Taiylor U.

 My name is Taiylor Utesch and I’m graduating this May 2023 from USD with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Composite Education minor. I grew up with my little sister and our parents in Moville, Iowa. This town was very small and grounded in more traditional beliefs. Growing up queer in a small town I always felt like there was no place for me, as conversation involving queerness was either met with negative rhetoric or altogether nonexistent. It is important to me to include the adversity that queer people face within my writing because it is important for queer readers to see representation of themselves within literature and relate to the words on the page. It is also important for people who aren’t queer to read queer literature so they can expose themselves to something they aren’t used to and relate to people who are different from them.