TEDX SPEAKER > Mental Health Activist > award-winning author
From 2002 to 2022, Connor Wolfe (they/them) authored fourteen titles under the pen name L.M. Browning. Their work earned numerous accolades, including six Pushcart Prize nominations, the Gold Nautilus Medal for Poetry in 2010, multiple Foreword Review Book Awards, and the Nautilus Silver Medal for Poetry in 2022. Wolfe’s innovative approach to independent publishing led to two terms on the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publisher’s Association, a TEDx talk at Yale University, and studies at Harvard University through grant programs.
After delivering a TEDx Talk in 2018 about their experiences with successive trauma, Wolfe was invited to participate in broader mental health discussions at state and national levels. There, they became an advocate for normalizing mental illness by sharing personal stories, a practice known as Radical Authenticity.
In 2021, Wolfe joined the State of Connecticut/NAMI Lived Experience Committee and became a certified Survivor of Suicide Attempts (SOSA) Peer Facilitator through the Didi Hirsch Foundation in Los Angeles. In early 2023, Wolfe shifted their focus to Queer/Trans Rights advocacy due to the increasing threats faced by these marginalized communities, which Wolfe is part of. Currently, Wolfe serves as CEO & Creative Director Wayfarer Books, the publishing houses they founded in 2011.
In early 2024, Wolfe worked as Volunteer Staff in the Collections Department of the Museum of Anthropology at Ghost Ranch with a team preparing sacred objects for repatriation under the newly updated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. They are wintering along the Rio Puerco in the foothills of Cerro Pedernal.
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new haven CT > Cimarron, NM
Where we begin.
In this career-defining work that eventually went on to become a TEDx Talk at Yale University, Browning explores the breaking point every mind has after finding her own limit during a gauntlet of traumatic events. Pulled out of this blast-crater moment in her life by a friend, she is brought away from the insanity and deep into the snowy Sangre de Cristo Mountains where, standing in front of a herd of wild buffalo, she comes face to face with the terms we all must come to surrounding the loss we face in this life. Offering no answers and seeking no pity, Browning lays herself bare in this radically authentic offering. She carries restricted subjects such as miscarriage, mental illness, and suicide out of the silence by offering her own private journey as an example of the power of transcendence.
Cimarron, NM > Berkshire Mnts. MAss
Where we leave off…
Following the release of their micro-memoir, To Lose the Madness, and the TEDx Talk at Yale University based on their life, Browning returns from a six-year poetic silence with, Drive through the Night.
The map of these poems traces the poet’s journey of overcoming and re-becoming while set against the iconic backdrop of the American Southwest.
In Drive Through the Night, we follow the trail of an orphan-turned-vagabond who left behind the white picket fence for the open range and open road.
Abiquiu, nuevo Mexico
End of the road.
Available in Full-color Paperback and eBook.
FAR RIDER: FIELD NOTES ON GENDER IDENTITY, FACING INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA, AND SEEKING AWE IN THE HIGH DESERT.
THE FINAL INTERVIEW WITH L.M. BROWNING
In this special edition of The Wayfarer, Editor-at-Large, Frank Inzan Owen (he/him) sits down in conversation with our Founder, L.M. Browning (they/them), to discuss the topics of gender identity, facing Intergenerational trauma, and seeking awe in the high desert.
In late autumn of 2022, Browning hit the road and disappeared into the backcountry of Northern New Mexico. It was here they began sitting with some larger changes they felt brewing—changes around their pronouns, their gender identity, and their creative pursuits moving forward. Far Rider is the product of that time spent in the wild.
Featuring original photography by Connor Wolfe.
A Look inside the book
Explore Drive Through the Night
praise
drive through the night
“visually spectacular. a gorgeous ode to self-discovery and healing.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“a quiet yet fierce rebirth of the wounded spirit.”
—James Crews, Poet and Editor of The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection & Joy
“Exquisitely delicate and lyrical…their magnum opus.”
—Caitlin Garvey, author of The Mourning Report
“breathtaking vulnerability.”
—Will Falk, author of How Dams Fall
“Browning uses poetry and photography to detail their evolution from a socialized prisoner of expectations to a reclaimed, authentic self.”
—Foreword Review
praise
To Lose the Madness
“In this spellbinding book, poet and novelist Browning spares no detail in telling the story of her descent into profound grief as one loss piled upon another. Though small, this effective and plainspoken memoir is densely packed with tales of harrowing experiences that require emotional, intellectual, and spiritual investments on the part of the reader. Browning’s journey of recovery will be of help to anyone looking for courage in difficult times.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“A laconic, beautiful, and deeply insightful account about coping with loss.”
—Kirkus Review
“Browning’s essay explores the confluence of natural and interior landscapes in a manner both beautiful and searing. 5 stars.”
—Foreword Review
“Impressively candid and articulate, extraordinarily honest and insightful, exceptionally well written, organized and presented, To Lose the Madness is an inherently compelling read from cover to cover. Thoughtful and thought-provoking from first page to last, To Lose the Madness is unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library collections.”
—Midwest Book Review *Reviewer’s Choice
yale university, New Haven Conn
The TEDX
Since the release of their micro-memoir, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity, and the subsequent TEDx Talk at Yale based on the book, Browning has worked tirelessly as a mental health advocate. They publicly share their own struggle with C-PTSD to help lift the stigma of mental illness through storytelling.
OTHER WORKS BY L.M. BROWNING
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Quote Squares
the RETIREMENT of l.m. browning
Passing the Hat
At the end of 2023, the collected works of L.M. Browning were pulled out of print at the author’s request—all except *Far Rider*. Excerpts from the works no longer in print, as well as notes from unpublished manuscripts, will be published through the L.M. Browning Substack platform. Connor Wolfe writes the “Letter from the Editor” for Wayfarer Magazine.
In 2023, Wolfe financed and founded the Radical Authenticity Prize for Trans and Nonbinary Writers through Wayfarer Books.
Donate Directly to the Artist
(It’s like passing the hat at the end of the night.)
If you have enjoyed my work under L.M. Browning and are inclined to show gratitude, I invite you to donate directly. Everything gathered by the “tip jar ” (Venmo) goes toward daily necessities. Whether it is a warm cup of coffee or a tank of gas, whatever you pass along is deeply appreciated.
At this point in the journey, we are all just running on compassion.