AJ Romriell launches "Wolf Act: A Memoir," with Joseph Osmundson

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As a child, AJ Romriell strove to obey his Mormon leaders’ every rule. If he was faithful enough, he was taught, God would remove temptations. But at nineteen, returning home early from his mission after admitting his attraction to men, he was forced to make a decision: either stay the course or work to accept himself fully and risk losing family, community, and the Church he’d devoted his life to. His decision to pursue radical acceptance would turn out to be just one step toward reclaiming his life.

Through linked personal essays crafted in lyric, fabulist, and fragmented forms, Wolf Act charts a young man’s transformation. Weaving together wolfish fairy tales and mythology, Mormon theology and practice, piercings and tattoos, cave explorations, ghost stories, and more, Romriell explores a childhood of hiding, a familial reckoning, a religious exodus, and an effort to understand one’s life as worth saving—even when the meaning of the word “saving” must be reimagined.

Advance Praise for Wolf Act

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“Wolf Act thrives in its interactive and ingenious structuring. . . . A powerful memoir that serves as a reminder of the hidden wounds that individuals must reconcile themselves to in order to survive.” —Foreword Reviews (starred review)

“This captivated me in ways I wasn’t prepared for.” —Debutiful

“Wolf Act not only ends in joy and love, it bursts with it throughout. There is something operatic about how Romriell leans into every emotion, be it exquisitely painful or pleasurable, without the defenses of ironic self-mockery or stoic masculinity. Wolf Act is a romantic book in the aesthetic sense of finding ultimate reality within the heart and in the grandeur of the wilderness.” —The Rumpus

“A book both tender and with teeth—a dark, lyric fairy tale of redemption and rebirth. In achingly honest and playful prose, Romriell invites us to embrace our animal selves, in their hungriest, most complex forms; to find beauty and belonging in both our wildest and softest parts. Wolf Act is a lament, a prayer, a brave and hopeful hymn—a reminder that in order to be seen we must first see ourselves; that in order to be heard we must find our own voice, to bare our throats to the night and howl.” —Melissa Faliveno, author of Tomboyland

“Wolf Act moves in the way a body does, an evocative intertwining of memories through the complexities of deep familial love, the alienating potential of religious orthodoxy, the thrilling and shameful experiences of adolescence, and the search for love (including self-love) in a homophobic culture that narrowly defines lovability.” —Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic

“A searing, poetic account of growing up gay and Mormon. As a memoirist, Romriell chooses his words carefully for accuracy and effect. The honesty is bracing, the result cathartic. The redemptive power of Wolf Act lingers long after the final page.” —Gary James Bergera, coauthor of Brigham Young University: A House of Faith

AJ Romriell is a writer, photographer, and educator who has published work in Black Warrior Review, Brevity, Great River Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Sandy, Utah, he currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his partner and their feline companion, Sokka the Wildercat.

Joseph Osmundson is a scientist and writer from Arlington, Washington. He now lives in New York City, does science at New York University, and writes about class, gender, sexuality, race, identity, and science. His activism has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine (as part of the TIME Next 100), and he’s been featured on NPR, PBS, and MSNBC talking about viruses and queer health. He is the author of Capsid: A Love Song, INSIDE/OUT , and VIROLOGY , which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

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