A promotional graphic for the book 'Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage' by Kelly Foster Lundquist, featuring logos and names of various media outlets and magazines showcasing the book.

Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage

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Kelly Foster Lundquist was nineteen when she met Devin at church camp in the late ’90s. Immediately inseparable, the two bonded over bootleg Tori Amos recordings and a sense of disconnection from the spiritual fervor of their fellow camp counselors. Devin was classically handsome and Kelly on the plain side of pretty, but they matched. Their twinned search for acceptance and love would profoundly shape the rest of their lives.

In this striking debut memoir, Lundquist revisits her relationship with Devin twenty years after their divorce, as she investigates the “beard” trope in literature, culture, and her own romantic life. The straight woman who unwittingly marries a gay man is either a laughingstock or a fool—or both—in the popular imagination. And yet reality—much like desire—is more wild. Reality is midnight pad Thai, tenderness in Ralph Lauren sheets, ritual visits to Blockbuster, and beginning a PhD in queer theory while your husband secretly struggles to reconcile his double life.

A tour de force of empathy and vivid prose, Beard reckons honestly with the harm done to both husband and wife by churches that required rigid performances of gender and sexuality. In contrast, Lundquist learns to let go of brittle certainties as she embraces what her first marriage taught her about risk and redemption.

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

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 LAST SYLLABLE LIT BOOK PRIZE

Praise for Beard

Quote about beards from the book cover of 'Beard: A Memoir of Marriage' by Kelly Foster Lundquist, featuring a pink cover with a black beard icon, and labels of authors Kelly, Foster, Lundquist.
A pink background with a quote about beards and a cover image of a book titled "Beard" by Nick White, featuring a black beard illustration.
Quote about Kelly Foster Lundquist's book 'Beard' on a pink background, with an image of the book cover featuring a beard with a mustache, and a small green square with quote marks at the top.
Quote from Juliet Patterson about beards, with an image of her book titled "Beard: A Memoir of Marriage" showing a beard-shaped illustration and the author and publisher names. The background is coral, with a small quote icon at the top.
Quote and book cover design with a quote praising Kelly Foster Lundquist. The quote references her work as an author of a memoir of marriage titled "Beard". The cover illustration features a drawing of bearded lips and mustache with colorful text boxes.
Quote about the book 'Beard' by Kelly Foster Lundquist, with an image of the book cover featuring a bearded face, and the title and author names
A quote about beards and marriage, with an illustration of a beard and mustache on a pink background.
An illustration of a beard with a mustache on a pink background, with black curly lines resembling glasses. Below is a book cover with the same beard and mustache illustration, and colorful text reading 'Kelly Foster Lundquist', 'Beard', and 'A Memoir of a Marriage'.
Quote about Kelly Foster Lundquist's book "Beard" by Chris Stedman, featuring an illustration of a book cover with a black beard and mustache, on a green background.
A quote about author Kelly Foster Lundquist on a pink background, with a small illustration of a book titled "Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage" featuring a bearded face and colorful blocks with the author's and translator's names, and a quote from Kara Olson praising Lundquist.