DEADLINE EXTENDED!!! 

NEW DEADLINE: DEC 31 2022

Got a 2022 book with bi+/pan characters or subject matter? We have 12 bi book categories for you!

Check out our Submission Guidelines.

Bi+ People in the Arts, our virtual hangout for bi+/pan writers, musicians, visual artists, comics creators,  crafters, etc, can be accessed on Meetup. We are on the NYC Bi Meetup and on the Bi+ Community Activities Meetup hosted by the Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) out of Boston. We meet on the 2nd Thurs of the month at 8PM ET (5pm PT). 

Join one of the below Meetup groups to get reminders about our meetings, to RSVP and get the Zoom link to access the group. You do not have to live in New York or Boston to join the Meetups. 

NYC Bi Meetup 

Boston Bi Meetup 

Our Founder/Director of the Bi Writers Association & Bisexual Book Awards, Sheela Lambert, was interviewed by E.M. Mechem of Bi Plus Podcast. We talked about all the projects that BWA & BBA are doing including The Bi Writers Conference (to be held online Sat Sept 24 during Bi Visibility Week: website coming soon), Bi+ People in the Arts (a casual hangout group for bi/pan artists of all genres that meets the 2nd Thursday of the month at 8pm ET, more info below) and the Tenth Annual Bisexual Book Awards.

You can stream our show Sat Sept 26, 7-9pm EDT followed by Q&A on our Facebook page or on YouTube. Link to Zoom requires RSVP on our Facebook Event Page or NYC Bi Meetup Page

                               ~

(Alphabetical by author's last name)

Rosebud Ben-Oni, turn around BRXGHT XYXS

Ben-Oni’s remarkable propensity to question everything has colored her life and work. Born to a Mexican-American mother who converted to Judaism after meeting Rosebud’s Jewish father, Ben-Oni grew up in South Texas and attended Hebrew school in the conservative, predominantly Christian and Catholic Southwest. Enduring systematic ostracization from a young age, Rosebud grew up escaping into books, K-pop, and science, counting the days until she could leave. This complicated incongruence is something that Ben-Oni has never forgotten.This might help explain the otherworldliness of Ben-Oni’s poetry, which sings of the secret, complicated places in every human heart. Her new book, turn around, BRXGHT XYXS (Get Fresh Books, 2019) is a stunning coming-of-age collection, heavily influenced by K-pop culture and New York City. Themes of disenfranchisement, rejection, rebellion, and power struggles prevail, but Ben-Oni’s musicality radiates with light and hope, and conveys the tender influence of her parents, both of whom supported Rosebud’s creative, inquisitive art. —Janet Rodriguez, The Rumpus

Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is the winner of 2019 Alice James Award for If This Is the Age We End Discovery, forthcoming in 2021, and the author of turn around, BRXGHT XYXS (Get Fresh Books, 2019). She is a recipient of the 2014 NYFA Fellowship in Poetry and a 2013 CantoMundo Fellow. Her work appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, POETS.org, Poetry Society of America (PSA), The Poetry Review (UK), Tin House, Guernica, Black Warrior Review, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Ecotone, The Missouri Review, The Journal, Hunger Mountain, The Adroit Journal, The Southeast Review, Salamander, Poetry Northwest, Arts & Letters, North American Review, among others. 

NAAMAH by Sarah Blake

With the coming of the Great Flood--the mother of all disasters--only one family was spared, drifting on an endless sea, waiting for the waters to subside. We know the story of Noah, moved by divine vision to launch their escape. Now, in a work of astounding invention, acclaimed writer Sarah Blake reclaims the story of his wife, Naamah, the matriarch who kept them alive. Here is the woman torn between faith and fury, lending her strength to her sons and their wives, caring for an unruly menagerie of restless creatures, silently mourning the lover she left behind. Here is the woman escaping into the unreceded waters, where a seductive angel tempts her to join a strange and haunted world. Here is the woman tormented by dreams and questions of her own--questions of service and self-determination, of history and memory, of the kindness or cruelty of fate. In fresh and modern language, Blake revisits the story of the Ark that rescued life on earth, and rediscovers the agonizing burdens endured by the woman at the heart of the story. Naamah is a parable for our time: a provocative fable of body, spirit, and resilience.

