Pink promotional banner featuring the book cover "Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage" with a purple beard illustration and various magazine logos surrounding it.
An older woman with grey/tan hair, laughing, sitting at a table in a bookstore or library, holding a pink book. There are stacks of books, a cellphone, and a glass of water on the table. Bookshelves filled with colorful books are in the background.
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Praise for Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage

FINALIST FOR THE 2026 MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD FOR MEMOIR AND CREATIVE NONFICTION

A pink book cover with a graphic illustration of a black beard and mustache, and text that reads 'Board of a marriage' by Kelly Foster Lundquist.

Beard is brilliant and bristly and heartbreaking and funny as hell.”

-Harrison Scott Key, Author of How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Every Told

“A memoir as sharp as it is tender.”

-Ryan Berg, Author of No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and Other Transgressions

Beard announces the arrival of a powerful voice in memoir.”

-Charles Jensen, Author of Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres

“In vital, kinetic prose, Beard maps the fault lines between love, desire, and performance…A bracing, fresh testament to becoming, no matter who we are.”

-Paul Lisicky, Author of Song so Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell

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A woman with short curly hair, wearing a purple dress with sequins, a choker, and a black top hat, stands in a spotlight against a dark background.

Beard is a tremendous achievement and also just tremendous writing. I will be recommending it to everyone I know.”

-Chris Stedman, author and host/creator of Unread podcast

“An incisive, beautiful meditation on intimacy and identity, Beard reminds us: not all beards are false, and not all truths are spoken.”

—Juliet Patterson, Author of Sinkhole

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A bride in a wedding dress and veil looking to the side with a serious expression, standing next to a groom in a black tuxedo with a white shirt and black bow tie, who is looking at her with a neutral expression.

“Out of the heartbreak of shame and fear, Lundquist crafts truly beautiful and searching family portraits.”

—Lia Purpura, Author of All the Fierce Tethers

“Timely and timeless. A true feat of storytelling and personal revelation.”

-Nick White, Author of Sweet & Low

“A keenly observed personal history. . . . Lundquist beautifully renders her fragile first marriage and all its earnest striving with honesty and grace.”

—Michael Kleber-Diggs, author of Worldly Things

 

Writer.Teacher.Speaker.Editor.  

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For media and speaking inquiries, please contact Kelly’s publicist, Katelynn Dreyer at: katelynn(at)kayepublicity(dot)com