36 Queer & Trans Writers to watch out for

By now you will know that there is a new book in town. I Write the Body launches 20 December 2024.

The instinct behind the creation of this book is that I simply wanted to read these stories myself. I also wanted to write without censorship. I wanted to hold space for the bravery of others. I wanted an incursion into the sanitised versions of us that other people are writing on our behalf.

I wanted to say very clearly to whomever would listen: you don’t speak for us.

I am proud of these writers. It takes a lot to show up on the page and tell the truth. Even if you shake as you write it.

Please, follow these folks. Buy their books. Uplift their work in any way you can. Tell them that they are beautiful.

Also, just obviously, please buy the book here.

p.s. if you are poor, but need this book in your life, you can write to me and I’ll give you a code for a 50% discount. #Queers4Queers

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Argenti writes vulnerabilities onto the page that he finds frustrating. He hopes his words are more than cute and less than flowery, and knows if he thinks too hard on them he will lose courage, so now he is going to get a drink and pretend all is fine. Link

Aiden Rondón is a Venezuelan college student specializing in translation, but his interest lies in storytelling. They enjoy writing about horny elves, mages, and otherwordly beings in compromising circumstances. He hopes to post about his little misfortunes and blessings and other various things on his Instagram account @antares.afterdark.whispers

Anna Sansom (she/her) is a nature-loving, midlife, kinky queer. Her writing about desire, love, and lust can be found scattered around the internet, in magazines, and in books best read in private. She lives in the English countryside with her wife and two cats. Find her at annasansom.com

Alex B. Toklas (he/them) is an artist and a queer, transmasculine, white settler residing in Tkaronto. Alex’s writing and studio practice are situated alongside pandemic parenthood and eternal transition. They are co-editing a book with Faith Arrowsmith of queer and trans stories of healing, wholeness and intimacy through kink. You can find them @transboy_dreamer on Instagram.

Art is currently healing and creating on Wurundjeri country. They are passionate about eros, love, and sensuality, and have committed their life to the exploration of Self through transformational growth and healing. They write to honour life and all the ways it makes us feel.

Beth Cortez-Neavel is a fat, queer, Latinx writer and therapist living in Austin, Texas. They have been writing poetry about their body, love, sex, and the gentle and hard parts of life since way-back-when in high school. Beth’s therapy work focuses on healing from sexual trauma, intimate partner violence, and body shame. Link

Birch Rosen (they/them) feels most connected to their body and to trans joy when doing or writing something horny. Their favorite colors are red (right) and light blue (also right). Their erotica is forthcoming in the anthology It Takes Two (Cleis Press) and elsewhere. Find them at birchrosen.com or @birchwrites

Raised on a highway truckstop, Bruce Smoke is quiet leatherboy from the Bush still earning his leathers. He’s a Mixed-race, Gender-non-conforming trans homo who stims. Former Alter boy, Bruce thrives for protocol and works hard for that Good Boy praise. Smoke straps on his cock one leg at a time just like the rest of us.

C. Rimmer is a nonbinary twink that loves to create with words, watercolours and fabric. They love exploring the rivers, trees and dirty gutters of Manchester and North Wales to pry out a language that celebrates trans butch bodies.

Cygnal has loved words since she was 5 years old. She reads for a living and for fun as a curious person who loves to learn, a sensitive person who loves to feel, and an adventurous person who loves to dream.

Danni Brigante (they/them) is a femme presenting genderfluid New Yorker whose work has been published in The Kindred Voice and Harness Magazine. Their life's ambition is to pilot the Millennium Falcon. Or live in walking distance of 'Ehukai Beach on Oahu's North Shore, whichever comes first. Link

Hi! My names Dan Partington and I’m a non-binary leather butch based in Leeds, UK. This is one of the first pieces of writing I’m submitting to a publication; I’m extremely excited and proud of myself for putting myself out there like this. Thank you Polly for listening to my drafts.

El Wilcken (he/they/ she) was born and raised on Gadigal/Wangal land. El is a person who pursues exploring a life beyond the expected. Spending much of their time in the bush, camping, crafting, opal mining and partying on various dance floors, they are creating a life surrounded by beautiful community and exciting experiences discovering god in places we were told not to look. Their writing is a reflection of their commitment to authenticity and vulnerability. Link

Eliza Goroya has studied film & theatre in Athens and London with a focus on otherness, gender, and sexuality - themes followed by their camera and texts (https://goroyesque.tumblr.com/). They also campaign for the rights of LGBTQI+ people, refugees, Roma people and more with direct activism, advocacy and story-telling projects.

H. Pearl lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Calliope Rose (@femme4feelings on Instagram) is a white, fat, femme lesbian living and writing in Wayne County, Michigan with her Butch and their beloved animals. When not writing erotica or poetry, she can most likely be found watching movies (or telling anyone who will listen about said movies) or baking.

Jay Oh is a writer focused on the intersection of the esoteric and the erotic.