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark:

All of them but, in particular, Naamah and the angel

Sarah Blake is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Threepenny Review, Slice, and elsewhere.

In Lot’s Wife: An Erotic Retelling, by Rosalind Chase, the ancient biblical story of the destruction of Sodom is re-examined and re-imagined. No longer a symbol of female weakness and disobedience, Lot’s Wife is a woman who discovers her own sexual power, a mother who must protect her daughters and, in the end, a proud citizen of a doomed city. Every step along the way brings her closer to the moment she will make a choice. We all know how this story ends: with a backward glance and a pillar of salt. But that’s Lot’s version of the story, isn’t it?

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark:
The Protagonist (Lot’s Wife), Kali, Nasha, The Third Lover

Rosalind Chase, author of Lot’s Wife and From Darkest Seas, writes romantic magical realism and Appalachian gothic fiction. Originally from the mountains of North Carolina, she lives in Los Angeles.

Michael-David Gordon will emanate his considerable charm as our co-host and will preview a song from his first album as an individual artist. Gordon is a singer-songwriter and an actor. He is the frontman for several bands including the Meetles (a Beatles cover band) and the Apple Bonkers. He is working to put out his first two albums. 

Anne Heaton is a singer-songwriter and pianist who has captured audience imaginations for over fifteen years with her songs that are, by turns, “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). She’s been featured by the New York Times Popcast, toured widely in North America and shared the stage with artists such as Jewel and jazz drummer Max Roach. She teaches at Berklee College of Music and is the founder of Soul Songs School online songwriting program. She loves coffee, Lake Michigan and being a mom to two freethinking daughters. She lives in Milwaukee. www.anneheaton.com

Colonize Me by Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley From Nippon refugee who America caged. From Onondaga son who America imprisoned, who they couldn't board into whiteness. From Rust Belt trailers. From two wheelbarrow factory workers. From PA to LA to MIA to out here in West Baltimore. From counting every penny to carving the love of poems. From unheard prayers & these answered dreams. We are here. I am here. I am alive. Colonize me.

Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley belongs to the Onondaga Nation of Indigenous Americans in New York. He is the author of three books debuting 2018, 2019, and 2020: Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (University of Nebraska Press), Colonize Me (Saturnalia Books), and Dēmos (Milkweed Editions). Ben is recipient of the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Kundiman, and Tickner Fellowships. 

Host Sheela Lambert is Director of the Bisexual Book Awards and the Bi Writers Association. She is editor of Best Bi Short Stories and is working on the first Anthology of Bisexual Poetry.

Out of the Shade by S.A. McAuley

Jesse Solomona has always tried to be the perfect straight guy. That he hooks up with just as many men as he does women is a secret Jesse's been hiding for years, fearful of losing his family and tight group of friends. When Chuck joins one of the Kensington boys' community center sports leagues, Jesse's self-imposed rules are systematically demolished. But there's one barrier Jesse can't find the strength to break through—coming out to the other Kensington boys. Chuck is damaged by his past. Jesse is frightened about his future. But, together, they may just be able to come out of the shade.

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark: Jesse Solomona (main character), Lila (side character)

Sam McAuley is a wandering LGBTQ author who sleeps little and reads a lot. Happiest in a foreign country. Twitchy when not mentally in motion. Her name is Sam, not Sammy, definitely not Samantha. She’s a dark/cynical/jaded person, but hides that darkness well behind her obsession(s) with shiny objects.

From Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to Bisexual Psychoanalysis: Desiring in the Real, by Esther Rapoport, PsyD

This is the first book to assess bisexuality through a range of psychoanalytic and critical perspectives, highlighting both the issues faced by bisexual people in contemporary society and the challenges that can be presented by bisexual clients within a clinical setting. Examining bisexuality through the lenses of Lacanian, Winnicottian and Relational psychoanalytic theories, the book outlines the ways in which the concept is at once both dated and yet still tremendously important. It includes case studies to explore the issue of widespread countertransference responses in the clinical setting, in addition to using both bisexual theory and empirical research on biphobia to comment on the social pressures facing bisexual men and women, and the resultant psychological effects. Bisexual identities and practices have become increasingly visible in recent years, and this important book addresses the lack of critical reckoning with the topic within the psychoanalytic community. 

