Order now from Saddle Road Press
“I’ve never read a book quite like Origin Story. Set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic and theological problems like the Binding of Isaac, the novel pulls the reader into a deep, uncertain landscape. Origin Story is wonderfully complex and explosive, and while it resists a fairytale ending, it offers something better than closure. It offers hope and a glimpse of how things ought to be.” —Remi Recchia, Gasher Press editor, on Goodreads
“I absolutely loved Two Natures and I’ve been waiting for the conclusion of Julian and Peter’s story for a very long 7 years, but it was definitely worth the wait... I love both of these men and just want them to be happy… This was an enjoyable and recommendable read.” — Bayou Book Junkie
“Jendi Reiter’s Origin Story is a carefully created and curated mix of genres and perspectives: diaries, poetry, comics, interviews, emails. All that fragmentation conceals, and reveals, the multiple selves, and one self, of trauma. The everyday superhero who emerges from behind those broken Clark Kent glasses is one who sometimes rescues others, but who is bravest when he is able to look back at the past, and to love anyway.” —Noah Berlatsky, author of Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peters Comics (Rutgers UP)
“Jendi Reiter has a natural knack for character presentation that enhances the crafting of this poignant and thought-provoking journey through the lives of a trio of complex and compelling characters. The balance of sensitive themes of trauma, identity, and healing is well-paced and juxtaposed beautifully against the vibrant backdrop of the era, offering a work that feels instantly timeless, literary, and important.” —K.C. Finn, Readers’ Favorite 5-star review
On sale now from Little Red Tree Publishing
“A mix of somber moments and charming wit, Reiter’s collection makes space for humor in the maelstrom of navigating gendered experiences. Their poems synthesize recent historical moments and deeply personal anecdotes to create commentary that dares you to question binaries and social construction itself… Perhaps the most enjoyable part of these poems is the fantastical employment of choice diction and language. Each word is purposely placed- gems scattered where they’re least expected.” —American Library Association, Rainbow Round Table Reviews
From Sunshot Press/New Millennium Writings
“Jendi Reiter’s expert stories scald with their fervor, vaporize with their stone-cold candor and ultimately distill the truth. Here are characters who reach out in need, then slap our hands back; who wound, cuss, love and resurrect the way we wish we could. Here is pitch-perfect prose that’s both literary and forthright—that condenses unwieldy, unfathomable issues to workable, human proportions. Here is a writer in whom we can invest our time, our trust, our hope.” —Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, author of the story collections Salve (Nomadic Press) and Collateral Damage: A Triptych (Ropewalk Press), founding editor of COG: A Multimedia Publication
Set in New York City in the early 1990s, Two Natures is the coming-of-age story of Julian Selkirk, a fashion photographer who struggles to reconcile his Southern Baptist upbringing with his love for other men. “[Julian] brings an outsider’s wry and engaging sense of humor to his quest to make it in the New York City fashion world. His romp through gay men’s urban culture also holds suffering, grief, pathos, and an ongoing struggle with the God of his childhood, as he comes of age during the height of the AIDS crisis. Though he gets distracted along the way—with politicians, preachers, drag queens, activists, Ironman gym buddies and sex, lots of sex—he never stops looking for real love to redeem him.. An entertaining novel and a pleasure to read.” —Toby Johnson, author of Gay Spirituality and the novels Secret Matter and The Fourth Quill
From Little Red Tree Publishing
Now available in Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle versions
Jendi Reiter’s second full-length poetry book includes fine art photography by Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship winner Toni Pepe. These poems speak of gendered embodiment and its discontents, motherhood after trauma, and finding a spiritual narrative to heal from oppressions both familial and political. Works in this collection won prizes from Alligator Juniper, Atlanta Review, Descant, New Millennium Writings, Solstice Lit Mag, Wag’s Revue, and others. “In her remarkable collection of poems, Bullies In Love, Jendi Reiter has created a complex odditorium of characters with unique and often disturbing voices: poems peopled with bullies, the disenfranchised, monsters, prostitutes, criminals, the abused and forgotten, all searching for meaning, for faith and love in a postmodern, often cynical world.” –Pamela Uschuk, American Book Award winner
Winner of the 2010 Červená Barva Press Poetry Chapbook Contest. “Barbie at 50 is a lush collection of poems with lines embroidered with the craft of a studied life. It’s Barbie outdoing herself, leaving off the accursed weight of a 1950’s perfectionism to discover the truth of genuine joy. These are poems of a life more real than any doll’s, as they point up the grace of having confronted the problematic entanglements that attempt to derail a woman making her way through the puzzles of maturing…” –Afaa Michael Weaver, Kingsley Tufts Award winner
Published by Amsterdam Press; available from the author
Winner of the 2009 Flip Kelly Poetry Chapbook Prize. “The first thing that strikes the reader about Jendi Reiter’s Swallow is, naturally, the unusual cover illustration, which appears at once to be a multi-eyed cherub (the proper Old Testament kind), a brace of clothespins, a flock of nightmare birds, sewing needles, bent nails, and a heart-shaped crown of thorns. While one may have a difficult time explaining all of this, one need only know that this image by Richard C. Jackson is the best visual realization of the horror, madness, blood, and beauty that infuse Reiter’s work: Like something out of a fever dream, it just makes perfect sense.” –JoSelle Vanderhooft, The Pedestal Magazine
Jendi Reiter is an award-winning author whose books include the story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press, 2018), the novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016) and the poetry collection Bullies in Love (Little Red Tree Publishing, 2015). Honors include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Poetry and short fiction prizes from the Iowa Review, Literal Latté, Bayou Magazine, and others. They are the editor of Winning Writers, an online resource site for creative writers. Follow them on Twitter @JendiReiter.
