An Afternoon with Lindsay King-Miller, Author of The Z Word

Lindsay King-Miller founded the Tucson Poetry Slam, toured as a slam poet, taught creative writing to middle school, high school, and college students, and wrote the popular advice column “Ask A Queer Chick.” Her first book, Ask A Queer Chick: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life for Girls who Dig Girls, was published by Plume in 2016. Her personal essays and culture writing have appeared in Bitch Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Vice.com, Cosmopolitan.com, The Guardian, and many other publications in print and online. More recently, her fiction has appeared in Fireside Fiction, Baffling Magazine, and numerous other lit mags and anthologies. The Z Word (Quirk, 2024) is her first novel. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her partner and their two children.

“Sexy, scathing, delightful, and intimately devastating.”—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo

Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer zombie romp you didn’t know you needed.

Chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community of San Lazaro, Arizona, after a bad breakup—which is particularly difficult because her ex is hooking up with some of her friends. And when the people around them start turning into violent, terrifying mindless husks, well, that makes things harder. Especially since the infection seems to be spreading.

Now, Wendy and her friends and frenemies—drag queen Logan, silver fox Beau, sword lesbian Aurelia and her wife Sam, mysterious pizza delivery stoner Sunshine, and, oh yeah, Wendy’s ex-girlfriend Leah—have to team up to stay alive, save Pride, and track the zombie outbreak to its shocking source. Hopefully without killing each other first.

The Z Word is a propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.

Purchase The Z Word from local bookseller, The Bookies, here. 

This event has been made possible thanks to Strong Library, Strong Denver supported by DPL Fund.