Kayden Etter

Kayden Etter is a writer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the author of Ink & Saltwater, a debut novel that places a transgender man aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912. Built on years of historical research, the novel grew from a single persistent question: what might it have meant to be queer or transgender in 1912?

His fiction and essays examine identity, courage, and belonging — the stretch of life between who a person was told to be and who they eventually realize they are. His work pairs careful historical detail with a candid, often wry voice, and returns to a central conviction: the stories that stay with us are the ones that make us feel a little less alone.

When he isn’t writing, he can be found gaming, over-researching historical footnotes, or streaming on Twitch as mrsirulean — a commitment that stopped being ironic years ago.