Kristen Arnett isn’t used to being a New York Times-bestselling author just yet. It’s an honor that came with the publication of her debut novel “Mostly Dead Things” in 2019, one the Orlando native is incredibly proud of but “still doesn’t feel like a real thing.”
That’s not to say it shouldn’t. Arnett holds a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and also served as a fellow for Lambda Literary, the world’s premiere LGBTQ literary organization.
“It feels very surreal to me. So much of my life is me sitting around in my sweatpants in front of a Word document, or maybe making a stupid tweet,” she laughs. “It’s wonderful, but it feels prestigious in a way that isn’t necessarily how I feel about myself. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the awe of it, which I think is good.”
Arnett is much more comfortable reflecting on the meaning behind her growing literary catalogue. She’s affectionately deemed it “the lesbian domestic.”
“I’m more interested in the daily lived experiences of queer people,” she explains. “Not the major moments, like coming out or any kind of big thing like that, but the little moments that sit in between. The daily movement of moving through life as a queer person.”
It’s something Arnett first discussed with Watermark in 2017 after the publication of “Felt in the Jaw,” her premiere short story collection. Its 10 stories explored “the lives of queer women and their families in the light of the bleak Florida sun.”
“So many times I’ve read books or watched movies or television shows and wished to see myself represented that way – not as a token or as a cliche, but as a fully fleshed, fully realized queer person,” Arnett said. “Writing like that for queer readers lets us know that we aren’t alone out there.”
She’s done that in every major work since, sharing her perspective as not only a member of the LGBTQ community but as a lifelong Floridian, one who now lives with her girlfriend in Miami. Arnett sees herself not only as a queer writer but a regional one.
“Setting feels so important to me,” she explains. “As a person who has lived my whole life in Florida, it just migrates itself. How I write queer is also how Florida feels to me in my work, it’s an integral part of it – because Florida’s its own character anyway, right?
“It’s so interesting and refuses to let you forget it’s there,” she says. “You’re continually reminded you’re here because it’s a tactile kind of place to live. The air feels like it’s touching you; the weather is so volatile; things can kill you here. Living in Florida is a very sensory experience.”
That experience was a key part of “Mostly Dead Things,” which Arnett pitched as “a lesbian in Central Florida takes over her family’s taxidermy business after her father commits suicide.” Its LGBTQ focus is something that made its success even more rewarding to the writer, however foreign its accolades still feel.
“As a lesbian author, to see the response to what I think is a very gay work, very queer work, was deeply meaningful to me,” Arnett says. “As a queer person going through life, you’re just really hungry to see yourself in things, especially in art – so I very much have written the things I want to read, which are ultimately queer because that’s who I am.
“You hope that people will connect with what you’re writing but you can’t be sure,” she continues. “The fact that so many people saw ‘Mostly Dead Things’ and were like, ‘this deeply resonates with me’ made me feel really tender and vulnerable, in a good way. People connecting with your art feels good.”
Arnett carried that sentiment with her into “With Teeth,” her second novel exploring LGBTQ life in Florida. After its June release, The New York Times called it “sublimely weird, fluently paced, brazenly funny and gayer still.”
A character study described as a hilarious but harrowing tale of two lesbian mothers, the novel examines life after marriage, parenthood and more. Readers primarily see the world through the eyes of Sammie Lucas, who struggles to understand her son, the world around her and her place in it.
“Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him,” the novel’s synopsis reads. “Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best – driving, cleaning, cooking, prodding him to finish projects for school – while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife.
“As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie’s life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels,” it continues. “When her son’s hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess – and the possibility that it will never be clean again.”
Whereas Arnett’s first novel was intentionally ambiguous in its Florida setting, she deliberately centered “With Teeth” in Orlando. She says highlighting her hometown felt important.
“When I was writing ‘Mostly Dead Things,’ I went out of my way not to say where that book was located,” she says. “I feel like there’s an impulse for people – especially if they’re not from Florida – that when you say Orlando, they think Disney World or theme parks. I didn’t want people to have that idea coming into the book.
