I grew up not knowing I was starving.
All my life, I’ve found myself in fantasy. My earliest memories are of the Shire and the riddle game, the Lonely Mountain and the Fellowship’s desperate flight to Moria. I remember how my mind changed and grew when I read Rand al’Thor feed his unquiet thoughts to the Flame and the Void. As a teenager I read The House of the Scorpion to pieces, languishing in the injustice inherent in the life of a clone grown for his organs, taking solace that at least my life was not his. But for far too long, I was missing a piece of the puzzle.
I found that piece reading submissions. When a young man’s breath caught at the sight of another man, something twanged in me, and I expanded. I’d known I was attracted to men for years, but I’d had no model for those emotions until I saw them in an unpublished manuscript. I named the hunger that had been chewing on my spine, the hunger to know who I was, to see queerness and accept it as part of me. And as fantasy taught me, naming is power.
Across the course of my editorial career, I’ve sought to bring that experience to readers. I’ve sought out books that tell me things about who I am, by showing me the lives of characters both like and unlike myself. And with the support of Tor.com Publishing, I’ve attempted to show that such stories have a foundational place within the fantasy genre. In Our Own Worlds anthologizes four very different novellas, weaving fantasies in stunning new worlds, in unknown corners of America, or in the heart of a familiar city, but each holds the capacity to fill a hungry soul, to unlock a mystery of the self. The four astounding authors have opened the door to reveal unknown mysteries. Come, read and find out.
In celebration of Pride, Tor.com Publishing presents four critically acclaimed novellas featuring LGBTQ+ characters. In these stories you’ll find reflections of queer identity both as it exists in our world and in imagined worlds from queer authors, augmenting lived experiences with fantastical flourishes, magical monks, alternate realities, time travel, and demonic deer.
In Our Own Worlds is available May 15th
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