Mimi Zhu is a queer Chinese–Australian author, writer, and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Their work has been featured in The New York Times , PAPER , i-D, The Guardian, Printed Matter, VICE, and more. [1]
Zhu was born in Australia to Chinese immigrant parents, [2] and grew up in Brisbane and Singapore. [3] In 2018, they moved to the United States and works as a writer, artist, and community organizer. [4]
Although Zhu had been a lifelong writer, they began crafting with words intentionally as a way to heal from a traumatic abusive relationship in their early twenties. Zhu describes their start to writing "one night, alone in their room, free writing in a journal." Zhu described the feeling as "being in [their] body after such a long time" and from that point onwards, they "wrote to heal." [5]
They explore the intersections of love and fear in their weekly newsletter "Write, to Heal," as well as to a broader audience on their Instagram page.
Be Not Afraid of Love is Zhu's debut non-fiction book, published in August 2022 by Penguin Random House. The memoir-in-essays explores the intersections of love and fear in self-esteem, friendship, family dynamics, and romantic relationships, and extends out to its effects on society and the greater political realm. [6]
Throughout the book, Zhu deploys "rigorous citation," a framework they attribute to their friend Neema Githere. Zhu references Granger E. Westberg’s grief model to resources for mutual aid throughout the text, and draw as much from psychology, Buddhist philosophies, and the teachings of activists like bell hooks and Audre Lorde as they do from their own experiences. [2]
Zhu jokes that the book's title has become a refrain of sorts among their friends. The title became like a prompt—and according to Zhu, it's because they "just know how afraid people, including myself, are of love." [7]
Magic Tree House is an American series of children's books written by the American author Mary Pope Osborne. The original American series was illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca until 2016, after which AG Ford took over. Other illustrators have been used for foreign-language editions.
Azadeh Moaveni is an Iranian-American writer, journalist, and academic. She directs the Gender and Conflict Program at the International Crisis Group, and lectures on journalism at New York University's London campus. She is the author of four books, including the bestselling Lipstick Jihad and Guest House for Young Widows, which was shortlisted for numerous prizes. She contributes to The New York Times, The Guardian, and The London Review of Books.
Lawrence H. Levy is an American screenwriter, author, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his work on television series Savannah, Fantasy Island, Family Ties, Trapper John, M.D., Saved by the Bell, Who's the Boss?, 7th Heaven, Roseanne, and Seinfeld. Levy is also the author of four mystery novels, published by Penguin Random House.
Michelle Huneven is an American novelist and journalist. Huneven was born and raised in Altadena, California, where she returned to live in 2001. She received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and attended the Methodist Claremont School of Theology to become a UU minister, but she quit after two years to write novels.
Irene Vilar is a Puerto Rican American editor, literary agent, environmental advocate, and author of several books dealing with national and generational trauma and women's reproductive rights.
Beth Anne Raymer is an American writer and journalist. Her work in both fiction and non-fiction explores subcultures and issues relevant to the lives of lower and middle-class families. Raymer received an MFA from Columbia University. As a Fulbright fellow, she studied offshore gambling operations in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Raymer is the author of a number of books including Lay the Favorite, a memoir of her experience in the sports-betting industry. The memoir was adapted into a film in 2012. Her journalism has been published in The Atlantic, Lapham’s Quarterly, Sports Illustrated, and The New York Times Magazine.
David M. Granger is an American journalist. He was editor-in-chief of Esquire Magazine from June 1997 until March 2016. Granger is a literary agent and media consultant working with Aevitas Creative Management.
Bethany Barton is an author and illustrator of children's books.
Tyler Knott Gregson is a poet, best-selling author, essayist, and professional photographer based in Helena, Montana. Gregson has accrued fame as a poet on social media platforms such as Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter since 2009. He writes and posts a bi-weekly newsletter, Signal Fire, filled with essays, poetry, and photography, and continues to publish poetry anthologies.
Yrsa Daley-Ward is an English writer, model and actor. She is known for her debut book, Bone, as well as for her spoken-word poetry, and for being an "Instagram poet". Her memoir, The Terrible, was published in 2018, and in 2019 it won the PEN/Ackerley Prize. She co-wrote Black Is King, Beyoncé's musical film and visual album, which also serves as a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift.
Samantha McKiver Irby is an American comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer. She is the creator and author of the blog bitches gotta eat, where she writes humorous observations about her own life and modern society more broadly. Her books We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Wow, No Thank You. were both New York Times best-sellers. She is a recipient of the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for bisexual nonfiction.
Mari Andrew is an American writer and illustrator. Her illustration career started as a hobby in 2015 when she pursued it as a form of self-expression. Andrew is a New York Times best-selling author of two books.
Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater, Pet, and their New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji. Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader.
Jessica Love is an American theater actress, author, and illustrator. She is best known for her debut children's picture book Julián is a Mermaid, which has won the Stonewall Book Award and Klaus Flugge Prize. All of her books are LBTQ+ friendly.
Liana Finck is an American cartoonist and author. She is the author of Passing for Human and is a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
Natasha Bowen is a Nigerian-Welsh writer and teacher. She writes fantasy books for young adults. She is best known for her New York Times Bestselling novel Skin of the Sea.
Emily Henry is an American author who is best known for her New York Times bestselling romance novels Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, and Happy Place.
Savannah Brown is an American-British poet and author.
R. Eric Thomas is an author of Here For It, a playwright, and television writer. He is best known as the author of Here For It, a National Bestseller.

Getting Lost is a 2001 memoir by Annie Ernaux published by Seven Stories Press and distributed by Penguin Random House. Originally released in 2001 in its original French as Se perdre, it was re-released in 2022 translated into English. The book details an 18-month love affair between Ernaux and an unnamed Soviet diplomat that began in 1988. The narrative, consisting of diary entries by Ernaux, explores concepts including love, lust and the fear of abandonment. This was Ernaux's second work related to the relationship with the diplomat; with the other work being the semi-autobiographical novel Simple Passion.