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Desire Makes Me Brave is an adventurous and vulnerable memoir about self-discovery and the erotic-awakening of a bonafide bisexual. Part sex memoir, part romcom, part travelog, Desire Makes Me Brave traces the wild and winding escapades of April Hirschman—from her all-but-traditional upbringing in a northern California hippie commune into world-expanding explorations through Asia, Mexico, Europe, and the erotic enclaves of San Francisco. Throw out the blueprint of what life and love “should be” —in this true story, April tap dances along the Kinsey scale of sexuality, finding love, sex and romance with a butch lesbian, an artsy andro girl, straight cis men, and strangers or friends at sex parties.

Throughout the memoir, April wrestles with competing desires for a stable, grounded love and for untethered excitement and novelty. She longs for a relationship that lasts, while also desiring all that is subversive, sexy, and new. Lusty, independent, courageous, and sensitive, April becomes a pagan priestess who takes the “slut pledge” and chases rainbow oracles, hoping they will answer the big questions of her love life. Follow April’s quest to find security, passion, and sexual fulfillment—and reflect upon your own.

“Most of us are never invited to tag along on world travels with our shiny, fascinating bisexual friends. We’re lucky if we get invited to the slide show later! Well, book your tickets, because you are about to join perhaps the most peripatetic and adventurous member of the San Francisco Bay Area’s famed Hirschman Family Bisexual Dynasty, who has had pretty much all the adventures. This is a delightful memoir from a delightful and open-hearted explorer. Cherish the sexy frequent flyer miles you’re about to earn!”

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Daniel Coshnear lives in Guerneville, works at a group home for the un-housed and mentally ill, and teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension, and in other north bay facilities. He is author of Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001) winner of the Willa Cather Fiction Award and Occupy & Other Love Stories (Kelly's Cove Press 2012) and winner of the Novella Prize for Homesick, Redux (Flock 2015) His newest story collection, Separation Anxiety was released 10/21 by Unsolicited Press.

Judith Day is a psychotherapist in Sonoma County. In private practice since receiving her master’s degree in counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1985, she has also taught mindfulness meditation for 30 years. Her book Glowing in the Dark, Stories of Wounded Healers (Wordrunner Press, 2023) is a set of three stories inspired by her work as a therapist. A second book, Going Where They Belong, Stories (Wordrunner Press, 2024) is a collection of nine short stories, many of which were previously published in journals. She lives near the ocean with her husband of 40 years.

Katie M. Flynn is a writer, editor, and educator based in San Francisco. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tin House, and Tor.com, among other publications. She's been awarded Colorado Review's Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction and the Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her first novel, The Companions, came out in March 2020 and opens during a prolonged pandemic where the living can't go out, but the dead can come in as companions. Her interlinked collection of short stories, Island Rule, is out now from Gallery Books.

Elizabeth Stix's linked short story collection, THINGS I WANT BACK FROM YOU, is out now from Black Lawrence Press. The Masters Review calls it "compulsively readable, deeply observational... precise, surprising, and off-handedly hilarious." The author Jonathan Lethem writes, "Stix's voice is dazzling – rueful, lyrical, incisive, and funny as hell." Her stories have appeared in McSweeney's, Tin House, Boulevard, The Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, and have been performed live at Selected Shorts in New York and the New Short Fiction Series in LA. Her story “Alice” was optioned by Sneaky Little Sister Films. In the early 2000s, she founded the vanguard lit zine The Big Ugly Review. When she's not writing, she can be found staying up way too late doing the NYT Spelling Bee.

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