How to Build a Safe Space for LGBTQIA+ Teens via Books
I wasn’t planning on posting this resource this week. And then, well, this election happened. As a queer teen, I am more scared than I have ever been in this country. And I’m white. My friends who are LGBTQIA+ and people of color… they’re terrified. We need safe spaces now more than ever. I know this election has been a wake up call for many people that we need to do better, so I hope this post can help give some direction to that energy.
Teachers, librarians, booksellers, I know a lot of you are scared. LGBTQIA+ content is still seen by many as controversial or inappropriate. You may be worried about backlash, worried about your career. But I implore you to think about the teens you serve. The fear that you feel is infinitesimal compared to theirs. The risk you take in buying an LGBTQIA+ book for your classroom is small compared to what we risk simply by being alive.
We need you.
So, with that said. Here are my thoughts on how to use literature to make your library, classroom, or store a safe space for LGBTQIA+ YA teens. In my mind, there are four main components of a LGBTQIA+ friendly collection: 1) books that are obviously queer, 2) contemporary books that tackle identity/coming out, 3) books that don’t focus on identity and 4) books that cover the entire range of identities under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella.
Below, I expand on what I mean, and offer book suggestions. These are not meant to be comprehensive lists, and there plenty of other amazing LGBTQIA+ YA books out there. That said, if you think there is a book missing– especially if it is written by a person of color– please let me know in the comments, on Twitter @thegayya, or by email (vee@gayya.org).
1) Books that are obviously queer, such as Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan or About a Girl by Sarah McCarry. Both feature same gender couples kissing on the cover. Not everyone will be comfortable/safe reading these, but having them there and visible can have a huge impact.
2) Contemporary books that tackle identity and/or coming out. While it’s necessary to have books where queerness/transness doesn’t impact the plot, it’s also vitally important to have books that focus on it. To quote David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing, “even though it’s better now, doesn’t mean it’s always good.” Being LGBTQIA+ still has its unique difficulties and joys, and it’s extremely validating to see those reflected.
- Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler
- Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
- Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown
- Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
- The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
- Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
- The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson
- Radical by E.M. Kokie
- You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina Lacour
- Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
- If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sàenz
- More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
3) Books that don’t focus on identity: These are important for a couple different reasons. Having books that feature characters going on adventures or doing things that are unrelated to their identity is SO IMPORTANT. Especially for teens who are struggling, they serve as a reminder that there is more than this, that their life will not always be this way. In addition to that, teens who might not actively seek out LGBTQIA+ books (for whatever reason) may stumble across them. Lastly, some of these books are “covertly” queer, meaning that you can’t tell by the cover or blurb that they feature LGBTQIA+ characters. Teens who may have unsupportive friends or family members can feel safe reading these books. Covertly queer books are marked with a *. So! Some good books that don’t focuse on identity are:
- Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak*
- Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block*
- The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow*
- Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova*
- Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis*
- Willful Machines by Tim Floreen
- We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
- Run by Kody Keplinger*
- Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
- Adaptation by Malinda Lo
- Huntress by Malinda Lo
- Proxy by Alex London*
- A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz*
- When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
- This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp*
- Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig*
- Far From You by Tess Sharpe
- The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie*
- A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith
- Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld*
4) Inclusion of identities across the entire LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Teens are starting to identify along a wide, wide range of identities. It’s so important to make sure your collection features more than gay and lesbian characters. Fiction hasn’t quite caught up to the multitude of identities yet, but here are a few that include underrepresented identities:
- Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson
- Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff
- The Unintentional Time Traveler by Everett Maroon
- Clariel by Garth Nix
- This Song is (Not) For You by Laura Nowlin
- Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate
- Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz
In addition to those four main tenants…
Books with side LGBTQIA+ characters. Much like books that don’t focus on identity as a center point, these books are vital to standardize the presence of LGBTQIA+ characters and people. Some of my faves:
- Stranger by Sherwood Smith & Rachel Manija Brown
- Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
- On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis
- The Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston
- Hold Still by Nina Lacour
- The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
- Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
- Serpentine by Cindy Pon
- Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by isabel quintero
Graphic Novels. Not everyone likes novels, so having LGBTQIA+ content available in other formats is important!
- Young Avengers by Gieron Killien
- Giant Days by John Allison
- Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
- Princeless: Raven, The Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley
Other things to consider while building your collection:
- Intersectionality. Make sure the LGBTQIA+ characters aren’t all white, able-bodied, neurotypical & middle/upper class.
