s fascinated by the blond and twinky Riley, even though he’s the opposite of Evan’s usual type.

Then Evan’s family reappears his life, and Evan soon learns Riley has his own family-inflicted wounds—ones that make it hard for him to be there for Evan. A disastrous confrontation between Evan and his parents leaves Evan’s mother injured and Evan overcome by anger and fear. Losing his tenuous hold on his emotional control, Evan makes one bad decision after another, but maybe his final fall will be the wake-up call Evan needs to set things right—with his parents, and with Riley.

From Amazon

Megan Volpert

Volpert is the author of five books on communication and popular culture, most notably about Andy Warhol and most recently about motorcycles. She is currently researching rhetorics of independence during the American Bicentennial, and collaborating on a collection of essays about the nature of failure in performance. Her first work as an editor is This assignment is so gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013). It has been honored by The American Library Association and Lambda Literary.

This self-proclaimed love child of Joan Jett and Roland Barthes has performed with a wide range of poets, from Christian Bök and Andrei Codrescu to Laura Mullen and Daphne Gottlieb. Volpert has been in competition at the National Poetry Slam and is a board member of Poetry Atlanta.

Book Blurb

Poetry. LGBT Studies. “About ‘it gets better,’ they were never wrong, the path-forgers, the ground-breakers. How it gets better is another question, for a new century has brought changing minds, but also new hardships. That is why this extraordinary book matters. Teaching is such a sacred office, and we who teach today know the attentiveness that must be brought to the profession. These poems track, record, memorialize, and meditate on that office. There are poems of the student one lost, the student who reached out at last, of the daily commitment that teaching who you are requires, of why it matters. There is nothing like this thoughtful collection of trenchant, witty, poignant, blunt, and luminous poems on the art of teaching by LGBTIQ poets assembled with judicious vision by Megan Volpert. THIS ASSIGNMENT IS SO GAY is a beautiful and necessary book, not just for teaching, but for us all.”—Cynthia Hogue

From Amazon

Ken Murphy

A Georgia native who boasts that the first thing he ever had in his name was a library card. He credits his mother and her never-ending encouragement as the seed that started his life-long passion for the printed word. He is a hopeless romantic who loves nothing better than a good happily ever after.
Ken currently lives in Buckhead, a community in Atlanta, the ninth gayest city in the United States. He and his husband Andy finally decided to get officially married on their twentieth anniversary last August. When not reading or writing, Ken is usually either in the kitchen cooking something Southern or Asian, or in the gym working off the calories.

Book Blurb

After breaking up with his cheating boyfriend, Mark Smith keeps life simple: his nursing career and a place of his own, but no dating. He’s steering clear of romance and the heartbreak that goes with it. After losing both parents and having all his relationships fail, he figures happily ever after is a myth.

When Dr. Trevor Hayes crosses Mark’s path at the hospital, he falls hard for Mark. The attraction is clearly mutual, and Trevor is determined to parlay that attraction into a relationship. Mark is just as determined to avoid exactly that.

But Trevor chips away at Mark’s resistance, and facing hardship and sorrow together brings them closer. Still, Mark can’t shake his belief that their romance is temporary—until he’s unexpectedly faced with the danger that he might lose Trevor for good. Mark must choose between guarding his heart and giving it completely, the risk he swore never to take again.

From Amazon

Adrienne Wilder

Georgia born and bred, I am an artist, a writer, and a general pain in the ass.
I spend most of my days working on my next book or designing cover art for other writers. For stress relief I do olympic lifting and occasionally run (but hate it). I have been in love with writing since I was very young but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to pursue it as a profession.

I have experimented in several genres and found that since I identify as male, male romance has been the most comfortable for me to write. I don’t discriminate in my books. All characters are fair game. I do however, prefer a happy ending at some level.

I don’t write the standard romance book. Some might even argue that what I write isn’t romance at all. Personally I think of them as love stories, where even in a fantastical world, there are realistic outcomes to the obstacles the characters face.

Many of my books have dark turns and twists where the characters fight for the light at the end of the tunnel. I write action, fist fights, gun fights, down right dirty evil people who have to be stopped, things catch fire, blow up, and fall in. My characters come in a unique range. They are not all good guys, but the majority of them have very good hearts. Many of them have been through hell in their lives, and many of them have a laundry list of faults. But hopefully they manage to surprise you with their tenacity and loyalty.

