Metro Detroit native's queer novel hits shelves
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Erica Peplin with "Work Nights." Photo: Caroline Hatano
A Grosse Pointe native's debut novel chronicles the complications of a queer love triangle.
Why it matters: Erica Peplin's "Work Nights," published Tuesday, is among a surge in recent years of LGBTQ+ literature. Publishers increasingly see novels centering on queer characters as something larger audiences want.
State of play: Peplin's book delves into the distinct pains of corporate work and of having a big old crush, along with themes of chosen family.
- Now based in Brooklyn, she partially took inspiration for her novel from her time in the New York Times ad department.
What they're saying: Peplin, 35, cites the Detroit Institute of Arts, where her mother worked, as an inspiration for her young self. It was "like church," she adds, recalling how she would stare up at the Diego Rivera murals.
- "I didn't have enough queer representation or queer knowledge [growing up]. It felt like I had to move away to find it," she says. "But I hope one day people can grow up in Grosse Pointe and be queer and not feel like they have to go anywhere."
Zoom out: LGBTQ+ fiction sales hit 4.4 million units in the 12-month period ending October 2023, per Circana BookScan data reported by NBC News. That's up 200% from the same period ending in October 2019 — compared with a 27% jump for all fiction in the same time frame.
- These stories are moving increasingly into the mainstream, a Circana industry analyst told NBC.
Go deeper: Another recent novel, "Boys Come First," written by Detroit native Aaron Foley and published in 2022, centers on the lives of three Black, gay millennial men in Detroit.