Sassafras Lowrey
Sassafras Lowrey believes everyone has a story to tell. “For LGBTQ people, telling our stories creates social change. We have been taught that our stories are unimportant; that our lives are shameful and that we should keep our world secret,” she explains. “For me, there is nothing more rewarding than watching someone put pen to page and come away realizing that she has, perhaps for the first time in her life, been seen and heard by others–and celebrated not in spite of who she is, but because of it.” The award-winning author, artist, educator and storyteller practices what she preaches. She oversaw the acclaimed anthology Kicked Out, a collection of stories by currently and formerly homeless LGBTQ youth; she regularly leads LGBTQ storytelling workshops at colleges and conferences in addition to creating her own intensely personal prose. Her debut novel Roving Pack will be released this fall, and she is currently editing Leather Ever After, an anthology of BDSM fairy tale retellings. She recently received an Honorable Mention from the 2011 Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund to continue her editing and writing projects. “It’s the stories themselves that keep me deeply grounded in the work that I do,” she says.