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*Debut non-binary author writing about the non-binary and trans experience
*Author's prose has appeared in
Medium, Matchbook, Gigantic Sequins, the EEEL, Paper Darts Magazine, Prick of the Spindle, New South Magazine, and more
*Pride month promotional tie-ins
*Outreach to LGBTQIA+ writing communities and publications, including Lambda Literary, them., Autostraddle, LGBTQ Reads, Out Magazine, Entropy, and Bogi Reads the World
*Intensive Chicago-area publication outreach, including the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, Gay Chicago Magazine, and others
*Indie bookstore direct mailing focused on Chicago indies, such as Women and Children First, Semicolon Bookstore, Unabridged, Quimby's, Myopic Books, the Seminary Co-Op, 57th Street Books, and Volumes Bookcafe
*Outreach to LGBT+ supportive bookstores, including Green Apple Books, Bluestockings, Common Language, A Room of One's Own, Kramerbooks, Outwords, and more
*Seeking reviews, interviews, and other coverage from Bookforum, Vulture, Buzzfeed, Nylon, The Village Voice, The Millions, Vox, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Book Riot, Paris Review, Electric Lit, PopSugar, The Riveter, Hazlitt, Fiction Unbound, SFWA, Bitch Magazine, Pure Wow, and more
*Major book club outreach, including to Haymarket Books, Women and Children First (Chicago), Queery (and other queer site virtual book clubs), Lit Hub's Virtual Book Channel, Literaryswag Book Club, The Rumpus, and Powell's
*Blurb outreach to Raquel Salas-Rivera, Neve Kamilah Mazique-Bianco, Andrea Lawlor, Zach Ozma, Cyree Jarelle Johnson, CA Conrad, and Akwaeke Emezi
*Mass galley mailing to trade publications and national newspapers
*Advertising Budget Available
*Co-op Budget Available
*National awards push
*Egalleys available on Edelweiss
About the author
RE Katz is a nonbinary author whose debut work,
And Then the Gray Heaven, won the 2019 Dzanc Books Novella Prize. They exhibited Boywitch Codex: Hypertexts as February 2017 Artist in Residence at Dreamland Arts in Buffalo, NY. They work in educational justice and are interested in personal fashion, antifascist witchcraft, and television.
Summary
RE Katz’s And Then the Gray Heaven centers on Jules, whose partner B has recently died in a freak accident. Confronting the red tape of the hospital, the dissociation and cruelty of B’s family, and the unimaginable void now at the center of their lives, Jules and new friend Theo embark on a road trip to bury two-thirds of B’s ashes in the places they most belong. Along the way, Katz delves into their relationship and their life stories—Jules’ rise from abandoned baby origins through the Florida foster care system, and B’s artistic transformation, surrounded by kindred spirits who helped them realize it was possible to be regarded as a human and not as a body.
Delving into what it means to try to be alive to your own pain and the pain of others under late capitalism, And Then the Gray Heaven explores the themes of queer grief and affection, queer failure, burial as hero’s journey, and the grotesqueries of artistic determination within and beyond the institutions that define our lives.
