Genevieve Hudson

Genevieve Hudson is the author of Pretend We Live Here: Stories, and lives in Portland, Oregon but she is originally from Alabama. In Genevieve Hudson’s debut novel, Boys of Alabama (Liveright) a sensitive teen, newly arrived in Alabama, falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. His German parents don’t know what to make of a South, but shy Max thrives in the thick heat. Taken in by the football team, he learns how to catch a spiraling ball, how to point a gun, and how to hide his innermost secrets. He’s welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” Then he meets Pan, the school “witch,” and the pair embarks on an all-consuming relationship, queer love in the country of God, guns, and football. As they share stories they can’t decide whose past is darker, and what is more frightening—their true selves, or staying true in Alabama. Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir, called Boys of Alabama “A gripping, uncanny, and queer exploration of being a boy in America, told with detail that dazzles and disturbs.”