WE WERE THE UNIVERSE ANTICIPATION

• Kirkus, ☆Starred☆ Review

• Nylon, 10 Best New Book Releases of May 2024

• Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024

• Electric Lit, 42 Queer Books You Need to Read in 2024

• Debutiful, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2024

BLACK LIGHT AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award

• Finalist for the 2020 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction

• 2020 National Magazine Award in Fiction for The Paris Review (for the story “Foxes”)

• Finalist for the 2020 Oregon Book Award/Ken Kesey Award for Fiction

• Finalist for the 2020 Texas Institute of Letters Best Work of First Fiction Award

• Longlisted for the 2019 Story Prize

• The Paris Review, The Paris Review Staff’s Favorite Books of 2019

• The Paris Review, Contributors’ Favorite Books of 2019

• The Today Show, 5 Books to Read if You Enjoyed Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

• The New York Times, In the Running for National Book Awards

• Reader’s Digest, The 25 Best, Most Iconic Short Stories of All Time

• Electric Lit, 8 Books About Coming into Queer Selfhood

• Electric Lit, 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019

• Texas Observer, The 30 Best Texas Books of the Decade

• Literary Arts, Reading Recommendations: Pride Reads

• Powell’s Best Fiction of 2019

• Powell’s Staff’s Top 5 Books of 2019

• Lit Hub, Best Queer Debuts of 2019

• Lit Hub, If They Gave Oscars to Books, Our 2019 Nominees

• Jezebel, The Best Books the Jezebel Staff Read in 2019

• Penguin Random House Staff Best of 2019

• Electric Literature, 10 Stories about Self-Destructive Women

• Southwest Review, 10 Must-Read Books of 2019

• The Millions, Books Are Magic Staff Pick 2019

• Texas Monthly, The Best Things in Texas 2020

• Harvard Bookstore 2019 Staff Favorites

• Largehearted Boy’s Favorite Short Story Collections of 2019

• Write or Die Tribe’s Favorite Books of 2019

• The Millions Year in Reading 2019

• Debutiful, Favorite Debuts of 2019

• Oprah Magazine, 23 of the Best LGBTQ Books That'll Change the Literary Landscape in 2019

• The Paris Review, Staff Pick

• Oprah Magazine, 10 August Books You Should Read Right Now

• Publishers Weekly, Writers to Watch Fall 2019: Anticipated Debuts

• LAMBDA Literary, New in August: Kimberly King Parsons, Caleb Crain, and Elissa Altman

• The Millions, 10 Writers to Watch in 2019

• PDX Monthly, 10 Great Books by Oregon Writers

• BookPeople’s Favorite Fiction Reads of 2019

• Bennington Banner, The One Book You Should Give this Season

• Electric Lit, The 20 Best Debuts of the Second Half of 2019

• Portland Monthly, 2019’s Best Oregon-Born Culture

• The Advocate, 20 LGBTQ Collections of Poetry, Short Stories, and Essays

• Rewire, 13 Books by LGBTQ Writers to Read This Fall

• Lit Hub, The 12 Best Book Covers of August

• The Millions, Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview

• Lit Hub, New Books Tuesday

• CRAFT Literary, New Books: August 2019

• The Rumpus, What to Read When You’ve Made It More Than Halfway Through 2019

• Lit Reactor, Books That Are Feminist AF

• Paperback Paris, The 60 Best Books of 2019

• Paperback Paris, Four Women with Mind-blowingly Original Debuts Out This Month

• Bustle, 20 New Books To Read This Summer, According To Authors

• Autostraddle, 15 New LGBT Books to Make Your Summer Hot Hot Hot

• Vol.1 Brooklyn, August 2019 Book Preview

• Portland Monthly, 2019’s Best Oregon-Born Culture

• Local Profile, 10 Books by Texans to Read the Spring

• Logo, 11 Queer Books You Need to Read Before Summer Ends

• BUST, Week Of Women: August 9-15, 2019

• Alma, Alma’s Favorite Books for Summer 2019

• Debutiful, 6 debut books to read this August

• Paste, The Best Audiobooks of August 2019

• Publishers Weekly, ☆Starred☆ Review

• Kirkus, ☆Starred☆ Review