The University of Nebraska Press is pleased to announce the selection of the next book in the fiction series, Zero Street. Daddy Issues by Eric C. Wat will be published on September 1, 2025.
Daddy Issues is a collection of moving and complex—yet simply and directly told—stories of the queer Asian American experience. Offering different contemplations on solitude, the good and the bad of it, many of the stories are ones of hope, as many of the characters find the connections they need once they allow themselves to become vulnerable.
“It’s a sexy book; it’s not erotic, per se, but many of the characters in these stories are motivated by desire, need, anxiety. Intimacy is integral to how the characters—some of them artists and writers—fall in and out of relationships, in and out of stability, trouble, addiction, etc.,” Series Editor Timothy Schaffert writes. “It’s an intelligent, intuitive, and witty book, and strikingly honest; the psychology of the characters is described and delineated with such precision, you feel certain you know them from somewhere.”
Daddy Issues is the winner of the Barbara DiBernard Award, an annual prize for a book published by Zero Street and named for Dr. DiBernard who was professor emerita in the Department of English and the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a scholar, activist, teacher, and mentor, Dr. DiBernard was a pioneer in LGBTQ+ literary studies, women’s literature, and disability studies, and a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ authors and publishing.
“I’m so honored to be part of the growing family of the Zero Street Fiction series. The writers before me have proven how vibrant and diverse the single-label LGBTQ+ fiction genre can be,” said Eric C. Wat. “A lot of us began our writing career with short stories, so it’s such a joy to see a collection of them, written over decades, to be assembled in one volume. It’s like seeing a quick motion montage of my growth, not only as a writer, but also as a person. And that growth continued in working with series editor Timothy Schaffert. He got what I was trying for with these stories and stretched me to make them even better.”
Wat is the author of the novel Swim (The Permanent Press, 2019), named into the top 10 of the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. He is also the author of The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001) and Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (University of Washington Press, 2022), winner of the Outstanding Achievement in History from the Association of Asian American Studies.
Series Editor SJ Sindu writes, “Voice-forward and confident, Daddy Issues captured me immediately with its mix of sarcastic bravado and soft vulnerability. The stories have range not only in terms of emotion but also in terms of character design and theme, though they’re all united by that strong voice that Wat brings to the page.”
Zero Street is committed to LGBTQ+ literary fiction with commercial potential, providing LGBTQ+ authors opportunities for a wide readership in the trade fiction market. The series editors are Timothy Schaffert, bestselling author of The Perfume Thief, and SJ Sindu, author of Blue-Skinned Gods. The series seeks LGBTQ+ literary fiction of all kinds, from stories of modern life to innovations on traditions of genre and are particularly interested in BIPOC authors, trans authors, and queer authors over 50.
The submission period for Zero Street is November 1 through April 1. For more information, click here.
