This week our guest is Gale Massey. Gale is an award-winning author drawn to stories exploring coming-of-age questions, the search for redemption, social justice issues, and complex character relationships. Her work illuminates the complexities of blood family and chosen family bonds. She is a member of the LGBTQ community living in the south and a seventh-generation Floridian;  these life experiences inform her work and her public image. In addition to her debut novel The Girl from Blind River, winner of a 2018 Florida Book Award and a finalist for the Clara Johnson award, Gale has published a story collection Rising and Other Stories (Bronzeville, 2021) and contributed a story to Akashic Books' Tampa Bay Noir; her works have also appeared in Salon, Writer's Digest, Lambda Literary, CutBank, CrimeReads,and the Tampa Bay Times. Gale was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference, a fellow at Writers in Paradise, and has served as a panel judge for the Lambda Literary Award. Her work can be found at galemassey.com