Under the Rainbow

Celia Laskey is the author of Under the Rainbow, a finalist for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her other work has appeared in Guernica, the Minnesota Review, Day One, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and currently lives in Los Angeles with her wife and their dog Whiskey. Her latest novel, So Happy For You, is out in July.

‘Intimate and psychologically keen…Laskey’s vision of inclusion is all-encompassing.’ Los Angeles Times‘Under the Rainbow will ring true for a wide audience, regardless of gender expression and sexuality, for its wry humor and universal truths.’ Lambda Literary‘A timely look into what it means to be queer in spaces that aggressively refuse you. Smart and compulsively readable, Laskey has woven together narratives that seek to embrace each other through the hurt…Laskey is a talented, sharp writer and her debut novel has its fingers on the pulse of the human condition.’ Kristen Arnett, author of The New York Times-bestseller Mostly Dead Things‘An an excellent, big-hearted, and very funny novel about our contemporary divisions and grievances. Under the Rainbow is wonderfully current, yet it refuses to sacrifice love or empathy to politics, it refuses despair and destruction.’ Shannon Pufahl, author of On Swift Horses‘Under the Rainbow marks the arrival of a wildly talented, observant, political, feminist writer to the literary ranks. Celia Laskey is a true original, and she’s here to stay.’ Emily Rapp Black, The New York Times-bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World‘Laskey inhabits each of these characters with skill and grace in a tour de force of first-person narration…Energetic and compelling, a promising first book from a writer to watch.’ Kirkus Reviews