WPS 2026 Day 13: Archer Grid

 

Wonderland Pride Spotlight Day 13: Archer Grid

Welcome to day 13 of the 2026 Wonderland Pride Spotlight! This is my way to help champion LGBTQ+ books and authors this Pride month! Today I am interviewing Archer Grid. Be sure to check out my Instagram for even more excitement with this event!

Archer Grid's LGBTQ+ Release

• Girl With No Name

The Interview

1. Are you LGBTQ+? If so, how?

"Lesbian"

2. What rep do your books have?

"Cuban-American, anxiety, autistic-coded"

3. If you were to write in a different genre, what would it be?

"Lit Fic always calls me, because I'm a little pretentious 😜 I love exploring complex topics and characters, and writing is first and foremost a way for me to process my own Big Feelings. The best books, or my favorites at least, are these crystalizations of an emotion that's almost impossible to describe. They swallow you whole. They make you feel your own feelings through a teenage girl witnessing 1950s class disparity or a middle-aged mother trying to fill the hole her husband left with objects or a housewife who helps her neighbor dismember her husband because she's the ultimate girl's girl, That's lit-fic land. It's rare to find outside literary fiction and classics. Now and then you get some upmarket stuff that nails it, but the genre that's killing(teehee) in this department rn is horror. The trans community is especially putting out body-horror bangers left and right. They Bloom At Night was the best book I read last year. Tenebrous Press is putting out a gender-horror anthology of trans authors."

4. What is your biggest writing inspiration?

"Outing myself as a basic bitch... William Shakespeare. The way he writes language to be spoken--delivered to you. Even when you don't know what tf they're saying you can almost hear how it would be said and the gravity of it. Shakespeare united monarchs and peasants by telling stories about deep, human experiences: the power of youth, the follies of courtship, the rippling effect of tragedy, and the corruption inherent in power. The main character of GWNN is inspired in-part by Cordelia from King Lear, and there's many nods to the play in the text."

5. Anything exciting for you on the horizon?

"Right now I'm writing a sequel about Keiko's life before and after the events of GWNN. I got into the RGG/Yakuza games to research for her, and the series totally took over my life lmao. I ended up writing a bunch of fanfiction instead of the book 😅 I can't complain though, because it made me a better writer and inspired this sequel. I made a lot of mistakes launching my debut, so I want to take what I learned and do a better job the next go around."

6. Who is a queer figure you look up to?

"James Baldwin. Go Tell It on the Mountain destroyed me. Another book that transports you into this poor kid's soul. Coming of age in the Jim Crow era, when community is critical to survival, but at that time community means church. And surrounded by a bunch of toxic male role models, he realizes he's gay. So, like, THE community that is critical to his survival as a black kid considers his existence a sin. And he just... has to come to terms with it. Like it's way deeper than that ofc, but just devastating. And Baldwin also devastating in every interview?? Somehow both passionate and unbothered?? 'I do not dream of labor' the baddest line of all time??"

Outro

I adore this excuse to conduct little author interviews! Happy Pride everyone! Stay tuned tomorrow for another amazing indie author and their LGBTQ+ releases!