The University of Nebraska Press is pleased to announce the selection of the next book in the fiction series, Zero Street. All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere by DeMisty D. Bellinger will be published on September 1, 2024.
Fantastical, sensual, and as beguilingly strange as they are insightful and real, the stories of All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere are centered around intimate familial or romantic relationships, featuring protagonists who make awesome discoveries—from the beautiful to the horrible—in seemingly mundane situations. The protagonists in each story come from marginalized communities, which sometimes exacerbates their problems but always allows for unique perspectives and epiphanies.
“I’ve admired DeMisty D. Bellinger’s work for a long time, so it was a truly special experience to help bring this book out into the world,” said Series Editor SJ Sindu. “The stories in All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere have such a wide scope, from quirky to heartbreaking and everything in between. This book showcases DeMisty’s amazing range as a writer.”
All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere is the winner of the Barbara DiBernard Award, an annual prize for a book published by Zero Street and named for Dr. DiBernard who is professor emeritus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a scholar, activist, teacher, and mentor, Dr. DiBernard has been a pioneer in LGBTQ+ literary studies, women’s literature, and disability studies, and a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ authors and publishing.
“I am beyond honored that All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere received the Barbara DiBernard award, especially because I respected her work as a professor, her advocacy for all things queer and literature, and because she was a wonderful and affable person,” said DeMisty D. Bellinger. “Also, I am overjoyed to work with Timothy Schaffert and SJ Sindu—both writers whose work and ideas I love. I don’t think this collection could have landed in better hands. Awesome Everywhere is the third book in an already impressive series, and I look forward to future Zero Street titles.”
Bellinger is the author of the novel New to Liberty and two collections of poetry, Peculiar Heritage and Rubbing Elbows. She is an associate professor of English and coordinator of the Center of Faculty Scholarship at Fitchburg State University.
Series Editor Timothy Schaffert writes, “Every sentence of DeMisty’s fiction is struck-through with an honesty and observation that I find irresistible. Sometimes her characters are contemplating motherhood, sometimes magic, but they all do so with an easygoing wisdom that draws you in, deeper and deeper, story after story.”
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.
