Hot Tea


You can not only read my new flash fiction piece “God’s Order” for free on the Instant Noodles Lit Mag website, but hear me reading it as well! Thanks to Current Words for including me in their Devil’s Party themed issue, excited to be part of it!

Mark your calendar! I’ll be the featured presenter on August 7th for Chat Rooms at Lucky Dime in Everett, Washington. Come on out to hear me read 30 minutes worth of some of my poems and stories then participate in the open mic so I can hear your stuff! See you there!

I love queer-run presses, so when I heard about Skeleton Flowers Press looking for stories for their first issue, I knew I had to submit something. The theme for their Midsummer Issue was HEAT and I’d had this story about hot peppers, addiction, and the sacrifices we make in relationships bouncing around my head for a while. Click the image to read The World’s Hottest Pepper for FREE!

I simply cannot wait to talk about crafting diverse queer characters for the Regency era at Regency Fiction Writers Conference! It’s coming up fast but there’s still time to register for the entire virtual experience!

T’Art Press is putting out some of the best stuff out there and I’m honored that they’ve included my piece “The Summit” in the summer online edition. You can read it for FREE on their website.

Just released!! I love having four published poems among this incredible collection of Bear poets! Like editor Raymond Luczak says, we don’t showcase the Gay Bear community enough when it comes to the arts, but he has definitely curated a broad spectrum of creators in the pages of Oh Yeah, Bear Poetry. Read more about his process in Bear Magazine.

As I gear up to talk with Tonya Todd for this year’s Banned Books conversations, I can’t help but share this video from last season when we discussed All Boys Aren’t Blue. Excited to share this year’s video once it goes live!

Very excited to be included in this upcoming anthology from Cat Eye Press! If you’re a fan of Ms. Lucy Furr, she makes another appearance in this story!

So happy to announce I have been awarded (under a pen name) the SEAF Foundation Award for Short Works! I love my city and the wonderful art it produces. The Seattle Erotic Arts Festival is such an incredible venue for adult artists, performers, and writers.

Can’t wait to share my thoughts at the Beyond Gay and Bi panel at AWP 2024!

It was so much fun reading the submissions for the Fiction portion of the Black Mountain Institute’s Witness Literary Magazine. There were so many incredible stories, it was difficult to choose, but all of them will stick with me forever. Congratulations to the authors who made it into the Winter 2023 Issue!

I had such a wonderful time talking to Canvas Rebel about my writing journey and what it means to me to facilitate events and host my fellow authors. Read the full interview here!

Come see me and some of my favorite authors read our stuff at our AWP 2023 offsite event!

I’m pleased to be part of Orange Blossom Publishing’s Pulse Reflections series. My piece, “Memory: In Two Parts” was not easy to write. The first part was composed three days after the tragedy and the second part was written five years later.

Very excited to announce that my shot story “Randyland” was published by 86 Logic! This literary magazine is an incredible collection of poetry, prose, and art from creators who have or are currently working in the service industry.

I had an incredible time talking with author/actress and host extraordinaire Ms. Tonya Todd on the 52 Love Podcast. If you don’t know Tonya Todd’s work yet, I promise you will soon!

She’s a force in both the literary and performance world who inspires me everyday to seek adventure! The 52 Love Podcast can be viewed on Youtube or your can listen to the audio only anywhere you get your podcasts 🙂

I’m so excited for this collection to be released in October 2021 and I really appreciate the One Pulse Foundation for the shoutout about my submission to their Vibrations Experience Five Years Later remembrance mixed media anthology published by Orange Blossom Books.


I had some great news last month when Taco Bell Quarterly let me know they nominated me for a Best of the Net Award for my non-fiction piece “The Taco Bell in My Hometown is on Fire.”

I’m incredibly excited and appreciate everything the great people over at TBQ and Sundress Press are doing for the writing community. Good luck to everyone who was nominated and thank you again for the recognition! This piece means a lot to me and it means even more that people are enjoying it.

Excited to be included in Vagabonds Volume 8 by Weasel Press! They’ve really brought a great collection of authors and artists together in this issue and I’m so happy to be able to share it for free with all of you!
A pdf of the full issue can be downloaded here: Vagabonds Volume 8
My short story, “Eggplant” can be found around page 44.

New stuff in Thought Catalog!

Being that I have moved from Orlando to Las Vegas and most recently to Seattle in the last three years, I wrote a nonfiction essay for Thought Catalog about the feeling of moving on from a city and creating relationships with new places. I’m happy to see this piece out there and am loving the response it has received! I especially love the photo they chose of Lake Eola to pair with the essay.

Check out the article Thought Catalog titled “When No City Feels Like ‘The One.’

So happy to announce I have joined the TBQ (Taco Bell Quarterly) family!

My short piece titled “The Taco Bell in My Hometown in on Fire” can be found in the nonfiction essay section of their menu and for me, borderlines on both poetry and nonfiction. Their editors agreed, and I’m happy to be among the writers in Volume 2  of this fantastic collection.

If you haven’t had the privilege of stumbling upon this amazingly creative literary magazine, definitely check them out.

I’ve been awarded a grant by The Nevada Arts Council to attend the Slice Literary Conference in Brooklyn, New York this year.

Big thank you to the NAC, I can’t wait!

Thank you for having me WOCF!

It was so much fun being the featured reader and sharing my new non-fiction piece called “Go West” about the fun time I got lost in the desert.

I had an absolutely incredible time at the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference. The workshops, first page reads, and networking opportunities were amazing. So excited to start applying everything I learned there and get ready for the next one!

The short story "Invitation" was released in the anthology Demonic Household: See Owner's Manual edited by Valerie Willis author of The Cedric Series and including stories from 28 incredible writers. It starts off with light, soft stories, but be warned! You will find yourself falling into the ever darker, gorier, and more demonic stories with each passing page. You may look at your couch, your washer, and even television and wonder if you should be laughing anymore. Will your household turn on you? Keep your Owner’s Manuals close by!
The short story “Invitation” was released in the anthology Demonic Household: See Owner’s Manual edited by Valerie Willis author of The Cedric Series and including stories from 28 incredible writers. It starts off with light, soft stories, but be warned! You will find yourself falling into the ever darker, gorier, and more demonic stories with each passing page. You may look at your couch, your washer, and even television and wonder if you should be laughing anymore. Will your household turn on you? Keep your Owner’s Manuals close by!

Paperback copies will be on sale during upcoming readings/conferences. It is also available on Amazon in paperback or ebook. Buy Demonic Household featuring the short story “Invitation” by Brandon Mead