Proud Pink Sky
Berlin: a megacity of 24 million people, is the world’s first gay state. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenager William, so when his love affair with Gareth is discovered the two flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in a city divided into districts for young twinks, trendy bears, and rich alpha gays?
Meanwhile, young mother Cissie loves Berlin’s towering highrises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district – not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.
As William and Cissie dive deeper into a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language, they discover that all is not well in the gay state – each playing their part in a looming civil war...
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Redfern Jon Barrett
Redfern Jon Barrett is author to novels including Proud Pink Sky, a speculative story set in the world’s first LGBTQ+ country (Bywater, 2023) and The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights – which was a finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards and featured in Paste Magazine’s ‘10 Audiobooks to Listen to During Pride Month (and Beyond)’.
Redfern’s essays and short stories have appeared in publications including The Sun, Guernica, Strange Horizons, Passages North, PinkNews, Booth, FFO, ParSec, Orca, and Nature Futures. Their writing has been shortlisted for Scotland’s HISSAC prize, was a semifinalist for the Journal Non/Fiction Collection and Big Moose prizes, received an honourable mention for the Leapfrog Prize, and has exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark.