Kel Hardy is a white non-binary dyke who loves to write about sex, violence, romance, and other synonyms. Their work has been featured in Best Lesbian Erotica volume 6 and their co-publication Smut Peddlers: Glad Day 50 was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Link

Kiki DeLovely is a witchy, kinky, polyamorous, mixed, nonbinary femme who moonlights as an erotica writer when she’s not weaving magic through energetic healing and spiritual coaching. Their work has appeared in dozens of publications and they have toured both nationally and internationally, living and traveling all over the world. Link

L.A. Murphy is a Trans Butch writer and editor in love with another Trans Butch writer. He makes stories and poems in the notes app on his phone anytime he can or the mood fits. He can be found having an existential crisis wherever the good and kind queers are. Link

Lauchie Murdoch is a kinky, queer spoken word poet and somatic sex educator who grew up in a small fishing village on Mi’kmaq territory. He was raised by the Atlantic Ocean. He is also a service dog and a Dominant leather boy who is passionate about community oriented, whimsical erotic embodiment - especially in relationship with nature. Link and website

Lilith Young is a queer autistic writer. She spends her days baking, writing, and wishing she could adopt every dog she meets. Growing up in the American deep south she hopes to write the stories she wished she could have read when she was coming out in college. Link

Liza Liebling is an incorrigible mouth and liminal sex witch based in Northern England. She is obsessed with power and desire, transmuting shame and transforming love. They persist, resist, pervert and create in service to the revolutionary universe. Her online persona is @neurodivengeance.

Maggie Lane (she/they) is a queer poet from California who uses prose storytelling to explore themes of queerness, unrequited love, found family, homesickness, heartbreak, language, and sometimes even joy. They recently wrote and self-published an illustrated handmade chapbook titled "Confessions Only a Mother Could Love." Link

Miro Bird (they/them) is a trans/nonbinary writer, submissive and masochist. They have a predilection for handsome trans/butch Dominants and a zesty ginger slice. When they aren’t reading or writing sexy stories, they are probably cuddling their dogs and listening to Brandi Carlile. Link

Murúch Fír is a white queer nonbinary transmasc dancer, choreographer and writer living with CPTSD in Tkaronto, Canada. They are a guest on Turtle Island and are compelled by Indigenous worldview and landback as well as anti-racist practice and decolonized art-making. @murúch_fir and @wrenredbreast on Instagram

Nina Smolarksi is a poet living in Chicago with her cat and some dogs. Link

Paris Rosemont, author of Banana Girl (WestWords, 2023), is an Asian-Australian performance poet. Publications: Verge Literary Journal, FemAsia Magazine, Sky Island Journal (USA). Winner: Hammond House Origins Poetry Prize (UK) 2023, New England Thunderbolt Poetry Prize 2022. Shortlisted: Proverse International Poetry Prize (Hong Kong) 2023, New Writers Poetry Competition (UK) 2023. Awarded: Atelier Artist-in-Residence (Ireland) 2024; WestWords/Copyright Agency Fellowship 2023. She is currently working on her second poetry collection with the working title Chaos rode into my life on a shiny black Kawasaki. www.parisrosemont.com

Rain is a thirty-something queer, nonbinary, sometimes butch poet who writes about gender, nature, love, and selfdiscovery.

Sam Elkin is a writer, arts producer and radio maker living in Naarm. He is a co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia and co-host of Triple R’s Queer View Mirror. In 2022 he was awarded a Scribe Varuna Fellowship to develop his first book. Link

Sarah St. John is a queer, cisgender femme living in the Southwest US on the unceeded land of the Pueblos and Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute). As a past international Drag King, performance artist, and roller derby queen, Sarah enjoys exploring gender and queer identities in art and life. What better way to queer femininity than by writing about erotic adventures into kinky, gender-diverse worlds. This is Sarah's first published erotic story; she hopes to send more into the universe soon. Link

SDP is a writer from New York. She enjoys being with her family, snowboarding, hiking, and exploring her creativity through writing, pottery, and other art forms. She likes writing about her experience as a person who often feels on the outside and dealing with chronic illness.

Sinclair Sexsmith (they/them) is a queer butch writer focusing on sexualities, genders, kink, and relationships. Their short story collection, Sweet & Rough: Queer Kink Erotica, was a 2016 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and they are the current editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica series. Find more of their work at http://sugarbutch.net.

Storm Sparrow is a trans, genderqueer, submissive writer and movement artist. Storm is a neurodivergent libra who writes queer, butch4butch and t4t erotica and fiction. They are a left-handed aerialist and a free-birthing parent of two. Someday they will live on an off grid permaculture farm in the mountains. Link

taria. feels everything. tastes everything. is always hungry. Link

Titus Androgynous (they/them) is a writer from Toronto, Canada. They have a piece published in the anthology Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 6, and another included in an erotica anthology set for publication in 2023. Titus is also a multi-disciplinary performer who works in many genres including burlesque, improv, red-nose clown and Shakespeare. They have been performing nationally and internationally as a drag king since 2013. Link