- #OwnVoices. While I believe that straight, cisgender people can write LGBTQIA+ books, having books that are written by an author who identifies the same way as the character can be so unbelievably affirming. In addition to having a great story, there’s also this feeling of “they made it, so maybe I can too.”
- Balance. There should be fluffy, happily-ever after books, and ones that dig into hard stuff. There should be a mix of contemporary and SF/F. There should also be a balance of genders– make sure you have girls, guys, and some nonbinary characters!
- Keep it current. If you have the means, it’s always best to continue collecting new books as they’re published, and cycling out some of the older ones. I often see LGBT+ collections solely made up of books that were published in the 2000s. At a certain point, they just become unrelatable. They’re much MUCH better than nothing, but, if you have the means, continuing to collect new releases is really great.
- Representation. This one can get a bit tricky because not everyone agrees on what good or bad representation is. However, a few things that most people agree counts as bad representation: if one of the LGBTQIA+ characters dies, or if an LGBTQIA+ character is used as a learning tool for a straight and/or cisgender character. (Frex: Luna by Julie Anne Peters, Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, Winger by Andrew Smith. For more on why books like this are problematic, see this post.)
Lastly, here are two posts by two brilliant librarians with more specific tactics:
LGBTQIA+ Books and Libraries: Helping Queer Kids Find the Stories They Need by Amanda Macgregor
How To Make Your Library a Safe Space for Queer Teens by Angie Manfredi
If you have any questions at all, email me at vee@gayya.org, leave a comment, or tweet us @thegayya. Let me know if this was helpful, or what you think would be helpful. Is there something more we can do to help you help teens? Let us know. I am here for you. We are here for you. Just, please, be there for us.
-Vee S., admin and co-founder of GayYA
Gay YA Agent Spotlight #4: Susan Graham
Today on our Agent Spotlight series we have Susan Graham from Einstein Literary! Susan shares some great information in this interview and we were thrilled to have her! (And it’s always fun to find agents who identify on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and who are seeking LGBTQIA+ middle grade, hint hint, querying writers!)
Hello! Thank you for participating in our Agent Spotlight series! We’re excited to have you. Can you tell us how you got started agenting?
This question feels a bit surreal since I just started taking on projects in the last few months after a few years of working with other peoples’ clients. I went to Simmons College for an MA in Children’s Literature, and I took a class about the history of children’s publishing. The class covered how publishing houses work, including marketing, profit & loss statements, and day to day life for editors and designers, but we weren’t really taught what agents do. I stayed after class one day and asked, and our instructor gave me the names of some agents.
So I did a bunch of research, got a readership with Kathleen Rushall (@katrushall) when she was at Marsal Lyon; now she’s at Andrea Brown. I somehow decided that was what I was going to be. The idea of finding people and stories I believe in and championing them just really appeals to me. After that I think I found the right people to set examples and support me, including Carrie Howland (@ECarrieHowland), Neil Olson, Sean McCarthy (@mccarthylit) and now the amazing Susanna Einstein (@Einstein_Lit). I’m incredibly fortunate to have worked with great people.
We’re a site highlighting LGBTQIA+ YA (and increasingly, and excitingly, middle grade!). Can you tell us a recent LGBTQIA+ book you read and enjoyed?
I very recently finished the YA fantasy LABYRINTH LOST by Zoraida Cordova (Sourcebooks Fire, 2016). There’s a love triangle for the protagonist Alex with a boy on one leg and a girl on the other. I really do love stories that allow women to experience feelings about each other, and I especially love that Alex isn’t tormented when she realizes she’s attracted to two genders. She just feels that recognition, and she chooses based on her individual relationships with Nova and Rishi.
Do you currently represent any LGBTQIA+ YA or MG? Anything we should be putting on our radars?
I did recently take on Sarah Strange as a client. Her YA manuscript is a bit of a horror novel about monstrosity and choice, and in addition to a lesbian protagonist, it includes a cast of two ace characters as well as other characters who experience same gender attraction. She’s smart, inclusive, and her writing gives me chills. Sarah writes for YA Interrobang (@yainterrobang), and you can follow her @strangewrites on Twitter.
