Staff Pick
Stories focusing on queer characters and pivotal moments in their relationships. Conklin deftly captures both the sweetness and strangeness the heart contains. Recommended By Mary Jo S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A fearless collection of stories that celebrate the humor, darkness, and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that's not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joy.
In this exuberant, prize-winning collection, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters seek love and connection in hilarious and heartrending stories that reflect the complexity of our current moment.
A nonbinary writer on the eve of top surgery enters into a risky affair during the height of COVID. A lesbian couple enlists a close friend as a sperm donor, plying him with a potent rainbow-colored cocktail. A lonely office worker struggling with their gender identity chaperones their nephew to a trans YouTube convention. And in the depths of a Midwestern winter, a sex-addicted librarian relies on her pet ferrets to help resist a relapse at a wild college fair.
Capturing both the dark and lovable sides of the human experience, Rainbow Rainbow establishes debut author Lydia Conklin as a fearless new voice for their generation.
Review
“Conklin introduces themself as a writer to watch with these open-eyed, tenderhearted, well-crafted stories.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“Conklin brings nuance and compassion to the subject matter and displays a captivating interest in human contradiction….most impressive is the author's precise and evocative prose...This talented writer is brimming with skills and heart.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
“Embracing eagerness and insecurity, doubt and fortitude, Conklin's ten tales resonate through the characters' dynamic moments of realization.” Booklist
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“Highlights queer, gender-nonconforming, and trans characters. Most are seeking some sense of connection....Conklin portrays them all with warmth and compassion.” Time, A Most Anticipated
Book of the Year
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“Throughout, Conklin is gracefully multi-note as they reveal the complexities of queer relationships, always allowing their characters to be themselves.” Library Journal
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"Lydia Conklin writes with humor and tenderness about the way we love now. Rainbow Rainbow is an impressive and beautiful collection." Lorrie Moore, author of Bark
Review
“Funny, poignant, incisive, melancholic, and smart.” Sarah Neilson, Shondaland
About the Author
Lydia Conklin has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from Emory, MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, and elsewhere. Their fiction has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, and The Paris Review. They’ve drawn comics for The New Yorker, The Believer, Lenny Letter, and elsewhere. They are currently the Zell Visiting Professor of Fiction at the University of Michigan.