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In a series of linked personal essays, this radical debut navigates a boy's childhood growing up queer and neurodivergent in the Mormon religion.
available now!
Winner of Utah's 2021 Original Writing Competition
Foreword Reviews Top Ten Books of 2025
Debutiful Most Anticipated Books of 2025
"Wolf Act moves in the way a body does, an evocative intertwining of memories through the complexities of 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 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
“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 queer, neurodivergent, HIV+ writer from Salt Lake City, Utah. His essays, stories, and poems have appeared in Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Black Warrior Review, Brevity, and elsewhere. He holds an MS in Literature and Writing from Utah State University, and he earned his MFA from The Ohio State University where he was a 2024–25 Presidential Fellow. He now lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he continues to write about queerness, spirituality, fairy tales, video games, HIV, and more.
