Explore One Block Home

Mark Keller never graduated from 8th grade—a fact that makes the literary achievement of "One Block From Home" all the more remarkable. Drawing from his experiences growing up queer in small-town and college-town Indiana during the late 1970s and early 1980s, he transforms personal history into literature of exceptional depth and artistry.

For decades, these stories remained largely untold, carried within as both burden and treasure. When he finally began writing, He discovered a natural literary voice that belies his lack of formal education—proof that some of the most powerful writing emerges not from academic training but from the necessity of making meaning from difficult experience.

Now living far from the Midwestern landscapes of his youth, Mark brings both emotional immediacy and measured perspective to this account of a pivotal moment in his adolescence. His work stands as testimony to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of art, demonstrating how even the most challenging beginnings can ultimately yield beauty, insight, and connection.

"One Block From Home" is his first book.