Robert McDiarmid writes about the distance between who we are and who we're becoming—and the people, places, and hardships that close that gap. He is the author of "The House of Wolves," "Milton and the Morning Monk," and "The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Getting Over Yourself," novels that chart the romantic queer experience in America, as well as two collections of micro-fiction, "Brief Moments" and "Esoteric Minutiae."
His new novel, Where All Your Attempts Cease, follows an 1840s wagon train from St. Louis to Portland, trading the safety of city life for open plains. It returns to the questions that have always driven his work—what it costs to transform yourself, what it takes to endure the unendurable, how love survives when everything else is uncertain.
Royalties and proceeds are donated to charity. The 2026 beneficiary is OpenHouse SF, which creates opportunities with—not just for—LGBTQ+ seniors to build and reconnect with the community in an intergenerational, age-affirming space.
Robert resides in Palo Alto, California, with his husband David and their rescue pup Orca.