My client Veronica Agarwal’s work will be featured in the forthcoming POWER AND MAGIC: THE QUEER WITCH COMICS ANTHOLOGY as well as ELEMENTS: FIRE, a comics anthology featuring creators of color. Both of these are independent anthologies, which I cannot wait to have in my hands. She also writes and draws the web comic MAGICAL GIRL PROBLEMS? MAGICAL GIRL SOLUTIONS! She’s basically a middle-grade and YA comics witch, and we’d all better get ready for magic. You can follow Veronica on Twitter @anuanew and on tumblr at wisba.tumblr.com. Why do you think it’s important for LGBTQIA+ youth to be represented in their literature? Well personally, I didn’t realize I was asexual and experienced same gender attraction until I was well in my twenties, or at least I didn’t have the words for those feelings. I’m from deep South Texas, raised very Baptist, and I’m still trying to figure out my nonsense. The obvious answer is that if I’d had people in front of me who openly felt even remotely like I do, either in my day to day life or in my media, certain things would have been a lot easier – to put it mildly.Seeing yourself in literature can give you directions to grow, understanding how you’re feeling and how to articulate that and feel comfortable just being. LGBTQIA+ representations in literature also provide safe spaces, both emotional and physical, for young people navigating regions and relationships that are less friendly toward those identities. I wish I’d had that, and I’d like to help others find it if I can. What trends in LGBTQIA+ YA are you seeing? What would you love to see in your inbox? And, if you’re open to queries, how can someone query you? I don’t know about trends. We’re constantly reconstructing our communities in literature as what’s acceptable and allowed expands, especially in children’s literature, and even the stories that have been told time and again can feel so new now that they’re in a context that targets young people. I definitely feel the need to break away from certain scripts that we’ve inherited such as queer tragedy and sad gay (but always somehow sage) BFFs. It’s so exhausting that the straight protagonist has “that one queer friend” who comes out or gives them romantic advice – not that it doesn’t happen, but it’s just one dynamic out of a million experiencesI want intersectionality in the projects I take on, and I want romances that end happily. I want LGBTQIA+ characters who have built their own communities, much like communities tend to form in real life. I would love to get a post apocalyptic novel in which a bunch of kids from a gender & sexual minority community are at a board game night or playing laser tag when the world ends, and now they have to stay safe and band together even harder. I’d also love a traditional feeling fantasy or scifi narrative that centers on LGBTQIA+ characters who get happy endings, get to be crowned kings, get to be lady knights, forge alliances with aliens and kiss that person they’ve grown close to. I haven’t ever read an aromantic YA that’s distinct from an ace identity, which as an arospec human, I’d really be into (and the protagonist can’t be a robot or a “sociopath,” sorry, none of that here). I think ace/aro identities are too often conflated, and I’d love explorations of that. Even more, I desperately want LGBTQIA+ identities in my middle-grade. Again, if someone had said words to me aside from, “You can’t know when you’re this young” or “you’ll experience it when you’re older, just wait,” my life would have been so drastically different. All genres, pretty much anything, I will take it. I’d love some young lesbians who are detectives for middle-grade or ace kids who just know they’ll never change. It’s okay to be ten and want to kiss your same gender friend or feel like you don’t identify with your assigned gender and know you won’t grow out of it. That narrative of not feeling something someone else wants you to feel and being told you need to wait on your body to feel it can be so hard to shake. I particularly want and look for these other narratives that give young people more options. So all that is to say yes, please! Everyone send me the things! You may follow me on Twitter @grahamophones, and you may query me (or anyone else at ELM) at submissions@einsteinliterary.com. You can find submissions guidelines and agent bios at www.einsteinliterary.com. If you’re writing adult memoir or literary fiction, for example, I’m probably not the best agent for you, but please still submit to Susanna Einstein or Shana Kelly at ELM. We’d love to hear about all the work you’re doing! Thank you, Susan!
Call for Submissions: Asexuality in YA Series
During the Asexuality in YA series we want to use our space on GayYA to support ace spectrum voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric Twit Chats. I personally remember feeling amazed as I read the posts that were sent in and scrolled through the Twit Chat hashtag. I realized I wasn’t alone in my feelings of discontent regarding the representation of my identities, or my hopes for what that representation could look like in the future. I got to meet and connect with so many smart and passionate people.
So of course, we had to do the Awareness Week Series again this year.
