J.E. Sumerau
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J.E. Sumerau is a novelist and scholar as well as a professor of sociology and LGBTQIA studies at the University of Tampa.
Their novels focus on LGBTQIA cultures, experiences, and relationships in the southeastern United States drawn from the combination of their own experiences and years of research into intersections of sexual, gender, religious, and health. Alongside their fictional works, they are the author of over 50 scholarly articles and chapters published in academic journals and volumes and regularly write blogs for academic commentary sites on LGBTQIA experience in the academy.
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Cigarettes & Wine
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LGBT Fiction; Young Adult; Southern Fiction
Imagine the terror and exhilaration of a first sexual experience in a church where you could be caught at any moment. In Cigarettes & Wine, this is where we meet an unnamed teenage narrator in a small southern town trying to make sense of their own bisexuality, gender variance, and emerging adulthood. When our narrator leaves the church, we watch their teen years unfold alongside one first love wrestling with his own sexuality and his desire for a relationship with God, and another first love seeking to find herself as she moves away from town. Through the narrator’s eyes, we also encounter a newly arrived neighbor who appears to be an all American boy, but has secrets and pain hidden behind his charming smile and athletic ability, and their oldest friend who is on the verge of romantic, artistic, and sexual transformations of her own. Along the way, these friends confront questions about gender and sexuality, violence and substance abuse, and the intricacies of love and selfhood in the shadow of churches, families, and a small southern town in the 1990’s. 
SensePublishers.com |
Essence (Queering Dixie Series Book 1)
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LGBT Fiction; Young Adult; Romance; Southern Fiction
Dating, relationships, and intimacy can be difficult enough waters to navigate for twenty-somethings with limited experience, knowledge and financial means. These experiences can become even more complicated for Queer people in southern small towns. In Essence, we meet and follow Brandon and Willa – two bisexual companions in their early twenties who at times are more than friends – as they seek to figure out what they mean to each other, intimate experiences with others, and their first encounters with poly relationships, non-binary people, intersex people, asexual people, and the complexities of falling in love. 
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Homecoming Queens
LGBT Fiction; Southern Fiction
“It’s hard for me to keep a straight face at the thought of living in a place called Queens with my husband and former homecoming queen wife,” Jackson thinks when his spouses inform him of their desire to move back to their hometown following the death of one of their parents. As lifelong city dweller Jackson Garner leaves behind his life in Tampa, his “favorite” casual lover who visits every year, and the first place he’s ever felt at home, he introduces us to Queens, a small town in Georgia between Atlanta and Augusta. While the spouses – Jackson, Crystal and Lee – adjust to small town life, they encounter supportive regulars at the diner they take over from Crystal’s father Chuck, hostile locals who find bisexuality, polyamory, and other “alternative” lifestyles unsavory, and the traumatic event that led Crystal and Lee to leave town in the first place. Along the way, they encounter the history and ghosts of the town, the tension between an LGBT friendly pastor and some of his anti-LGBT congregants, the struggles of a kid seeking gender transition against the beliefs of their family, and the ongoing battle between progress and tradition in the American south.
Coming Soon
“It’s hard for me to keep a straight face at the thought of living in a place called Queens with my husband and former homecoming queen wife,” Jackson thinks when his spouses inform him of their desire to move back to their hometown following the death of one of their parents. As lifelong city dweller Jackson Garner leaves behind his life in Tampa, his “favorite” casual lover who visits every year, and the first place he’s ever felt at home, he introduces us to Queens, a small town in Georgia between Atlanta and Augusta. While the spouses – Jackson, Crystal and Lee – adjust to small town life, they encounter supportive regulars at the diner they take over from Crystal’s father Chuck, hostile locals who find bisexuality, polyamory, and other “alternative” lifestyles unsavory, and the traumatic event that led Crystal and Lee to leave town in the first place. Along the way, they encounter the history and ghosts of the town, the tension between an LGBT friendly pastor and some of his anti-LGBT congregants, the struggles of a kid seeking gender transition against the beliefs of their family, and the ongoing battle between progress and tradition in the American south.
Coming Soon
That Year (Queering Dixie Series Book 1)
LGBT Fiction; Young Adult; Southern Fiction
What does the world look like through non-binary eyes? What does it feel like to start over in a city after being raised in a small southern town? What does it feel like the first time someone finds affirmation and embrace in a community? In That Year, we follow Collings as, with the help of a supportive grandmother and grams’ special friend, they navigate each of these questions in Tampa, Florida. Told from Collings perspective, we walk with them as they navigate emerging adulthood, cisgender norms and assumptions, and their first experiences living openly as a non-binary, pansexual young adult.
Coming Soon
What does the world look like through non-binary eyes? What does it feel like to start over in a city after being raised in a small southern town? What does it feel like the first time someone finds affirmation and embrace in a community? In That Year, we follow Collings as, with the help of a supportive grandmother and grams’ special friend, they navigate each of these questions in Tampa, Florida. Told from Collings perspective, we walk with them as they navigate emerging adulthood, cisgender norms and assumptions, and their first experiences living openly as a non-binary, pansexual young adult.
Coming Soon