“Going into ‘With Teeth,’ I had this other book underneath me and I wanted to be more specific about what this was, where we were and what it looked like,” Arnett continues. “To be more particular about spaces, like driving down I-4 and moving through Orlando proper.”
Writing “With Teeth” was also a very different creative experience for the author. “My background in library work really helped in terms of thinking about ‘Mostly Dead Things’ because it was so research heavy,” she explains.
“This book didn’t allow me to do that,” she continues. “I just had to be in my own space all the time thinking about Orlando. I had to stay with the discomfort of the characters and the book started to feel like a snow globe type of portrayal. This idea of what a beautiful little family would look like if they were trapped inside, but the globe is getting older, it’s cracked, the water’s come out and it’s a little mildewy.”
The process was significantly more intense. “It required a lot more of me sitting with my own thoughts about growing up and being in Orlando, internalizing that and then putting it on the page, which is a different kind of research,” she says.
Arnett’s perseverance paid off. “With Teeth” has resonated with readers across the world, among them the staff at St. Petersburg’s LGBTQ-owned Tombolo Books. The independent bookstore’s brick and mortar opened in 2019 and has championed inclusive literature ever since.
“We want to be a place where LGBTQ folks can find representation,” co-owners Alsace Walentine and Candice Anderson told Watermark in April. “We view bookstores as cultural intersections, so we make an effort to carry books telling intersectional LGBTQ stories from varied eras and geographies.”
Tombolo’s in-person programming also resumed in April, gatherings designed to connect authors with audiences. Events Coordinator Kelsey Jagneaux notes that “we are starting to see a real desire for in person activities and spaces for folks to come together” as they cautiously continue with safety measures in place amidst the ongoing pandemic.
A conversation with Arnett was the perfect fit for Tombolo. Jagneaux says the author is “masterful in her storytelling and how she weaves together these deeply flawed characters within humorously uncomfortable narratives,” something on which the bookstore’s entire staff agrees.
“Our booksellers all read so differently, but Kristen’s books have made it onto all of our ‘staff favorite’ shelves,” Jagneaux says. “We all love that she is a Florida author and that her books really capture a feeling of place in Florida. ‘With Teeth’ is set in the suburbs of Orlando, and you can feel that in her writing; the heat, humidity, the weight of the air. The dreaded palmetto bug even makes an appearance. And our readers love Kristen just as much as we do!”
“‘With Teeth’ – A Conversation with Kristen Arnett” will be held Aug. 25 in Tombolo’s courtyard. The guest of honor will be joined by openly gay author Tyler Gillespie, who wrote this year’s “The Thing About Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State.”
“I think he and Kristen are going to have a lot of fun chatting about being Florida authors and writing about Florida from their various perspectives,” Jagneaux says. The evening will also feature local vendors and a by-donation book sale with proceeds benefiting Metro Inclusive Health. “We are really striving to make this a community event where folks can celebrate great literature, local businesses and support a wonderful organization!”
That commitment to community is exactly why Arnett is excited about the gathering. It will mark her first official bookstore event for “With Teeth,” and she says Tombolo is the ideal home for it. “I’m so lucky to have them championing my work,” she says. “It feels very special to me because are such proponents of queer work, of Florida work, and I just love them. I am always so thrilled when I can be a part of literary communities in my home state.
“Independent bookstores are there to support their community and it’s a very special thing,” she stresses. “Booksellers genuinely care about the art and the time that goes behind the books. Independent bookstores are what keeps our art alive.”
Arnett is currently working on another short fiction collection, scheduled for a Spring 2023 publication, as well as another novel. The author promises it “is also very queer and very Florida … definitely in my wheelhouse.”
Until then, you can catch Arnett and purchase her work in St. Petersburg. “‘A Conversation with Kristen Arnett” will be held Aug. 25 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. at Tombolo Books, located at 2153 1st Ave. S. and stream live on social media. To learn more about Arnett, visit KristenArnettWriter.com.