Esther Rapoport, Psy.D, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic candidate maintaining a full-time practice in Tel Aviv. She teaches and lectures widely in professional and academic settings around Israel issues on topics of sexuality, gender and culture in psychoanalytic work and on culturally sensitive clinical work with LGBT clients. She is active in the relational psychoanalytic community. 

Robin Renée is a performing songwriter, writer, and an organizer in the bisexual and polyamory communities. Robin’s recordings include In Progress, All Six Senses, Live Devotion, spirit.rocks.sexy, This., and “All I Am.” Along with Wendy Sheridan and Mary McGinley, Robin Renée co-hosts The Leftscape, a podcast dedicated to exploring politics, culture, and conversation through a progressive lens. robinrenee.com, leftscape.com  

Deposing Nathan, by Zack Smedley: 

For sixteen years, Nate was the perfect son―the product of a no-nonsense upbringing and deep spiritual faith. Then he met Cam, who pushed him to break rules, dream, and accept himself. Conflicted, Nate began to push back. With each push, the boys became more entangled in each others' worlds...but they also spiraled closer to their breaking points. And now all of it has fallen apart after a fistfight-turned-near-fatal-incident―one that's left Nate with a stab wound and Cam in jail. Now Nate is being ordered to give a statement, under oath, that will send his best friend to prison. The problem is, the real story of what happened between them isn't as simple as anyone thinks. With all eyes on him, Nate must make his confessions about what led up to that night with Cam...and in doing so, risk tearing both of their lives apart.

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark: Nate Copeland and Cameron (Cam) Haynes

Zack Smedley grew up in Maryland, in an endearing county almost nobody has heard of. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from UMBC and currently works within the field. As a member of the LGBT community, his goal is to give a voice to marginalized young adults through gritty, morally complex narratives.

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells

Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold. If Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having about a beast deep underground…With time running out, can Maren survive long enough to rescue Kaia from impending death? Or could it be that Maren is destined for something greater than she could have ever imagined?

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark:

Maren ben Gao

Rebecca Kim Wells grew up in California before moving east in search of crisp autumns and snowy winters. When not writing, she works at a fiercely independent bookstore in Massachusetts and spends too much time singing along to musicals. Shatter the Sky is her debut novel. Learn more at RebeccaWellsWrites.com.

Three for All by Elia Winters
When Geoff starts fantasizing about bringing a woman into bed with his husband Patrick, he has to admit that he’s trying to appease his curiosity. For Lori, finally ready to move out of small-town Mapleton, there seems to be little harm in a fling, even a fling with her sexy coworker and his husband. One night is never enough, though, and their chemistry together hints at the possibility of more than just an affair. The excitement of a new relationship makes Geoff and Patrick wonder if they’re just infatuated or destined for non-monogamy, but Lori’s future plans are pulling her away from both of them. Can a marriage survive when two people in love… both fall in love with someone else?

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark: Geoff Robinson and Patrick Walsh

Elia Winters is a fat, tattooed, polyamorous bisexual who loves petting cats and fighting the patriarchy. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and writes geeky, kinky, cozy erotic romance. Elia lives in western Massachusetts with her loving husband and their weird pets. 

{Performers are listed alpha-betically by last name.}

Duy Doan’s striking debut We Play a Game reveals the wide resonance of the collection’s unassuming title, in poems that explore—now with abundant humor, now with a deeply felt reserve—the ambiguities and tensions that mark our effort to know our histories, our loved ones, and ourselves. These are poems that draw from Doan’s experience as a Vietnamese-American while at the same time making a case for—and masterfully playing with—the fluidity of identity, history, and language. Nothing is alien to these poems: the Saigon of a mother’s dirge, the footballer Zinedine Zidane, an owl that “talks to his other self in the well”—all have a place in Doan’s far-reaching and intimately human art.

