For the Rest of Us: 13 Festive Holiday Stories to Celebrate All Seasons

Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!

From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.

With stories by:

Dahlia Adler, Sydney Taylor Honor winner of Going Bicoastal

Candace Buford, author of Good as Gold

A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, authors of the Once & Future series

Preeti Chhibber, author of Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot

Natasha Díaz, award-winning author of Color Me In

Kelly Loy Gilbert, Stonewall Book Award winning author of Picture Us in the Light

Kosoko Jackson, USA Today bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due

Aditi Khorana, award-winning author of Mirror in the Sky

Katherine Locke, award-winning author of This Rebel Heart

Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall Book Award–winning author of Only This Beautiful Moment

Laura Pohl, New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls

Sonora Reyes, Pura Belpré Honor winner of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School

Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates

Dahlia Adler (editor) is an editor by day, a freelance writer by night, and an author and anthologist at every spare moment in between. She’s the founder of LGBTQReads.com; her novels include the Kids’ Indie Next picks Cool for the Summer, Home Field Advantage, and Going Bicoastal, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book; and she is the editor of the anthologies His Hideous Heart, That Way Madness Lies, At Midnight, and, with Jennifer Iacopelli, Out of Our League. Dahlia lives in New York with her family and a wall of overflowing bookcases.

Sonora Reyes is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, The Broposal, and The Golden Boy's Guide to Bipolar. They also have contributed short stories to the anthologies Transmogrify! and For the Rest of Us. Sonora writes fiction celebrating queer and Mexican stories in a variety of genres and age categories. He serves as the vice-president of My Galvanized Friend, a nonprofit focused on providing access to and amplifying LGBTQ+ writing, art, and creators. Sonora also co-hosts the podcast Bidi Bidi Book Pod, which celebrates queer and trans BIPOC authors and stories.

Preeti Chhibber is an acclaimed author living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has written for SYFY, Book Riot, Polygon, and Elle, among others. Across prose, comics, and podcasts, she’s written for characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Riddler, and so many more. Her debut YA rom-com, Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot, came out in 2024. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of YA, jumping into a brand-new fandom, or food-traveling her way through different countries. She’s also the cohost of the Desi Geek Girls and Women of Marvel podcasts, where she geeks out on the regular. You can learn more about Preeti and her work at preetichhibber.com.

Karuna Riazi is the author of the acclaimed A Bit of Earth and Sabrena Swept Away as well as the duology The Gauntlet and The Battle. She holds a BA in English literature from Hofstra University and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She is an online diversity advocate and an educator, and her work has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Shondaland, and Teen Vogue, among others. A born-and-raised New Yorker, Karuna Riazi lives on Long Island.

Laura Pohl is the New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls. Her debut novel, The Last 8, won the International Latino Book Award. She likes writing messages in caps lock, never using autocorrect, and obsessing about Star Wars. When not taking pictures of her dog, she can be found curled up with a fantasy or science-fiction book or replaying Dragon Age. She has played cupid more times than she’d like, and prefers to see love in the movies. A Brazilian at heart and soul, she makes her home in São Paulo.