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Wolf Act
AJ Romriell
Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies
David Bergman, Joan Larkin, and Raphael Kadushin, Founding Editors
“Wolf Act moves in the way a body does, an evocative intertwining of memories through the complexities of deep familial love, the alienating potential of religious orthodoxy, the thrilling and shameful experiences of adolescence, and the search for love (including self-love) in a homophobic culture that narrowly defines lovability.”
—Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic
Growing up queer and neurodivergent in the Mormon Church
As a child, AJ Romriell strove to obey his Mormon leaders’ every rule. If he was faithful enough, he was taught, God would remove temptations. But at nineteen, returning home early from his mission after admitting his attraction to men, he was forced to make a decision: either stay the course or work to accept himself fully and risk losing family, community, and the Church he’d devoted his life to. His decision to pursue radical acceptance would turn out to be just one step toward reclaiming his life.
Through linked personal essays crafted in lyric, fabulist, and fragmented forms, Wolf Act charts a young man’s transformation. Weaving together wolfish fairy tales and mythology, Mormon theology and practice, piercings and tattoos, cave explorations, ghost stories, and more, Romriell explores a childhood of hiding, a familial reckoning, a religious exodus, and an effort to understand one’s life as worth saving—even when the meaning of the word “saving” must be reimagined.
AJ Romriell is a writer, photographer, and educator, who has published work in Black Warrior Review, Brevity, Great River Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Sandy, Utah, he currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his partner and their feline companion, Sokka the Wildercat.
Author's Website - https://www.ajromriell.com/
Praise
“A searing, poetic account of growing up gay and Mormon. As a memoirist, Romriell chooses his words carefully for accuracy and effect. The honesty is bracing, the result cathartic. The redemptive power of Wolf Act lingers long after the final page.”
—Gary James Bergera, coauthor of Brigham Young University: A House of Faith
Table of Contents
The Wolf Boy Overture
ACT I
Names & Other Prophecies
Stain
Mormon Lessons on Modesty
Gracious Ruin
A Wolf Boy Interlude
ACT II
Showerhead Reflections
Wolf Act
A Dictionary of the Voiceless
The Magic Kingdom: Part 1, Forced Perspective
The Magic Kingdom: Part 2, Unicorns and Broken Things
A Wolf Boy Interlude
ACT III
Howl
Piercing
Ghost Boys: A Bricolage
Searching for Spirits in Quarantine
WOLF BOY CODA
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Larger images
February 2025
168 pp. 6 x 9
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