Fiction
Madison, WI
June 2026, four weeks
Emma Binder is a fiction writer whose work focuses on the stories of queer and trans people in rural places and small towns in the Midwest. Their short stories explore the nuances, joys, and difficulties of queer rural life, providing counter-narratives to the presumption that rural queer people can only find community, connection, and meaning in cities. They are also at work on a novel titled Small Heaven, which focuses on a queer separatist commune in western Wisconsin, whose members must seek help from the surrounding conservative community in a time of crisis.