Unfortunately, the dates for this year’s Asexual Awareness Week (Oct 23rd-29th) ended up never getting on our calendar. We’re so SO sorry for this mishap! We ran across this year’s dates two days ago. We debated trying to pull something together last minute, but since these weeks are driven by guest posts, we didn’t want to ask people to rush their work. We also have a number of resources we’re developing for libraries & bookstores, and want to take the time to get them done right! So we decided instead to reschedule and take the time to truly make a dedicated and purposeful space for an Asexuality in YA Series. So! Our Asexuality in YA series will be held December 5th-10th.
During the 2016 Asexuality in YA series, we’ll feature 5-7 posts from various ace-spec contributors over the course of the week, and dedicate a space to talk about ace representation in YA.
Interested in contributing? Here are the details:
- Posts should be between 800-2500 words, and somehow tie into ace representation in YA. Your posts may go through light edits or a collaborative workshopping process.
- Send your post as a Word or Google doc to vee@gayya.org. Please include a 2-5 sentence bio about yourself including links to your blog, Twitter, website, or tumblr. Any links you’d like to use should be included as hyperlinks in the post. If you’d like to include a headshot or other images please attach them to the email– do not embed images in the document!
- We do not offer monetary compensation of any sort, but are usually happy to help you out in other ways if we can. Just ask!
- The deadline for submitting a post is November 28th.
A Few Words of Advice:
We will consider any topic that is related to LGBTQIA+ YA, however please be aware that we try to avoid repeating similar takes on identical topics. The more specific you can be, the more likely we are to accept your submission. If you have a few topic ideas and want feedback on which would work best, email us you ideas and we’ll work together to find the best fit!
Lastly… we are EXTREMELY interested in post submissions from teens & young adults. Your voice is the most important in discussions about representation in YA, and we want to hear from you. With that said, all are encouraged to send pieces in! 🙂
Email vee@gayya.org with any questions. We look forward to reading your submissions!
Gay YA Agent Spotlight! #3 – Brent Taylor
Today on our Agent Spotlight series we have Brent Taylor from Triada US Literary Agency! Brent’s got some serious storytelling power all of his own in this interview!
1. Hello! Thank you for participating in our Agent Spotlight series! We’re excited to have you. Can you tell us how you got started agenting?
Hello! Thank you for doing this wonderful series and for having me. I started interning for literary agents in 2011 and spent about three years soaking up as much information about the industry as I could. In the summer of 2014, I joined Triada US as an intern and was hired as an assistant when the internship was over in the fall. Since then I’ve sold some books here and there was promoted to associate agent last fall.
2. We’re a site highlighting LGBTQIA+ YA (and increasingly, and excitingly, middle grade!). Can you tell us a recent LGBTQIA+ book you read and enjoyed?
How much time we do have for this interview? I could go on and on! There are so many amazing ones being published. I am a huge Robin Talley fan. I haven’t read her newest, AS I DESCENDED, but I absolutely loved LIES WE TELL OURSELVES. I really enjoyed Meredith Russo’s book IF I WAS YOUR GIRL. There’s so much about the teen experience Russo captures perfectly, but I particularly loved the nuances of the small southern town the book’s set it. (I grew up in Kentucky and have spent a lot of time in Tennessee.) And, finally, I haven’t read this one yet but I’m very excited to get my hands on Brie Spangler’s debut YA novel BEAST in October.
3. Do you currently represent any LGBTQIA+ YA or MG? Anything should we be putting on our radars?
I do! I cannot wait for the publication of PERFECT TEN by L. Philips, coming from Viking Children’s Books in June 2017, which is about a gay teen who does a love spell that goes awry. A few months after that in September Eric Bell’s debut middle grade novel ALAN COLE IS NOT A COWARD publishes from Katherine Tegen Books. It’s about a gay 12-year-old boy whose older brother discovers his secret crush and threatens to expose it to everyone—unless he agrees to participate in a game of nearly impossible tasks. These are books of my heart. I swell up with pride when I think about what they would have meant to me if I found them in the library when I was growing up gay.
I’m extremely excited for February 2018, when HarlequinTeen publishes my author Kaitlyn Sage Patterson’s debut YA fantasy THE DIMINISHED. It’s told in dual POV, and one of the POVs is a gay teen. Realistic fiction is definitely where my heart is, but Kaitlyn pulled off this gay teen’s character in such a rich way in such a rich world-unlike-our-own that I just had to have this book on my list. I’m really excited by the idea of someone picking this book up for its fantastic premise and then being delightfully surprised by the strong LGBTQIA+ characters and themes.