If all goes well, there will be a myriad of different kinds of books available this year. If I am really lucky, you will enjoy them

Book blurb

For years Grant Kessler has smuggled goods from one end of the world to the next. When business turns in a direction Grant isn’t willing to follow he decides to retire and by all appearances he settles down in a nowhere town called Durstrand. But his real plan is to wait a few years and let the FBI lose interest, then move on to the distant coastal life he’s always dreamed of.

Severely autistic, Morgan cannot look people in the eye, tell left from right, and has uncontrolled tics. Yet he’s beaten every obstacle life has thrown his way. And when Grant Kessler moves into town Morgan isn’t a bit shy in letting the man know how much he wants him.

While the attraction is mutual, Grant pushes Morgan away. Like the rest of the world he can’t see past Morgan’s odd behaviors.

Then Morgan shows Grant how light lets you see but it also leaves you blind. And once Grant opens his eyes, he loses his heart to the beautiful enigma of a man who changes the course of his life.

From Amazon

Devon McCormack

Devon McCormack spends most of his time hiding in his lair, adventuring in paranormal worlds with his island of misfit characters. A good ole Southern boy, McCormack grew up in the Georgian suburbs with his two younger brothers and an older sister. At a very young age, he spun tales the old fashioned way, lying to anyone and everyone he encountered. He claimed he was an orphan. He claimed to be a king from another planet. He claimed to have supernatural powers. He has since harnessed this penchant for tall tales by crafting whole worlds where he can live out whatever fantasy he chooses.

A gay man himself, McCormack focuses on gay male characters, adding to the immense body of literature that chooses to represent and advocate gay men’s presence in media. His body of work ranges from erotica to young adult, so readers should check the synopses of his books before purchasing so that they know what they’re getting into.

Book Blurb

Though mortals have been convinced that God cares about their souls, nothing could be further from the truth. He created the world as a gift for his lover, Satan. But when Satan left him, he decided to end what he saw as his most grotesque creation.

Satan and his army of demons are man’s only hope…

The demon Kinzer and his lover, Janka, have been sent by Satan to spy on The Raze, a gang of rogue demons who are working with God to bring about Armageddon. When someone exposes their true allegiances, The Raze clips Kinzer’s wings and murders Janka. Kinzer manages to escape. He tracks down Satan’s allies to warn them about a mole in their midst when he learns that they’ve located the Antichrist–a powerful weapon that could prevent the apocalypse. Now, he’s on a mission to protect the Antichrist and avenge his lover’s death.

From Amazon

B. Snow

B. Snow found her way into the magical world of gay romance by way of fanfic and slash, and original characters began banging on her brain several years ago. If she can conquer her chronic procrastinitus, she may get that banging written down someday.

Originally from the West Coast, B. Snow and her husband now live in the Atlanta area, sharing a house with a cat who has them very well trained.

You can find more information at her woefully neglected blog and at her Facebook page. You can e-mail her if you don’t mind waiting a few days for a response. See above: procrastinitus.

Book Blurb

Alec, Earl of Whittlesey, lives a dull and reclusive existence, rarely mingling with society and, to his mother’s regret, refusing to marry. But his mother and society do not know he harbors a secret: a kind of madness that is driving him to deadly despair.

When Alec meets the commoner Morgan Villenie, he finds the man’s cheer and wit hard to resist, despite his own dark moods. Alec warms to Villenie, but Villenie has secrets of his own. If these two men are ever truly to be together, they must trust each other enough to reveal those secrets—even if they both believe the truth could tear them apart.

From Amazon

Yolo Akili

Yolo Akili Robinson, known as Yolo Akili, is the author of “Dear Universe: Letters of Affirmation & Empowerment For All Of Us.” Akili has worked as an anti-violence and emotional wellness counselor for marginalized youth and men for almost a decade.

His writings have appeared in many publications including the Huffington Post, The Good Men Project and Voice Male. He has been featured on BET.com, and has appeared on Huffington Post Live! and The Derek & Romaine Show (Sirius 1080 XM). Akili has also delivered keynotes and presentations at Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, Fordham University and much more.

Book Blurb

Dear Universe is a lighthearted and insightful collection of inspirational letters–with a southern twist- that invites each of us to transform our social and spiritual lives. Written by Akili over the span of many years working as a counselor and educator, each letter glimmers with both the joy of self-realization and a universal wisdom that echoes across the page.

