Why Queer Writing Community Matters

Happy Pride Month! Through June, Author Accelerator will be featuring stories and blog posts from our LGBTQ+ certified book coaches and their allies. Today’s blog post comes to us from Suzette Mullen.

Suzette Mullen

Certified Book Coach

During the first week of Write Yourself Out, my 12-month mentorship program exclusively for LGBTQ+ writers, a fresh cohort of writers shared their dreams and fears about writing their stories.

We laughed. We cried. We laughed some more. Their ideas were fuzzy but their passion was crystal clear. These stories needed to be written. These stories needed to be read. 

By week 6, we laughed and cried again. But the fuzziness had transformed into clarity. One writer would start his memoir the day he auditioned for a Christian theater company and was then pulled aside and questioned about his sexuality. Another writer would tell the story of his journey toward authenticity through the lens of unexpectedly becoming a dad. And another writer, who had decided that she absolutely did not want to write about religious trauma, realized that this was, in fact, the heart of her later-in-life, coming-out story.

These writers showed up and did the work. Even when it was hard. Even when they were busy. Even when Netflix was calling them.

They showed up because their stories matter. Because representation matters. Because being in community with other queer writers where you don’t have to explain yourself or fear being judged matters.

I know what it feels like to struggle to raise my voice, write my story, and become a published author.

With the help of several Author Accelerator book coaches, I wrestled with my own story. What was it really about? How would I make meaning of my past? How would I structure this story and tell it in a way that would speak to my ideal readers—both people in the LGBTQ+ community and women at midlife contemplating their next chapter? It wasn't easy, but I did it! My memoir, THE ONLY WAY THROUGH IS OUT, will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press in February 2024! 

I know the power of book coaching, and I've dedicated this chapter of my life to building safe spaces for queer writers to raise their voices and write their stories.

I've been a Harvard-trained lawyer. A stay-at-home mom. An advocate for families navigating the special education system. And now I have the privilege to spend my days mentoring queer writers—young and old—who have a story they are burning to share with the world—and a story the world needs to hear.

All this talk about queer life, queer community, and really anything queer is still relatively new for me. I spent the first 50+ years of my life identifying as a straight white woman, with all the privilege that entails. But over the past seven years, I've learned what it feels like to be the only queer in the room. To have to think about what’s safe to share and what’s not. To have to decide whether to reveal my queer identity—or not. To feel somewhat like a fish out of water even when I’m in spaces where I know that my queerness is accepted.

These days I also know what it feels like to be in a queer-centered space.

Where I can hold my wife’s hand or give her a kiss and not have to think twice about it. Where I can talk about chosen family and the pain of having family members who were less than accepting when I came out. Where I can share my own later-in-life, coming-out story and know that the people in the room get it. They get me.

There's nothing like being in community with other queers to feel totally like myself.

That’s why I’ve created a community for LGBTQ+ writers because it’s hard to be the only queer writer in the room.

And besides, LGBTQ+ writers are better together.

My firm belief is that it’s never too late to live out loud, to go after your dreams, and to write the story that’s been burning inside you.

Friends, it’s never too late. It really is never too late.

Click here to find out more about my community for LGBTQ+ writers, Write Yourself Out!