And if I could fit in just one more: this isn’t a book that I sold, it’s one that my boss did, but Blair Thornburgh’s YA novel WHO’S THAT GIRL (from HarperTeen in June!) has an absolutely stellar cast of LGBTQIA+ characters and the most charming voice you will ever encounter. I’m not exaggerating. This would have been one of my favorite books as a teen.
4. Why do you think it’s important for LGBTQIA+ youth to be represented in their literature?
Buckle up, because this is a long story. I remember being in the first grade and having “buddy readers”—fifth graders who would pair up with a first grader and read books to them for a portion of the day. I had the world’s biggest crush on my buddy reader. I can’t remember his name, but I know he had a smile that brought immediate butterflies to my stomach, and ohmygodareyoukidding—a cute guy READING BOOKS TO YOU ALL DAY? What a dream.
So, at recess and at home, I would daydream about us holding hands on a walk home and introducing him as my boyfriend to everyone. This wasn’t something I’d ever seen before—two guys being together in this way—so I was wracked with guilt. Are you supposed to think about your buddy reader like that? What does it mean if you’re a boy and want a boyfriend? These were the questions I asked myself all year.
In fourth and fifth grade the boys in my classes started calling me gay because I’d sit at the girls’ lunch table and instead of playing basketball at recess, I’d sit at the bottom of the rock-climbing wall and read J-14 Magazine. “Gay” was not a word in my vocabulary. It took me a while to figure out what it meant, and when I did, a wave of a million emotions rolled over me. Yes, yes, this is what I am. This makes sense. And then: No. This cannot be what I am. If this is what I am, then I better get used to lifelong bullying.
So, I was gay—I knew I was gay—but I couldn’t be gay. I buried this deep within my subconscious and just forgot about it and tried to move on. When boys weren’t accusing me of being gay in this hostile manner, then I’d get it from my girl friends (“Come on, Brent, you’re gay, right? You can tell us.”). I denied and denied and denied this until I actually started believing it.
Until middle school, when I fell in love with reading. For the first time in my life, I was reading books with gay people in them. Some of the first and most meaningful books were WHAT THEY ALWAYS TELL US by Martin Wilson and MARKED by P.C. and Kristin Cast. I can’t put into words how special this was for me. I saw these characters going through some of the same troubles as me, and some that were entirely their own—but what was special was seeing gay people doing things in the real world. I knew it was fiction, but when you’re immersed in a novel, it’s 100% real. For the first time, I was seeing that being gay was something you could be proud of.
Every child and teen deserves a moment as special as that. Realizing that what makes you different is something that you don’t have to keep secret—that you can own it, and be happy, and conquer the world. This is why I’m a literary agent. This is why I’m so proud to see PERFECT TEN and ALAN COLE IS NOT A COWARD and THE DIMINISHED go out into the world.
5. What trends in LGBTQIA+ YA are you seeing? What would you love to see in your inbox? And, if you’re open to queries, how can someone query you?
I’m seeing a good amount of stories about characters who aren’t “out” about their identity and this pleases me so much. As much as I adore books where the LGBTQIA+ characters are already comfortable with their identity and moving on with their lives, I think it’s so important to continue to publish books for the audiences that aren’t quite there yet. My list is robust with gay male characters, so I’d really love to more of the LBTQIA+. I’m open to queries and my submission guidelines are simple: send me your query letter and first ten pages pasted in the body of the message to brent
Gay YA Agent Spotlight! #2 – Jim McCarthy
Welcome to our new series, Gay YA Agent Spotlight! Every Thursday, we’ll be interviewing one agent about upcoming trends in LGBTQIA+ YA and MG, what they currently represent, and what they’re looking for.
1. Hello! Thank you for participating in our Agent Spotlight series! We’re excited to have you. Can you tell us how you got started agenting?
