Garrard Conley

Garrard Conley is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Kennesaw State University, notable for his New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased and historical novel All the World Beside. As a survivor of conversion therapy, he advocates for LGBTQ+ rights through speaking engagements, literary work, and co-producing the podcast UnErased.

• Education: MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College (Truman Capote Fellow), MA in English from Auburn University
• Teaching Experience: Catapult, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Fine Arts Works Center in Provincetown
• Activism: Penguin Random House Speaker on radical compassion, former Peace Corps HIV/AIDS educator in Ukraine

His research and creative work focus on reconstructing queer narratives in historical contexts, particularly Puritan New England and the American South. His publications blend memoir and speculative historical fiction to explore identity erasure and cultural myths.

Academic trends in his work include:

• Reclamation of suppressed LGBTQ+ histories
• Intersection of religious dogma and personal trauma
• Colonial-era subtext in modern queer storytelling
• Linguistic preservation of regional dialects

Scientific awards and recognitions:

• Lambda Literary Award Finalist (2016)
• Truman Capote Fellow
• Scholarships from multiple writers’ conferences

Conley's teaching and writing workshops emphasize memoir construction, trauma processing through literature, and Southern cultural duality. He serves on the board of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., and contributes to major media outlets like The New York Times and TIME.