QUEERLY BELOVED – a fun, heartwarming debut by Susie Dumond – is a combination of many things: a sweet love story, a thoughtful examination of wedding culture, a celebration of all things baking and baked goods, and an exploration of what it means to be queer in the mid-2010s Midwest. Dumond wrote QUEERLY BELOVED to prove that queer stories can – and should! – have happy endings, and says, “not enough queer stories have been told in mainstream media, especially queer stories with happy endings, especially queer stories in red states with happy endings. QUEERLY BELOVED shows a queer community in Tulsa that isn’t just surviving, but thriving.”

Amy, a semicloseted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery and turns her a one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid into a full-time business—thanks to her baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress. Between her new gig and meeting Charley, the attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa, suddenly Amy’s found something— and someone—she actually wants.

Her tight-knit group of chosen family is thrilled that Amy is becoming her authentic self. But when her deep desire to please kicks into overdrive, Amy’s precarious balancing act strains her relationships to the breaking point, and she must decide what it looks like to be true to herself—and if she has the courage to try.

The Author will stay to sign books after the reading and Q&A session.

About The Author:

Susie Dumond is a queer writer from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is a senior contributor at Book Riot, where she writes a monthly Horoscopes and Book Recommendations column, as well as various quizzes, book lists, and bookish news pieces. Susie received a bachelor of arts from the University of Tulsa and a master of arts in public policy and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies from the George Washington University. Currently, she’s probably making cupcakes at her home in Washington, D.C., with her partner, Mary, her dog, Waffles, and her cat, Maple.