Palmetto Rose

Imagine engaging in sexual intimacy with someone you care about for the first time after surviving the loss of a serious, committed, loving relationship. In Palmetto Rose, this is where we find a bi+, gender fluid narrator affectionately called Kid by their loved ones. After five years trying to numb and escape the pain of losing their first love to a tragic accident, Kid begins to wake up, grieve, and try to rebuild their life in Atlanta, Georgia. Through their eyes, we watch as they seek to make sense of grief, pursue the possibility of a college education, and embark on their first serious romantic relationship since they were a teenager. In the process, we spend time with their chosen family of friends who navigate relationships, graduate programs, and developing careers. As the story unfolds, these friends face the ups and downs of early adulthood alongside the ways their individual and shared pasts find voices in their current endeavours, future plans, and intertwined lives. Although many characters in this story originally appeared in Cigarettes & Wine, Homecoming Queens, or Other People's Oysters, Palmetto Rose may be read as a stand-alone novel. Palmetto Rose may be used as an educational tool for people seeking to better understand growing numbers of openly bisexual, transgender, and poly people; as a supplemental reading for courses across disciplines dealing with gender, sexualities, relationships, families, the life course, narratives, emotions, the American south, identities, culture, and / or intersectionality; or it can, of course, be read entirely for pleasure.