One in Six

A few days before this post went live, Queer Crime Writers released “One in Six is Not Equity: The State of Queer Representation in Mystery Anthologies,” the results of a survey of twenty-seven crime fiction anthologies published in 2024, and the conclusion is similar to their survey of anthologies published in 2023:

LGBTQ+ writers are underrepresented.

I don’t think that conclusion can be disputed.

“Only six of [the twenty-seven surveyed] anthologies contained a story by a queer author.” That means “the percentage of anthologies with at least one queer story was 22%.” Out of 304 stories, only eight (2.2%) were written by queer writers.

I do wonder, though, what the results would be if the survey included anthologies from a wider range of publishers. QCW tallied data from twenty-seven anthologies released by publishers included on the Mystery Writers of America’s Approved Publishers List.

Anyone who writes short crime fiction knows there are (or were in 2024) many anthology publishers not on the MWA’s Approved Publishers List.

I lack access to every mystery anthology published in 2024, so I examined a different subset of anthologies: those published in 2024 that I edited or co-edited.

QCW “defined an anthology as any short story work featuring more than two authors participating in the book.” By QCW’s definition, I edited or co-edited nine anthologies published in 2024, some released by publishers that might be on MWA’s Approved Publishers List and some that definitely are not.

Of those nine, four (or 44.44%) include stories by queer writers.

The anthologies contained 123 stories, six of which were written by queer writers, representing 4.88% of all the stories.

BREAKDOWN BY TYPES OF ANTHOLOGIES

Lumping all the anthologies together does not lead to a clear understanding of how the anthologies acquired stories and how that may have impacted the totals, and this is important.

Of the nine anthologies I edited or co-edited, I was not included in the selection process for two of them (an open call and a limited open call); the sponsoring organizations made the selections. There are no stories by queer writers in these anthologies.

Three were open call or limited open call and I, alone or with a co-editor, selected the stories. Two (66%) contained stories by queer writers. Two of forty stories (5% of the total) were by queer writers.

Four were invitation-only and I, alone or with a co-editor, selected the stories. Two (50%) contained stories by queer writers. Four of thirty stories (13.33% of the total) were by queer writers.

Five queer writers are represented in these totals. One contributed two stories. The other four each contributed a single story.

WHAT RAW DATA DOESN’T REVEAL

What raw data doesn’t reveal is that personal relationships and past experience impact writers’ opportunities. Every queer writer published in these anthologies—whether their story was written to invitation or selected from the slush pile—is someone I knew and worked with long before these nine anthologies were ever conceived, and they are all writers I hope to work with again in the future.

Why? For the same reasons I like to work with any writer: They produce quality work, it’s delivered on time and meets the guidelines, and they are easy to work with throughout the editing process.

CONCLUSION

I wish I had something pithy to say here, but I don’t.

The data I shared from my own projects is no more and no less valid than that shared by the QCW, and it leads to a similar conclusion, especially when considering the number of stories by queer writers considered as a percentage of all the stories surveyed—2.2% vs. 4.88%—LGBTQ+ writers are underrepresented.

So, read “One in Six is Not Equity: The State of Queer Representation in Mystery Anthologies.”

Then ask yourself: As an editor, as a writer, and as a reader, what can you do so that in the future, when QCW releases their annual surveys, underrepresentation is not a foregone conclusion.

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“Collateral Damage” was published in Black Cat Weekly #231. “Drawn to Love” was published in the July 16, 2026 issue of Micromance. “Between the Covers” was published in KissMet Quarterly: I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.

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