MJ Lyons is an extensively published writer, journalist and game maker. Over a decade-long career he has covered arts, culture, science and politics based out of Toronto, including a monthly column with a colleague, History Boys, on lesser-known LGBTQ history for DailyXtra.
MJ’s second book, QUEER WEREWOLVES DESTROY CAPITALISM, was published by Microcosm Press in May 2021, and his first novel, Murder at the World’s Fair, a steampunk murder mystery adventure, was released by Renaissance Press in June 2019. He has also published short stories in Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt, an anthology published by Twopenny Books and Chaos Theory: A Life is Strange Fanzine.
He has also undertaken a small publishing venture, Goblin Cat Zines, which produces high production, limited issue zines and chapbooks by emerging queer, trans and non-binary authors and artists. Goblin Cat has put out two zines, Horrifying Beasts from Our Trans NIGHTMARES and DARK: a zine of queer BDSM erotica.
MJ has contributed print, digital and script writing to Much TV, NOW Magazine, Torontoist, the National Post, FemHype, Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine, to name a few.
He has also written multiple episodes of LongStory, Bloom Digital Media’s award-winning episodic mobile visual novel for young people, and provided world-building material for AMP: Year Three, the third instalment of a modern day superhero tabletop RPG. MJ also contributed writing to Later Daters, a dating game set in a retirement community by Bloom, and is a contributing interactive writer on the development team of The Last Taxi, a dystopian resource management game.
MJ manages the bookstore side of Glad Day Bookshop, the world’s oldest surviving LGBTQ bookstore.
