Carter Sickels – Untangling the Knot

Late Night Conversation, hosted by Paul Martone

Tonight’s guests: Carter Sickels, Ben Anderson-Nathe, and Mel Wells. Carter is the editor of the recently released anthology Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships, & Identity. Ben and Mel are two of the book’s contributing writers. Untangling the Knot was published by Ooligan Press, a not-for-profit general trade press that publishes books honoring the cultural and natural diversity of the Pacific Northwest.

Listen to the full episode here:

The collection sheds light on what marriage equality actually means for queer communities. By confronting the concept of tradition through personal discourse, this volume seeks to create conversation among the diverse members of the LGBTQ community and their straight allies to prompt a larger, grander, and more realistic vision of what marriage equality really means—and does not mean—for those living in the United States.

 PURCHASE UNTANGLING THE KNOT HERE

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Ben Anderson-Nathe is an associate professor and program director of Child and Family Studies at Portland State University. He holds graduate degrees in social work, public policy, and community education with a focus in youth studies. He has a passion for working with youth and supporting adults to engage differently with young people. His teaching and scholarship center on justice and equity, sexuality and gender, and the lives of young people. Ben currently lives in Portland, OR with Michael, Sophie, and Margaret.

Mel Wells was born and raised in Pocatello, Idaho. She earned a BA at Brigham Young University and an MS in book publishing at Portland State University. Her work has been published in Pathos Literary Magazine, Salamander Magazine, Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac and Spent: Exposing Our Complicated Relationship with Shopping.  Wells is also finishing a memoir about her experiences as a Mormon missionary in Belgium, titled My Underwear Will Save Me. 

Carter Sickels is the author of the novel The Evening Hour. He is the recipientof the 2013 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award, a project grant from RACC, and an NEA Fellowship to the Hambidge Center for the Arts. His short stories and literary essays have appeared in a broad range of periodicals and anthologies, from Appalachian Heritage to The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard.