Jennifer Savran Kelly (she/her/they/them) lives in Ithaca, New York, where she writes, binds books, and works as a production editor at Cornell University Press. Endpapers is her debut novel. In 2018 it won a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. In 2019 it was selected as a finalist for the SFWP Literary Awards program and for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Her short fiction has appeared in Hobart, Black Warrior Review, Green Mountains Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts (Online Companion), and elsewhere. In 2014, she was selected to study in the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
"Sometimes the hardest thing to be is our authentic selves. How do
we do that when society has hidden and erased any path that could
show us the way? Dawn Levit finds that heroic path by believing in
hunches and looking for clues. Not quite a mystery novel, this is a
story of following one's own inner desire for belonging through art
and surprising friendships. Savran Kelly creates a story full of
humans who we long to be friends with after the last page is read.
Love is acceptance, and this book is that and more."
--Amy Wallen, author of When We Were Ghouls "Part portrait of the
artist, part queer coming-of-age, and part investigative puzzle,
this intimate, emotional novel parlays romance, passion, politics,
and history into a compelling tale, beautifully and insightfully
told. Jennifer Savran Kelly is an exciting, empathetic new
voice."
--J. Robert Lennon, author of Subdivision and Let Me Think
"Endpapers is a richly imagined and moving novel about identity,
desire, and art. Its characters are believable and engaging, its
plot intriguing, but just as important is its urgent subtext, a
plea for humans to break free from constricting labels and instead
behold each other in all their thorny, unpredictable individuality;
to love complexity and uncertainty, rather than ideology and order.
This just might be the most urgent issue of our time, and Endpapers
tackles it with energy and--that most apropos
weapon--subtlety."
--Brian Hall, author of The Stone Loves the World "Jennifer Savran
Kelly's Endpapers immerses us in the world and mind of her engaging
but struggling narrator Dawn--genderqueer, Jewish, a book
conservator on a desperate search for queer role models and an
artistic community. Endpapers is about the need to be fully
seen--to locate oneself in the past in order to feel visible in the
present. Savran Kelly is a masterful and compassionate storyteller,
one who finds hope in the antidotes to hate and violence:
community, art, authentic self. This is a book for all of us!"
--Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade "A mystery wrapped in a
love story wrapped in an artist's coming of age, Endpapers is an
ode to queer joy and the messiness of selfhood. With tenderness and
insight, Jennifer Savran Kelly explores what we lose when we keep
our innermost selves hidden--and what it means to forge an
authentic life through art."
--Antonia Angress, author of Sirens Muses
"Jennifer Savran Kelly's Endpapers is the most personal novel about
life as a gender-nonconforming person that I've ever read. It opens
a window into what it's like to live in a world where you need to
disguise who you are just to get along, and yet, at its heart, it
remains an abundantly hopeful story. It's a story full of messy,
true life. I'm so glad I read it."
--Claire Oshetsky, author of Chouette "Achingly evocative and
thoroughly satisfying, Jennifer Savran Kelly's Endpapers follows a
genderqueer bookbinder through post-9/11 New York as she searches
the city for answers about a long-hidden love letter and the
outlines of her own identity. Part historical mystery, part
meditation on the shifting nature of creativity and self, Endpapers
is a story that bursts with warmth, community, and the
sometimes-heartbreaking decisions we make when we begin to stitch
together the spine of our lives."
--Katy Hays, author of The Cloisters "Jennifer Savran Kelly's
Endpapers is an accomplished, moving novel where the search for
answers to a literary mystery doubles as the search for queer
authenticity in a world of bindings: book bindings, artistic
bindings, social bindings. With humor, tenderness, and honesty,
Savran Kelly lays bare the struggle to find our brilliant,
beautiful selves--and the courage to go forth boldly with
them."
--Zak Salih, author of Let's Get Back to the Party
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