Taylor Jenkins Reid, the author of iconic novels such as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017) and Daisy Jones & the Six (2019), has publicly come out as bisexual.
In a recent interview with Time, Reid discussed the upcoming release of her ninth novel Atmosphere, an 80s sci-fi thriller following astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin as she trains to be an astronaut.
At Houston’s Johnson Space Center, she meets “an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer.”
“As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe,” reads the synopsis. “Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.”
Atmosphere will reportedly feature a queer love story between Joan and Vanessa. Due to the time period in which the novel is set, it will explore the complexities of queer love in the 1980s, an era when same-sex relationships were often hidden due to societal stigma and institutional barriers.
As Reid reflected on her body of work, she addressed the controversy that arises when authors write from perspectives they don’t share. Time highlighted the criticism Reid faced with Carrie Soto Is Back (2022) and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which respectively feature a Latina and bisexual lead.
Reid, who is married to screenwriter Alex Jenkins Reid, admitted she’s a “very private” person and has long allowed readers to “assume what they were going to assume” about her sexuality. As a bisexual woman, she said it “has been hard at times to see people dismiss me as a straight woman, but I also didn’t tell them the whole story”.
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The best-seller then reflected on her childhood, when she was often questioned, “‘Why can’t you dress more like a girl? Why don’t you do your nails? Why do you talk that way? Can’t you be a little bit quieter?’ I started to get people who would say, ‘Oh, I get why you dress like a boy—you’re gay.’”
Reid fell in love with a woman in her early twenties, but the relationship was met with bi-erasure from those around her. In the late 90s, she said “nobody was talking about bisexuality” and if they were, “it was to make fun of people”.
“The messages about bisexuality were you just want attention or it was a stop on the way to gayville,” she explained. “I found that very painful, because I was being told that I didn’t know myself, but I did.”
Reid shared that her husband likens a person’s identity to a house with many rooms.
“My attraction to women is a room in the house that is my identity,” she continued. “Alex understood this book was about me spending time in that room. He was so excited for me, like, ‘What a great way for you to express this side of you.’ And he helped me get the book to be as romantic and beautiful as it could be.”
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Atmosphere will be released 3 June. As her novels continue to resonate with readers, several are being brought to life on screen.
In 2022, it was announced that a film adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was in development at Netflix, with Reid attached as an executive producer. As of writing, neither a release date nor the casting for the title role has been confirmed.
Additionally, a television adaptation of her 2021 novel Malibu Rising is in the works at Hulu. Both projects follow Prime Video’s 2023 limited series Daisy Jones & The Six, starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, which was met with critical acclaim and earned four Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
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