From Amazon

Vanessa North

Author of over a dozen novels, novellas, and short stories, Vanessa North delights in giving happy-ever-afters to characters who don’t think they deserve them. Relentless curiosity led her to take up knitting and run a few marathons “just to see if she could.” She started writing for the same reason. Her very patient husband pretends not to notice when her hobbies take over the house. Living and writing in Northwest Georgia, she finds her attempts to keep a quiet home are frequently thwarted by twin boy-children and a very, very large dog.

Book Blurb

Knowing he’s loved can make any man fly.

Fifteen years ago, Ben Warren was a wakeboarding champion: king of big air, ballsy tricks, and boned grabs. Until a career-ending injury left him broken in ways he still has no hope of fixing. Now he takes his thrills where he can get them, and tries not to let life hurt too much.

Then Davis Fox arrives in Ben’s sporting goods store with a plan to get in touch with his estranged brother by competing in the annual wakeboarding double-up contest. The catch? He’s never ridden before. It’s crazy, but Ben’s a sucker for the guy’s sob story—and for his dimples, too—so he agrees to coach Davis.

Davis is everything Ben isn’t: successful, confident, and in love with life. And he wants Ben to love life—and him—too. But before Ben can embrace a future with Davis, he needs to remember how to hope.

From Amazon

J.P. Barnaby

Award-winning romance novelist, J. P. Barnaby has penned over a dozen books including the Working Boys series, the Little Boy Lost series, In the Absence of Monsters, and Aaron. As a bisexual woman, J.P. is a proud member of the GLBT community both online and in her small town on the outskirts of Chicago [J.P. just moved to Atlanta]. A member of Mensa, she is described as brilliant but troubled, sweet but introverted, and talented but deviant. She spends her days writing software and her nights writing erotica, which is, of course, far more interesting. The spare time that she carves out between her career and her novels is spent reading about the concept of love, which, like some of her characters, she has never quite figured out for herself.

Book Blurb

Waiting for someone else’s child to die so yours can live is the worst kind of Hell.

Celebrated Young Adult author Julian Holmes pits the heroic characters in his Black Heart series against all different kinds of monsters. But when a critical heart defect threatens his son’s life, he finds he has no champion. No amount of books, classes, or practice can prepare Julian for the fight to save his beautiful son’s life

Suddenly there are hospitals, transplant lists, and the nightmare of insurance red tape to navigate. In the midst of his trouble, Julian meets Simon Phelps, the insurance coordinator for Robbie’s case. Simon lives so deep in the closet he might never find his way out, but he dreams of exactly what Julian has. Then one night, drunken need and desperation brings them together, and a new fight begins.

From Amazon

Collin Kelley

Collin Kelley is the author of the The Venus Trilogy of novels – Conquering Venus, Remain In Light and the forthcoming Leaving Paris – published by Sibling Rivalry Press. Remain In Lightwas the runner-up for the 2013 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Fiction and a 2012 finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. His poetry collections includeBetter To Travel (2003, iUniverse), Slow To Burn (2006, MetroMania Press), After the Poison (2008, Finishing Line Press) and Render (2013, Sibling Rivalry Press), chosen by the American Library Association for its 2014 Over the Rainbow Book List. Kelley is also the author of the short story collection, Kiss Shot (2012, Amazon Kindle Exclusive). A recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year Award, Deep South Festival of Writers Award and Goodreads Poetry Award, Kelley’s poetry, reviews, essays and interviews have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies around the world.

Book Blurb

The poems in Render are snapshots of a family in crisis, infidelity, sexual discovery, and 40 years of pop culture from a gay poet growing up in the American South. Vanessa Daou says, “In Kelley’s elegiac, soaring series of poems, we are seduced by his language, invited to join him on his raw and ribald traipsing across the wilderness of his memory. What is rendered is as intimate yet as exposed as your neighbor’s lingerie strung up on a clothesline.”

From Amazon

Amanda Kyle Williams

Amanda Kyle Williams worked as a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, worked with a PI firm in Atlanta on surveillance operations, became a court appointed process server and owned a dog walking and pet sitting business in Atlanta.

Author of ‘THE STRANGER YOU SEEK’, ‘STRANGER IN THE ROOM’ and ‘DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS’, featuring former FBI criminal investigative analyst Keye Street.

Book Blurb

He likes them smart.
In the woods of Whisper, Georgia, two bodies are found: one recently dead, the other decayed from a decade of exposure to the elements. The sheriff is going to need help to track down an experienced predator—one who abducts girls and holds them for months before ending their lives. Enter ex–FBI profiler and private investigator Keye Street.

Theresa Davis