LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One woman is giving back to the community by digitally helping document queer experiences and perspectives in rural communities.

Belle Townsend is from Western Kentucky and has been writing for as long as she can remember, she said. 

“It was always a way for me to get in touch with my own identity, as well as find out more about my identity through other people's writing," she said. "Both reading and writing are very pivotal to me and who I am.” 

After Townsend released her own books of poetry, she started using social media to share her writings and her own coming-out story.

“I didn't expect someone from, like, Montana to comment on my poem that they're relating to it," Townsend said. 

As Townsend searched for different rural literary presses, she noticed there was a niche for queer rural stories, and she created Backwoods Literary Press to reshape the narrative of queer people in the South.

“Not having a rural literary press where they are publishing rural stories, I just saw a gap and thought, 'OK, I have a passion to fill this, and I've got some skills,'" Townsend said. 

Bayley Amburgey is from Eastern Kentucky and is one of more than 30 writers for the Backwoods Literary Press.

Amburgey said she's excited to have the opportunity to read other people’s points of view to get a look into her own experiences.

"Being Black and queer from Appalachia, a lot of people don't necessarily know we're there or have heard our stories," Amburgey said. "Everyone's experience with being queer, being LGBT is different, and it's relative to who they are and their other identities and different things like that. Folks are not a monolith; everyone has different things that make them who they are and make up what makes them."

Both Amburgey and Townsend said queer people have pride every day of the year, and it's important to highlight their stories all the time

“I want to not shy away from publishing what people actually have to say," Townsend said. "I think that if people want to say it, then people want to read it, so I'm motivated to create space for anyone that has a story to be documented, specifically through a rural lens.” 

Backwoods Literary Press will be released in early fall. Interested writers can email Townsend.