‘Queer And Fearless’ Children’s Author To Host St. Pete Book Event

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Children’s author Rob Sanders will appear at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg Tuesday, 7 p.m., for a reading and discussion about his most recent book, “Queer and Fearless.”

The picture book, which was released in April by Penguin Random House, features 15 biographic poems celebrating the lives of 17 LGBTQ+ heroes.

The event will feature Tampa Bay-area writers Sheree Greer, Tyler Gillespie, Maria Ingrande Mora, Silk-Jazmyne Sampson Hindus, Gloria Muñoz and Sam Obeid reading selections from Sanders’ book.

He’ll also be interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times book editor Colette Bancroft and there will be a fundraiser for Equality Florida.

Sanders told Patch that he’s been working on the collection for years, though he didn’t initially intend to publish them.

“I’ve been writing about LGBTQ+ heroes for a while, every time there was an historic event or when someone passes or when an anniversary of something was being celebrated,” the St. Petersburg author said. “But I was just writing them for myself and then I’d book them away.”

Eventually, he realized there might be more to the project.

“Over time, I had this collection of poems and thought, ‘I should do something with this,’” Sanders said.

The LGBTQ+ heroes featured in the book span from the 1950s to 2022 and include Marsha P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Cleve Jones, Pauline Park, Richard Blanco and Pete Buttigieg.

“I was trying to go for a span of history and not just one segment of the community,” he said.

It’s important to share these stories with children, Sanders added. “Probably anyone in the LGBTQ+ community who is over 25 didn’t grow up hearing about our history or didn’t have any resources we could turn to without lots of digging.”