Celebrate LGBTQ+ authors and literature at the 2025 ReadOUT event, an annual book festival in Gulfport, Florida, scheduled to take place Feb. 14-16. With a theme of “Queering the Narrative,” the festival will feature panel discussions, readings, and keynote addresses, as well as author meet-and-greets, book signings, and entertainment. ReadOUT, presented by OUT Arts & Culture, will bring together thousands of literary enthusiasts both virtually and in person to celebrate, educate, and inspire around LGBTQ+ literature.
T$10 tickets to this year’s programming can be purchased online at givebutter.com/readout2025.
Now in its eighth year, the majority of the weekend’s events will be staged at the Catherine A. Hickman Theater, 5501 27th Ave. S., Gulfport.
There’s also a virtual component to the event, which allows bibliophiles from around the world to attend ReadOUT.
The festival’s full schedule is available online at https://outartsandculture.org.
In the current climate, it’s more important than ever to celebrate queer stories and writers, Paul Raker, board president, said.
“OUT Arts & Culture and our planning committee is proud to present the most diverse and topical ReadOUT our organization has ever planned. We’re expanding our audience by centering trans, non-binary and BIPOC authors this year in numbers we have not been able to in the past,” Raker said.
He added, “It speaks to the growth of our organization, the growth of our audience and the panels are sure to be applicable to present day LGBTQ+ literature. We could not be more excited to see it come to life in a time where diversity and inclusion are under attack, we are thrilled to be moving the work forward.”
Author Gale Massey, who will be presenting at the festival, said, “ReadOUT is practicing a radical form of hope and resistance. This LGBTQI+ conference which brings readers and writers into the community can only strengthen our fight to retain our rights.”
There’s also more to the festival than panels and readings.
Evening entertainment includes cocktail hours, a comedy show starring Poppy Champlin, and “Be My Spicy Valentine,” a sizzling night of passion and laughter as Sapphic authors discuss writing love scenes and have their works read aloud.
Community panels will also tackle hot-button topics such as LGBTQ+ issues in the news and book banning in Florida.
Sign up for the ShoutOUT newsletter online here to receive up-to-date information about ReadOUT 2025’s programming.
This year’s keynote speaker is Ellen Kushner, who weaves together multiple careers as a fantasy writer, radio host, teacher, performer and public speaker.
She’s best known for her first novel “Swordspoint,” considered a cult classic and hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (of “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy, and other titles that are part of her “Riverside” series. (Read more about Kushner below.) Other participating authors include J.J. Arias, Georgia Beers, Virginia Black, Melissa Brayden, Nan Campbell, Sheree Greer, Elle Ire, Sandra Lambert, Gale Massey and Angela Yarber. Partial funding for this year’s ReadOUT program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Sponsorship opportunities are available for this year’s events. Businesses and organizations can reach out to Tiffany Razzano, event coordinator, at Tiffany.Razzano@gmail.com for information about sponsoring ReadOUT.
Book lovers can make individual donations to ReadOUT online here.
About Ellen Kushner, Keynote Speaker
A graduate of Barnard College, Ellen Kushner attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel “Swordspoint,” which became a cult classic and is hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy.
Swordspoint was followed by “Thomas the Rhymer” (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. In 2015, “Thomas the Rhymer” was published in the United Kingdom as part of the Gollancz “Fantasy Masterworks” line. In addition, her short fiction appears regularly in numerous anthologies.
She’s also enjoyed a career as a radio host, creating “Sound & Spirit,” PRI’s award-winning national public radio series. With Kushner as host and writer, the program aired nationally until 2010; many of the original shows can now be heard archived online.
Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology “ “Welcome to Bordertown” (co-edited with Holly Black) and “The Witches of Lublin,a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz and Yale Strom (which won Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards in 2012). A dauntless traveler, Kushner has been a guest of honor at conventions all over the world. She regularly teaches writing at the prestigious Clarion Workshop and the Hollins University Graduate Program in Children’s Literature.
Kushner is a co-founder and past president of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization supporting work that falls between genre categories.
She lives in New York City with author and educator Delia Sherman, a lot of books, airplane and theater ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever.
About OUT Arts & Culture OUT Arts & Culture, formerly the LGBTQ Resource Center of the Gulfport Library, is Pinellas County’s only LGBTQ+-focused arts and humanities nonprofit. The organization offers programs that educate, celebrate, and inspire the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. In addition to ReadOUT, OUT Arts & Culture also hosts SpeakOUT and ArtOUT events, and offers continuing education scholarships for Pinellas County students through its BranchOUT initiative.