Duy Doan is a Kundiman Fellow whose poetry has appeared in Poetry, Slate, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in Poetry from Boston University. 

Efrain John Gonzalez is a photographic artist whose talents with camera and darkroom has allowed him to document the unusual, the erotic, the unique, the wild and slightly crazy, from the world of body modifications to the underground universe of radical S&M, from sensual beauty of the flesh, to raw sexual desires. An internationally published photographer who for the past 35 years has been traveling down dark and mysterious paths, trying to capture on film, real life images that illustrates a story of people finding the path to their souls, gathering together to celebrate their uncommon lives. His patience has created a rare historical archive of original work, candid photographs of underground clubs, transgender people, tattoo and body modification events, cities at night, and leather cultures.

God Was Right by Diana Hamilton collects poems that take the form of arguments, essays, and letters. The title poem argues that God was right to make us love cats (and then watch them die); another categorizes the way women like to be kissed; one proposes a sex ed that takes into account persuasion and pleasure; another argues men should write bad poetry; a letter tries to make friendship about love; a five-paragraph essay tries to disarm heartbreak via analysis; etc. These poems/essays are hyperbolic attempts to write something adequate to a feeling.

Diana Hamilton is the author of three books—God Was Right (Ugly Duckling Presse), The Awful Truth (Golias Books), and Okay, Okay (Truck Books)—and four chapbooks. She writes poetry, fiction, and criticism about style, crying, shit, kisses, dreams, fainting, writing, and re-reading.

Black Queer Hoe by Brittney Black Rose Kapri is a refreshing, unapologetic intervention into ongoing conversations about the line between sexual freedom and sexual exploitation. Women’s sexuality is often used as a weapon against them. In this powerful debut, Britteney Black Rose Kapri lends her unmistakable voice to fraught questions of identity, sexuality, reclamation, and power, in a world that refuses Black Queer women permission to define their own lives and boundaries.

Britteney Black Rose Kapri is a Chicago performance poet and playwright. Currently she is an alumna turned Teaching Artist Fellow at Young Chicago Authors. Her work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Button Poetry, Seven Scribes, and anthologized in The BreakBeat Poets and The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. 

Who is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht. New York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She's working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA. Next thing she knows she's in Argentina, tasked with wiretapping a congressman and infiltrating a group of student activists in Buenos Aires. As Vera becomes more and more enmeshed with the young radicals, the fragile local government begins to split at the seams. When a betrayal leaves her stranded in the wake of a coup, Vera learns the Cold War makes for strange and unexpected bedfellows, and she's forced to take extreme measures to save herself. An exhilarating page-turner and perceptive coming-of-age story, Who Is Vera Kelly? introduces an original, wry, and whip-smart female spy for the twenty-first century.

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark: Vera Kelly

Rosalie Knecht is a writer, social worker, and translator in New York City. She has been a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Argentina. Her work includes Who Is Vera Kelly?, Relief Map, and a translation of Aira's The Seamstress and the Wind.

Maris is a singer/songwriter from Montana (now a Brooklynite) who understands and sees the world through music. The songs she writes and performs are accompanied by a cinematic vision in her head. Her style is beginning to lean more rock-pop, she sings from the heart of a storyteller and poet, with a timeless tone and presence...

In The Worship of Mystery by J.R. Mabry,
Chaplaincy instructor Jun Battacharya’s final tour of duty sends him to a desolate planet where a mining accident forces him to launch his students into their work without any training. An invitation arrives from an alien priest native to the planet, inviting Jun and his student to their most sacred ritual. Unable to decline, they attend the ritual—which shatters their lives, each in very different ways. Jun struggles to keep his students safe, even as their lives descend into chaos, leading each of them to an encounter with Mystery that will heal them or kill them…or others. 

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters, or characters in the bisexual ballpark: Jun Battacharya, the main character, is an openly bisexual East Indian man grieving the death of a boyfriend, even as he begins to fall in love with Belle, the colony’s therapist. After a dramatic spiritual awakening, he finds himself in an erotic courtship with Krishna, the god of his heart. 

