Published in 2020, Gray Dawn: A Tale of Abolition and Union by Nyri A. Bakkalian is the first [*] novel by an Armenian-American who identifies as Lesbian.
Nyri A. Bakkalian, Ph.D. is a queer Armenian-American by birth, a military historian by training, and is proud to have called the American and Japanese northeasts her home. Her writing, art, and photography have appeared in Gutsy Broads, Metropolis Japan, The Copperfield Review, Con course, The Raven Chronicles, Inklette, QueerPGH, and other venues. Her essay “Curtains in the Breeze” won first place in The Fountain Magazine’s 2017 essay contest. What’s her secret, you ask? Garlic and Turkish coffee. But really, mostly Turkish coffee. Come say hello to her on Twitter, Facebook, and Patreon at @riversidewings
“Back then, I don’t know which would’ve been more illegal: that I was a woman armed, that I was a woman wearing pants, or that I was a woman acting against the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.”
Grey Dawn by Nyri A. Bakkalian
Grey Dawn’s heroines move through time, literally. We won’t spoil the details of the time travel here, but it is important to know that the heroines, Chloë Parker Stanton and Leigh Hunter were lovers in 1862 and that their bond carries forward into the twenty-first century.
Chloë and Leigh both enlisted in the army. Chloë enlisted in the Union Army in 1862. Serving in the Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, she went missing and everyone believed she had died.
Leigh, a trans woman, enlisted in the U.S. army in 2000, at the age of 17. She earned three purple hearts over a seventeen-year career. After her service, she was recruited by a new government agency specializing in temporal refugees, that is to say they work with people who move through time. At her new job, Leigh receives a special assignment: the case of a civil war soldier whose name is Chloë Parker Stanton.
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ISBN: 978-1-947-012059. Published by Balance of Seven.
