Tehlor Kay Mejia Books in Order

Tehlor Kay Mejia grew up in Oregon, and that sense of place still seems close to his work. He writes queer books for many age groups, often mixing family history, folklore, community, and the feeling that ordinary life is only a step away from something stranger.

Poetry came first.

In interviews, Mejia has said he always wrote, but he came to fiction in a more serious way when he was looking for books for his mixed-race daughter and not finding enough that felt like the world he wanted her to see. He is self-taught and did not go to college, so he learned by doing, revising, and keeping at it. That persistence paid off when his debut novel, We Set the Dark on Fire, arrived in 2019.

That book, and its sequel We Unleash the Merciless Storm, introduced many readers to the things Mejia does well: high pressure plots, queer characters who are allowed to want more, and big political questions that stay personal. The duology is set in a rigid two-wife society, but at heart it is about class, power, sacrifice, and the cost of choosing rebellion over safety.

Then came Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, followed by Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares and Paola Santiago and the Sanctuary of Shadows. Those middle grade books pull Mexican folklore into ghostly adventure, but they are also funny, warm, and grounded in friendship and family. Paola's love of science rubbing up against the supernatural gives the trilogy its spark, and the series later moved into television development.

He doesn't stay in one lane.

Mejia has moved comfortably between YA fantasy, middle grade horror, graphic storytelling, and adult romance. Miss Meteor, co-written with Anna-Marie McLemore, turns an underdog pageant story into something warmer and weirder. Lucha of the Night Forest and Lucha of the Forgotten Spring lean into dark fantasy, sisterhood, addiction, and power. On the scarier side, It Happened to Anna and The Witch's Wings and Other Terrifying Tales show how much he enjoys building tension for younger readers without losing sight of heart. And in adult fiction, Sammy Espinoza's Last Review and Cash Delgado is Living the Dream bring that same interest in identity, messy love, and found family into a more openly romantic space.

Across all of it, certain threads keep showing up. Mejia writes a lot about people who have been told to stay quiet, blend in, or accept the role they were given. His characters push back against narrow systems, whether that system is a border wall, a haunted family secret, a beauty pageant, or a small town version of who somebody is supposed to be. He is also deeply interested in community, in the difference between surviving alone and being carried by other people.

These books may shift age group and genre, but they tend to meet in the same place. They are often queer, often rooted in Mexican American and Latinx experience, and almost always full of characters trying to build a life that feels honest.

Mejia still lives in Oregon with his child, wife, and dogs. By his own telling, he also grows heirloom corn and keeps working on the perfect vegan tamale, which feels about right for a writer whose books are serious about justice but never forget that life is made of smaller, lived-in details too.