Queer Love, Loss and Representation
Representation matters. From the lives we see reflected on the page to the stories that challenge dominant narratives, queer storytelling has the power to validate experience, foster empathy, and expand our understanding of love and identity. (Unfortunately, Alejandro Varela will not take part in this session as originally planned.)
| Where: | Student Union Santa Rita (Seats 110)  |
| When: | Sat, Mar 14, 1:00 pm - 1:55 pm |
| Signing area: | Sales & Signing - UA Campus Store (Mall) (following presentation)
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| Genre: | Fiction / Literature |
| Moderator: | Scott St. Marie |
| Sponsors: | Session made possible courtesy of Joi and Bianca Bowen, Roberta and Bill Witchger, Jack and Katrina McNerney |
Panelists
Michelle TeaMichelle Tea is the author of over 20 books, most recently the novel "Little F." Her memoir, "Valencia," won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction. She has received the PEN/America Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award, the legendary Rona Jaffe Award, and was a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow....
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Thrity UmrigarThrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of nine novels, including "Honor," which was a Reese's Book Club pick, as well as four picture books and a memoir. A former journalist, she has contributed to The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer....
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Books:
Little F
Michelle Tea
Fiction / Literature
Feminist Press at The City University of New York
October 2025
ISBN 9781558613560
232 pages
Missing Sam
A Novel
Thrity Umrigar
Fiction / Literature
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
January 2026
ISBN 9781643757629
Hardcover, 320 pages
A tense and twisty story of a woman who goes missing on a morning run and her wife's determination to both find her and clear her own name--from the bestselling author of "Honor.
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One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head—and doesn’t come back.
Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay, Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can't escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?
A provocative examination of suburban mores, "Missing Sam" captures the terror manifested in today’s political climate, and the real dangers, both physical and psychological, of being brown and queer in America. More/less
