Author Night at Latter Library: Local Pride

Readings by Local LGBTQIA+ Authors

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride with readings of poetry and prose from local writers Genevieve Rheams, Fritz Westenberger, Essie Linzy, and Gabrielle Octavia Rucker.

Genevieve Rheams writes LGTBQ+ romance, comedy, literature, and personal essays. She received her MFA in Fiction from the University of New Orleans, teaches English at Loyola University, and is a writing coach. Her debut novel, We Will Plant Birds of Paradise, came out in 2025. She delights in having conversations with her three adult children and going for absurdly long walks. She lives with her wife in her hometown of New Orleans with their two cats and a dog. As you read this, she is most likely out of coffee and litter.

Fritz Westenberger was born and raised in New Orleans. After his advertising career took him away to Los Angeles and New York for thirty years, his hometown finally called him back. He lives in the Lower Garden District with his husband, author TQ Sims. His debut novel is The St. Charles Bible.
 
Essie Linzy is a writer born in Chicago and reborn in New Orleans. Her work explores the queer, the quiet, the violence, the noise, and everything that breathes in between. Her latest self-published book of poetry, And God said, Let There be Dykes, explores the relationship between Blackness, butchness, and a God that believes in the goodness of both.   
 
Gabrielle Octavia Rucker is a writer, editor, and teaching artist from the Great Lakes (Waawiiyaataanong) currently living in the Gulf Coast (Bulbancha). They are a 2020 Poetry Project Fellow and a 2016 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. Gabrielle is the sole operator and practitioner of the The Seminary of Ecstatic Poetics, a non-traditional, non-hierarchical learning space for the poetically inclined. To date the Seminary has taught over 350 poets and artists. Gabrielle currently sits on the board of the New Orleans Poetry Festival. Their debut poetry collection, Dereliction (2022) is currently available via The Song Cave.   
 

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