“Grant Chemidlin’s poems in In the Middle of a Better World aren’t afraid of authenticity and honesty. They traffic in truth, whether they are the truth of coming out or the truth of love and human connection in a challenging world. Everything is tangled in Chemidlin’s poems because the book seems to make a beautiful case for rising out of difficulty, rising in difficulty, and rising before difficulty, as Man Marries Man seems to say: ‘& when the breeze blows/with the hum of our vows, the strings that kept both/our hidden selves bound, will fall beside our feet. There,/we’ll stand. There, we’ll be.'” — Victoria Chang, author of With My Back to the World

“A boldly sumptuous collection, Grant Chemidlin’s In the Middle of a Better World never flinches from either ecstasy or uncertainty found in the erotic and mystical spaces where the body and the natural world touch. In striking poems with surprising turns, speakers wrestle with coming out, go to leather bars, or meet at night in the snow where ‘the sweet & the scary’ is transformed through presences that deepen the search for belonging both in this world and a better one. Bodies morph into books or trees, mingle with moss and hummingbirds and tongues. Chemidlin’s poems reclaim this magic in a world that would deny it, especially during a time of great suffering. Men are hopeful in each other’s arms or bond in marriage, yet still they remain in the middle of a better world. But Chemidlin’s remarkable collection finds its bliss in the striving itself, and the dare that is to imagine that better world.” — Christian Gullette, author of Coachella Elegy

A luminous, defiant celebration of queer love, identity, and chosen connection—from Lambda Literary Award finalist Grant Chemidlin.

From an established press with a track record of bestselling poetry titles
A poet with a sizeable and a track record of viral posts
Instagram: 45.4K followers
TikTok: 62.7K followers and 2.8M likes
Follows the viral and bestselling What We Lost in the Swamp, a Lambda Literary Award finalist.
Timely and resonant themes of queer identity, community, and resilience.
For lovers of Danez Smith, Richard Siken, Ocean Vuong, Charif Shanahan
50,000 first printing

Marketing Includes:
Presence at Frankfurt, Winter Institute and regional bookseller shows
Advertising in Foreword Reviews; Shelf Awareness; Poets.org
NetGalley and Edelweiss ARC campaigns
Dedicated publicist retained
Trade review campaigns
Goodreads giveaways
Social media & newsletter outreach
Pre-order campaign via Los Angeles independent bookseller (TBD)
Award submissions

Compare to: Pig; Hard Drive; Trace Eviden