When sixteen-year-old Ruby Pickett and her family move to the new, government-built city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Ruby knows that her daddy’s new job will help the war effort, but she has no idea how. Ruby is not alone in her lack of knowledge, as the city’s true purpose is a carefully guarded secret. A thinker and a reader, Ruby has always been restless, and she finds Oak Ridge a much more stimulating environment than her old home in rural Southeastern Kentucky.

Vermillion, Georgia, is the small town that time forgot, or at least that's how it feels to fifteen-year-old Rufus. As if being a scrawny ginger called "Matchstick" isn't bad enough, Rufus is also gay, an artist, and the son of conservative religious fanatics. He doesn't have a prayer of fitting in in the Bible Belt—at least not until he meets Syd, a spiky-haired girl in black eyeliner. Sick of being the adult her mother can't seem to be, Syd hides behind a snarky attitude and takes refuge...

Leaving home was the best decision Chrys Pickett ever made. She lost her rural accent, got a PhD and made something of herself, promising she’d never go back to her roots. But when your Nanny needs you and your heart has been smashed to pieces, promises are easily dismissed.The loud, affectionate family welcome and simple Appalachian life—cookouts and church, chickens and dogs in the yard—are just what Chrys needs. Family is what matters. She doesn’t mind caring for Nanny…just for ...

Miranda Jasper just wants her life to go back to normal. For Miranda, "normal" means living in a spooky old house in tiny Wilder, Kentucky, with her mom and granny who, like her, share a mysterious power called The Sight. It also means hanging out with her two best friends, Adam, a city kid who's had to adjust to small-town life, and Abigail, the ghost who haunts Miranda's room. But things are changing.Miranda's mom has a new boyfriend, which changes things at home, and Adam announ...

Twelve-year-old Miranda Jasper has the Sight, a gift that allows her to see into other people's thoughts. Most regular kids are scared of Miranda and avoid her; however, Miranda does have two friends who definitely aren't regular kids: horror-movie obsessed Adam who has moved to Wilder from the big city, and Abigail, the ghost of a girl who died in the 1800s.Lately the kids' hometown of Wilder, Kentucky, has been going through some changes. A meat-packing plant has opened, bringing...

Set in rural Tennessee, QUIVER, a YA novel by Julia Watts, focuses on the unlikely friendship between two teens from opposite sides of the culture wars. Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven, in a family that adheres to the "quiverfull" lifestyle: strict evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many children as God allows because children are like arrows in the quiver of "God's righteous warriors." Meanwhile, her new neighbor, Zo is ...

Abandoned by her mother and raised by her loving but religiously zealous grandmother, 16-year-old Heavenly Faith Simms (H.F. for short) has never felt like she belonged anywhere. \r\nWhen she finds her mother's address in a drawer, she and her best friend, Bo, an emotionally repressed gay boy, hit the road in Bo's scrap heap of a car and head south.Their journey through the heart of the American South awakens both teens to the realization that there is a life waiting for them ...

Okay, you’re a lesbian. Now what??? That’s the question that newly out Kentucky graduate student Jess Hamlin tries to answer in this heartwarming and hilarious account of her southern days and nights. From making and losing acquaintances, to finding and keeping real friends. Through bars and coffee houses, school and work. Surviving family drama and ex-lover trauma. Dealing with well-intentioned matchmakers and dates from hell. Having crushes and getting crushed. Coping—and sometimes not c...

“Stop it Bev!” Huge tears were rolling down Andie’s cheeks. “You’re scaring me.”“No. You’re scaring me. When we moved in together seven years ago, I thought I was settling down with someone who had some personal integrity. I was obviously mistaken. Ever since we moved here, you’ve set up this big dividing line between your job and me. Your job’s your public life, and I’m your dirty little secret!”When Bev’s lover Andie receives an assistant professorship at a Christian-affi...

The things a woman will do for love…and Lily had love, lots of it. But her partner Charlotte is dead. Their daughter Mimi keeps her sane—until Charlotte’s family claims they have all the rights to Mimi, who is their blood kin, and no “real” relation to Lily. With what’s left of her world balanced on a razor’s edge, any choice to find safer ground seems reasonable.Even getting married. Married to her Bugle Boy-wearing, trust fund-spending gay neighbor, Ben. Married and relocated to ...

**The essential read on disability, spirituality, and social justice that won the 2025 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, the 2024 National Jewish Book Award, and moreA transformative spiritual companion and deep dive into disability politics that reimagines disability in the Bible and contemporary culture**“What’s wrong with you?”Scholar, activist, and rabbi Julia Watts Belser is all too familiar with this question. What’s wrong isn’t her wheelchair, though—it’...

In a small Kentucky college town in 1953, two married women desperately fall in love with each other, until a moment of indiscretion threatens to destroy both their lives.In her new adult novel, award-winning author Julia Watts creates a compelling, emotional queer tale of power and passion. Colleagues and neighbors of Samuel and Boots are more than willing to accept their married status, even though Samuel “dresses like a boy” and the pair’s relat...