Harmonious Hearts 2016 - Stories from the Young Author Challenge

Harmony Ink Press is delighted and honored to showcase the short fiction of some of the best up-and-coming authors working in the LGBT genre. The stories in this third volume of Harmonious Hearts represent the winners of our Young Author Challenge—a group of talented writers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. 

The stories in this anthology are as diverse as their creators and range from the speculative to snapshots of everyday life for people growing up in a society in flux. They confront many issues facing young adults, and they celebrate the joys of this sometimes rocky period of transition: friendship, loyalty, first love, and learning to feel comfortable in one’s own skin. These experiences are universal, and thanks to the courage and talent of authors such as these, young people of all gender identities, expressions, and orientations are starting to see themselves included. Everyone deserves a story that speaks to them, and in these pages, they’ll find that story.

Dani Anderson—To Lauren

Nick Anthony—Scrapyard Sunsets

Hilda Friday—A Progression of Love

Arbour Ames—You Saw Blue

Chloe Smith—Plenty of Fish

Caleb Andrews—I Am Logan

Sarah Caulfield—Make Mad the Guilty

Xoe Juliani—Loving You Through the Years

Irene Grant—Jordan and A.J.

Latitude Brown—Equinox

Anika Olivo—Melodimensional

Frisk Gillespie—Ten Words

Frisk Gillespie is a twenty-year-old writer living in Canada. She spends most of her time reading fantasy novels and fan fiction, watching children’s cartoons, going rock climbing, and playing video games on easy mode. She has a totally professional diagnosis of “too gay to function,” which makes existing around cute girls quite a difficult task. She also has an actual chronic pain condition, but with treatment she’s able to keep up a part-time job, which gives her money to spoil her girlfriend. This is her third time being published in Harmonious Hearts.

Xoe Juliani is an American writer living in the Netherlands. She started writing in the seventh grade and never really stopped. At any given moment, you’re likely to find her either reading or writing—and if she’s not, she’s probably wishing she were. She’s also been known to detach from her computer and spend time with her family, but only rarely, as they would undoubtedly tell you. She is currently working toward a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Antioch University, since she’s not really one for practicality. Her work has previously been published in Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. She tends to write almost exclusively about LGBT+ characters, although her family does often remind her that straight people do exist too.

Blog: xoewrites.tumblr.com

Anika Olivo writes about reality through unreality. She loves to saturate her stories with symbolism that can still be enjoyed without English-class-like analysis, though it is definitely her favorite subject. Born and raised around Portland, Oregon, she draws inspiration from everything around her and gives the most mundane aspects of life haunting meaning or represent them in abstract, unexpected ways. Besides her environment, key inspirations include Welcome to Night Vale and, she has to admit, long nights spent reading the SCP Foundation wiki.

As her writing and interests may suggest, she loves the surreal and paranormal, whether they be cheesy tourist traps, horror media, or genuine liminal experiences on long road trips through West Coast deserts. Her creativity shows through her wide variety of hobbies; she also enjoys sewing and drawing as well as “wasting” hours on video games and messing with makeup. She aspires to become a lot of things, from a political activist to an author and artist to a YouTuber and a short film writer/director (but only as an informal hobby!).

When not focusing on her plethora of self-driven hobbies, she spends her time dealing with the trials and tribulations of a high school student, passionately debating in the Junior State of America, and teaching sex-ed classes as a peer educator through Planned Parenthood. New interests and goals find her almost every day, and who is she to deny them?

Chloe Smith is a disabled and autistic writer and poet from the United Kingdom. She is a Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2015, and her poetry has been published in The Honest Ulsterman, TERSE Journal, The Cabinet of Heed, Ghost City Review, and more. Her flash fiction has been published in Ellipsis Zine, TRAIN, Three Drops from a Cauldron, and The Ginger Collect. Her first ever short story, “Plenty of Fish,” was published by Harmony Ink Press in the Harmonious Hearts 2016 anthology, and her short story “143” was also published by Harmony Ink Press in the Harmonious Hearts 2018 anthology.

She’s wanted to be a writer ever since she knew books existed, especially when she found out that writing those books could be an actual job. She’s still working on getting that status of “published author and poet” with her own books and poetry collections on the shelves, but thinks that as long as there are people out there who will read her work (and occasionally even like it), then she’s most of the way there.

Chloe lives in England with her family, who she loves very much. If she’s not writing, then she’s probably thinking up a new story idea, rewatching episodes of Doctor Who, or drinking tea (as long as it’s decaf).

Twitter: @ch1oewrites

Website: chloesmithwrites.wordpress.com

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