Diamond Braxton
My plática with Braxton just lacked a cafecito and a sliver of pastelito as we divulged into queer
legacy, creative intuition, and building literary home. I opened with a reading of ‘Sobre La
Mesa’, my personal prose vignette ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ queer version, knowing the
culinary connection would take us down a sensory lane. Diamond, from the Gulf Coast, has
shaped her work by matrilineal memory and storytelling is both a personal ritual and collective
act. Diving into her acclaimed works like “Sugar Rush” and “Dreams of the Fam Who Came
Before Me,” she spoke to how her writing weaves together queerness, history, and hauntings into
narratives that are both expansive and emotionally precise. In discussing “Sugar Rush,” Braxton
revealed how a deceptively simple moment—a tasting of cake—transforms into a meditation on
mother-daughter love, body image, cultural critique and inherited silence. Food became a
metaphor for unspoken care and longing, as well as a tool to excavate desire and familial
complexity within queer narratives. She invites listeners into her sensory world, where ritual and
intuition guide as she reflects on the spiritual and emotional origins of “Dreams of the
Fam,” and how her identity as a queer, mixed-race Southerner informs the themes she returns
to—embodiment, memory, and resistance. Her time as a Tin House and Lambda Literary fellow,
she notes, granted her permission to take creative risks, affirming the urgency of telling stories
that live beyond binaries. Braxton shared her insights into her novel-in-progress: a collection of
interwoven Texan queer stories, speaking to the desire to archive lives that are often overlooked
or misrepresented, and to create a literary space, making room for storytellers from historically
excluded communities. As founder and director of Abode Press, her role extends far beyond the
page. Abode’s editorial vision is unapologetically expansive, welcoming voices that challenge
dominant literary norms. Through both her fiction and her stewardship at Abode, she hopes to
contribute to a future of Southern queer storytelling that is lush, layered, and liberatory.
