Photo: Angelo van de Wiel - aewiel.com

Redfern Jon Barrett is author to the novels Proud Pink Sky (Bywater, 2023), an alternate history set in the world’s first gay state, and The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights, a touching comedy of polyamory and nonbinary life which was also a finalist for the Bisexual Book Awards.

Their short stories have appeared in The Sun Magazine, Passages North, Booth, Flash Fiction Online, ParSec, The Future Fire, Andromeda Spaceways, Orca, and Nature Futures. Their nonfiction has featured in Guernica, Strange Horizons, PinkNews, and Vector, as well as at the National Museum of Denmark.

Born in Sheffield, Redfern moved to Wales and gained a PhD in Literature from Swansea University (Prifysgol Abertawe). They are nonbinary queer and have campaigned for LGBTQ+ rights since they were a teenager, receiving national attention when they called for rights for polyamorous families. They have served as a judge for the 2017 Bi Book Awards, a memoir reader for the for PEN America/Fusion Award, and a first reader for Guernica. Redfern currently lives in Berlin.


PRAISE FOR REDFERN JON BARRETT’S WORK


PROUD PINK SKY

‘As astute and frightening as Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, yet reads with the pace and energy of a modern action thriller.’
My Gay Toronto

‘Proud Pink Sky is an impressively readable piece of work that captivates you early on and drags you effortlessly into a utopia that isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. You’ll enjoy the character, the story, and the setting. What more could you ask for?’
Out in Print

Every move in Barrett’s social and political worldbuilding is engineered to draw pointed illustrations of homonormativity, complicity with state power, and the roots of these flaws in internalised homophobia.’
Strange Horizons

‘… an important, well-written, complex tale that will grip you, shake you, and give you a different view of what makes a utopia, and at what costs.’
Queer Sci Fi

‘The ferocity of Barrett’s imagination gives the middle finger to regressive authors like JK Rowling with colourful characters and impressive world-building.’
Siegessäule

‘Barrett’s deeply human story of lives, loves, tragedy and hope touches us all in its universality … It asks us what it is to be a real ally, it asks us to look beyond our comfortable privilege, it urges us to hold out our hands to our LGBTQ+ siblings and feel the commonality, and fight for equality for all. Proud Pink Sky reminds us that hope will never be silent.’
GScene

Like most utopian/dystopian novels, the main point of this novel is showing us a hypothetical universe – what would the world be like if LGBTQ people had defeated, or at least helped to defeat, the Nazis? What would a city-state run by and for LGBTQ people be like? … Utopian novels tend to be weak when it comes to having an actual plot, but Barrett dodges that problem’
Interzone

‘remarkable alternate history of 1990s Berlin from Barrett’
Publisher’s Weekly

THE GIDDY DEATH OF THE GAYS & THE STRANGE DEMISE OF STRAIGHTS

‘It is truly impossible to describe this book in a way that does it justice; just download it immediately.’
Paste

‘Barrett is a talented writer with a good feel for [their] rough-edged Welsh social setting and a sharp but sympathetic eye … a smart, entertaining read.’
Kirkus Reviews

‘an oddball and one-of-a-kind romantic comedy’
– Lambda Literary

‘If you want a book to be entertained, I recommend it. If you want a book to juggle interesting ideas, I recommend it ... pick it up, read it, enjoy it, love it.’
– Nicholas Kameniar-Sandery, for JOY 94.9

‘… The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights is an engaging and thought-provoking read. It’s a story about breaking free of restrictions — relationship conventions, geographical place, traditional gender identity.’
– Out in Print

‘Redfern Jon Barrett’s second novel is a fantastic ride through the lives of these Swansea residents…. The Giddy Death of the Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights is recommended to any library that collects popular fiction.’
– American Library Association

‘It takes real skill to make this reader identify with a straight woman, a straight man, a drag queen, a lesbian, and their fluctuating identities, all sometimes within a single chapter. Most importantly, it made me examine my own identities and question the strictures that I have built around them.’
– MyGayToronto.com

‘There is a basic story that is so simple, yet so magnificent in impact… Do check it out!’
– GA Bixler Reviews

The Giddy Death of the Gays and Strange Demise of Straights should be mandatory reading.’
– Illiteraty

‘If you are at all open to have your pre-existing ideas and concepts questioned I highly recommend it – if nothing else, you might just fall in love with Barrett’s way with words.’
– Rebekka Steg, writer

‘… one of the wittiest and most thought-provoking novels I’ve ever read.’
– Rising Shadow

FORGET YOURSELF

‘It’s speculative science-fiction unlike any I’ve read before … it also left me thinking in a way that very few dystopian novels ever have.’
The Lesbrary