J.R. Mabry is the director of the interfaith spiritual direction certificate program at the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley, CA, where he also teaches comparative theology. He writes edgy spirituality, science fiction and fantasy, is the author of the urban fantasy trilogy, The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory. He lives with his spouse and three dogs in Oakland, CA.

In Carnal Knowledge: The Adoration of a Dangerous Woman and the Death of a Dream by Lexi Mohney, Desi leaves for her first year of college and is excited about exploring both her bisexuality and polyamory when she makes friends with Evan. When their relationship comes to a head, Desi is faced with a terrible choice: the woman she loves or her own family. Will she stick with Evan and let love win?

Names of bisexual/bi+ characters or characters in the bisexual ballpark:
Desi, Evan, Kodi, Delphinium, Rah, Perez

Lexi is a Michigan native living in Ann Arbor. She works as both an author and a book coach and is in the midst of completing her second novel. In her free time, she loves to travel, eat exotic foods, and do yoga.

Set against the backdrop of the Obama presidency, Julian Randall’s Refuse documents a young biracial man’s journey through the mythos of Blackness, Latinidad, family, sexuality and a hostile American landscape. Mapping the relationship between father and son caught in a lineage of grief and inherited Black trauma, Randall conjures reflections from mythical figures such as Icarus, Narcissus and the absent Frank Ocean. Not merely a story of the wound but the salve, Refuse is a poetry debut that accepts that every song must end before walking confidently into the next music.

Julian Randall is a Living Queer Black poet from Chicago. He has received fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT, and The Watering Hole and was the 2015 National College Slam (CUPSI) Best Poet. Julian is the curator of Winter Tangerine Review’s Lineage of Mirrors. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as New York Times Magazine, The Georgia Review, and Sixth Finch and in the anthologies Portrait in Blues, Nepantla, and New Poetry from the Midwest. He is a candidate for his MFA in Poetry at Ole Miss.

Jan Steckel’s Like Flesh Covers Bone is a hundred pages of poetry that is direct, uncompromising, lyrical, and filled with moving moments of intimacy, humor, love and loss. Several of the poems talk about being bisexual; others are love poems to people of different sexes. Writes Bay Area poet James Cagney: “These poems have come for blood. Honest and direct, Jan writes often humorous, always electrified poetry of great depth and courage. Take this journey!”

Jan Steckel’s poetry book The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a Lambda Literary Award. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) also won awards. Her poetry has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Canary, New Verse News, Assaracus and elsewhere. 

Rachel Wiley’s Nothing Is Okay uses humor and powerful personal confession to celebrate queerness, fatness, and more.

Rachel Wiley is a poet, performer and body positive activist from Columbus, Ohio. Rachel has competed in multiple National Poetry Slam Competitions and was a finalist twice in 2011.  She has toured nationally performing at Slam Venues, Colleges and Festivals including the 2014 Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival  in Newark, NJ. Her work has been featured by the Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, Frigg Magazine, Drunken Boat, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Nailed Magazine and PBS NewsHour. Rachel's first full length collection of poems Fat Girl Finishing School was published on Timber Mouse Press in 2014. Her newest collection, Nothing Is Okay, was published by Button Poetry in March of 2018.

Sheela Lambert (Host) is director of the Bisexual Book Awards and the Bi Writers Association. She is editor of Best Bi Short Stories, her anthology of bisexual fiction in multiple genres from Circlet Press. She has chapters in both Bisexuality in Education: Erasure, Exclusion and the Absence of Intersectionality edited by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Routledge and LGBTQ America Today Encyclopedia. She is currently editing a new project, the Anthology of Bisexual Poetry. Lambert’s national bisexual column on Examiner.com informed readers on bisexuality topics from 2009 to 2016. She has also been published in Huffington Post, Advocate.com, Curve Magazine, Gay & Lesbian Review, Lambda Literary Review, Journal of Bisexuality, AfterEllen, Hakomi Journal, etc. and is a veteran bi & LGBT activist, educator and literary event organizer who resides in New York City.

