Meet Avery Brooks | Writer, Editor, LGBTQ+ Activist, Evolutionary Biologist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Avery Brooks and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Avery, how does your business help the community?
As a writer and member of the LGBTQ+ community, it is important to me to create space for our stories and to write strong, real characters who may grapple with setbacks and obstacles but endure and grow in the process. My work delves into trauma, family (both biological and chosen), and identity, and my hope is to show that we are greater than our circumstances and, at least where contemporary romance writing is concerned, we can still find our happy ending. Or maybe more importantly, our happy journey. In my work as curator and editor of the Slamming Bricks Anthology, which grew out of an annual slam poetry competition and features poetry by LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and AAPI poets on themes of resistance and liberation, I aim to provide a platform for diverse voices to be heard and for different perspectives on these themes to be expressed. When someone reads the anthology and finds community, a shared experience, or a new understanding of another’s perspective, those are all successes in my mind. Particularly in a time where people are so divided and many of us have our basic human rights under attack, finding the pieces that bind us and that we have in common is crucial to being understood, respected, and represented.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I write LGBTQ+ fiction. My debut novel, Other Girls, is a sapphic contemporary romance set in New Orleans and it is as much a love story to the city of New Orleans as a journey through the lives of two women and the pasts they are trying to overcome. For me, it’s important to write stories about real characters, those who have experienced trauma and setbacks, who look like the people we see around us and are all the more beautiful because of it. I like helping those characters find their happy ending.

I also edit the Slamming Bricks Anthology, which features poetry by LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and AAPI poets on the themes of resistance and liberation in honor of the 1969 Stonewall riots. The anthology grew from an annual slam competition in Grand Junction, Colorado created by Caleb Ferganchick, an LGBTQ+ slam poet. I’ve felt honored to be able to provide a platform for poets with diverse voices to put their work out into the world. I’m finishing the 2nd edition of the anthology, which will be out this September, just in time for the fourth annual slam competition.

Over the past year, I’ve been hosting the Western Colorado Writers Podcast, where we talk to writers about writing. I’ve really enjoyed getting to interview local, regional, and national writers across all forms of writing (e.g., poetry, short stories, flash fiction, LGBTQ+ fiction). One of the most interesting interviews, which will come out this fall, is with Laura Tohe. She is a Native American author and was also poet laureate of the Navajo Nation for several years. Her father was a Navajo code talker and she interviewed some of the remaining code talkers to publish a book with their stories.

I think the tie that binds all of these avenues of work is the love I have for sharing our stories, whether it’s in conversation and connection with someone, providing a platform for their work to reach others, or in writing my own characters. I’m passionate about representation of the LGBTQ+ community and other communities that have been marginalized.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When I’m in Denver, I love the City Park area. As a science nerd, I love going to the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and just walking around the park. Even better if it’s during the fall when the leaves are changing colors. I’m a fan of Lucile’s Creole Cafe. It’s the closest I can get to real New Orleans’ beignets and creole food here in Colorado. Denver also has one of my favorite blocks in the country on Colfax – Blush & Blu, one of the few remaining lesbian bars in the U.S., is right next to Voodoo Doughnut, one of my favorite doughnut shops. So you can catch a drag show at Blush &Blu and then top the night off at Voodoo Doughnut. A fun day trip to Boulder would include stops at Piece, Love & Chocolate for their awesome truffles and assortment of chocolate bars, Avery Brewing Company for one of my favorite IPAs and a meal at their restaurant, and then Sweet Cow for ice cream. And if you’re headed west from Denver, I would definitely recommend taking Amtrak at least once through the Rockies and off the beaten path. It’s a different way to see the landscape than most of us get to see by car.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Finnian Burnett and Georgia Beers provided crucial encouragement and support when I decided to leave academia and pursue writing. Finnian is a passionate and hilarious educator, incredible human, and the type of writer whose work stays with you forever. And I was honored to be mentored by Georgia Beers, an award-winning author of sapphic romance, who happened to be the first author I came across when I started looking into that genre before deciding to make a career leap.

Website: https://averybrooksauthor.com/

Instagram: @Averybrooksauthor

Twitter: @AuthorAvery

Facebook: @averybrooksauthor