Folk musician Peggy Seeger, our Bi Writer of the Year for 2017 books, holds her 2 statuettes: winner for Bi Writer of the Year and tied-winner of Memoir/Bio, for her revealing memoir that describes her life with her husband and her wife, First Time Ever: A Memoir.

Two Bisexual Book Awards statuettes at home in London on winner Peggy Seeger's mantel. They made it all the way from New York City across the Atlantic Ocean to the UK.

Julene Tripp Weaver, a psychotherapist, lives in Seattle. Her latest poetry book is Truth Be Bold: Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS. Her two prior books are: No Father Can Save Her, and Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues. She is widely published in journals and anthologies.

Truth Be Bold: Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS by Julene Tripp Weaver honors those who passed and celebrates those who survived the AIDS epidemic. Julene is a long-term survivor who worked in AIDS services for 21 years. This book is her contribution to the cannon of literature inspired by the AIDS epidemic. 

Mary-Anne McAllum has had many years of experience in New Zealand education as a health teacher, resource developer, curriculum advisor, and professional development facilitator in sexuality education and mental well-being. She has taught in secondary schools and at universities on sexualities papers and in pre-service health education.

Young Bisexual Women’s Experiences in Secondary Schools by Mary-Anne McAllum: Emerging from a case study in secondary schools, this book explores young bisexual women's notions of bisexuality through their own sense of self-identification and how they express their personal beliefs. McAllum sheds light on the presence and practice of "bi-misogyny" in school settings, and draws out the implications of this bias on bisexual women. Incorporating women's own spoken and written anecdotes, this book reveals hidden narratives and helps boost awareness about the social and learning needs of young bisexual women.

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly Jenson will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Block and Strike by Kelly Jensen is a slow burn love story about two men who have to find the strength to stand on their own before they can stand together.

Originally from Chicago, Julia Ember now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. She spends her days working in the book trade and her nights writing fantasy novels. She is the author of several young adult books, including The Seafarer’s Kiss and Unicorn Tracks. 

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember: In a Norse retelling of The Little Mermaid, Ersel must outwit the God of Lies to save the shield maiden she’s come to love. 

Monica Meneghetti’s poetry, fiction and nonfiction appear in print and online as well as in musical scores and on stage. Her literary translation from Italian, The Call of the Ice was a Banff Mountain Book Award finalist. She lives on unceded Coast Salish territory where she teaches writing and offers manuscript development services with a focus on enabling marginalised voices to be heard.

Proclaimed “deeply erotic and decidedly queer”, What the Mouth Wants: A Memoir of Food, Love and Belonging appears on ALA Over the Rainbow’s 2018 Recommended Book List, Autostraddle’s 8 Soft Femme Memoirs, and CBC Books’ Must-reads of 2017. This mouth-watering, intimate memoir traces the author’s unique life journey through her relationship with food. The youngest in a traditional immigrant family, her sexuality emerges in the context of grief and the disintegration of her sense of family. Through risk, courage, and heartbreak, she ultimately redefines and recreates family and identity according to her own alternative vision.

Amanda Kabak has had stories published in Midwestern Gothic, Harpoon Review, Perceptions Magazine, and elsewhere. She was a recipient of the Betty Gabehart prize of the Kentucky Women Writer’s Conference and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She holds an MFA from Pacific University.

The Mathematics of Change by Amanda Kabak:

The aching and terrible excitement of Carol’s affair with her graduate school professor has settled, fifteen years later, into the frustrated complacency of faculty wife responsibilities and motherhood. Carol wants more, but can’t have more. Her best friend, the painfully enigmatic Mitch, is grappling with the terror that comes from knowing she could have more than she ever thought possible, if she could only work out the math. The Mathematics of Change breaks open and breaks down the equation of midlife, proving balance is imaginary and change the only possible solution.

Bi Writer of the Year

Kate Evans author of Call It Wonder: An Odyssey of Love, Sex, Spirit, and Travel, Coyote Creek Books 

*For the rest of the winners see our Finalists & Winners page.