Mine’s a bit of an unusual story. I had completed my freshman year at NYU and already blown through all the money I had saved for college (NYC is EXPENSIVE), so I needed a job stat. I sent out 40 resumes, and Stacey Glick was the first person to call me back. I didn’t know what a literary agent was, but I knew I liked to read, so it seemed worth a shot. I had the part time position within two days and began working at DGLM in 1999. In 2000, I quit because I couldn’t have a job and be an RA for the first semester. Then I came back. Then I thought I should get a job in “my field,” as I was studying Urban Design. So I went to work for the City Parks Foundation. That…didn’t delight me. So I came back. And then I quit again before my senior year for a reason I honestly can’t remember at this point. And…I came back. Each time I had quit, I continued to work with the agency as a freelance reader, and of the first three books I recommended, two sold for six-figures (I still fondly remember the third and wish I knew what happened to it). I fiiiiiiiinally started thinking that maybe there was something to this publishing thing as a career, but there were no jobs at DGLM at the time. As I suffered through some terrible interviews in various fields, I started to panic. Then someone quit the agency, and I jumped on the job. Miriam Goderich told me, “You know if you work here full time, you can never quit again, right?” I never did. So here I am. 17 years later!
2. We’re a site highlighting LGBTQIA+ YA (and increasingly, and excitingly, middle grade!). Can you tell us a recent LGBTQIA+ book you read and enjoyed?
I adore Tim Federle’s Better Nate than Ever series. I’m a theater geek at heart, and Tim’s books appealed to me on a gut level. It’s also just a joyous series which tickles me. And I’m delighted that it’s middle grade. What a wonderful space to see this kind of story in!
3. Do you currently represent any LGBTQIA+ YA or MG? Anything should we be putting on our radars?
I do! From Robin Talley’s just released AS I DESCENDED (a retelling of Macbeth at a boarding school—with lesbians!) to Rory Harrison’s upcoming LOOKING FOR GROUP (a trans girl and gay boy on a road trip to the Salton Sea) to Saundra Mitchell’s upcoming ALL OUT (an anthology of stories about LGBTQIA+ teens through history) down through new books I’ve signed on and am getting ready to sell like Tehlor Kinney’s BETWEEN THE SHADOW AND THE SOUL (a queer Latinx fantasy set in a world where powerful men are assigned two wives). That’s a small handful of what’s just out or just coming up. There are more in the past, and there will be more in the future.
4. Why do you think it’s important for LGBTQIA+ youth to be represented in their literature?
I think kids need to felt seen and heard. I still remember a coworker at my first job (Seattle’s Coffee in Mamaroneck, NY!) who handed me a copy of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City and said, “I think you should read this.” I wasn’t out, but she knew. And she helped. Immensely. She didn’t tell me why I should read it. She made it feel so safe. “It’s this awesome book about a bunch of friends in San Francisco.” But she saw me, and she knew what I needed, and that meant the world to me. Later on, while working at the National Book Foundation, I found a copy of Alex Sanchez’s RAINBOW BOYS which blew. My. Mind. A book for teens about three gay boys who were more or less happy? It was extraordinary. And I will never feel anything less than a pure and tremendous affection to both Maupin and Sanchez (who is now contributing to an anthology I sold!). They helped me find myself. So did so many other authors, but they were the first who spoke to me on that level. Working in children’s books, I know that so many other kids still haven’t had that moment, that they still feel unseen and unheard and on their own. But I look at books like Alex Gino’s GEORGE or I.W. Gregorio’s NONE OF THE ABOVE or the books of Malinda Lo or Laini Taylor or Francesca Lia Block, and my heart warms so much. I know how far we have to go as a publishing community, but that doesn’t stop me from also being profoundly grateful for how far we’ve come.
5. What trends in LGBTQIA+ YA are you seeing? What would you love to see in your inbox? And, if you’re open to queries, how can someone query you? (Email or a website link to your agency website is fine!)
I’m seeing a trend away from “issues” novels and towards the inclusion of characters across the spectrum in romance and fantasy and thrillers and sci-fi, and that is so, so heartening. And listen, I always have time for serious literary fiction that delves deep, but I’m excited to be getting to a space where that’s not ALL we can see. LGBTQIA+ kids also deserve escapism. And fun. And adventure. Let the trend continue! I’m always open to new queries, and my guidelines are available at www.dystel.com. I’m pretty flexible on what I’m looking for, but I’m super down for some intersectionality, all kinds of OwnVoices, and any perspectives that I haven’t seen before. And I’m always looking at the make-up of my own list so I know that I have better coverage of LBT than GQIA+, which could be worth noting. And my list is more white than I would hope, so I’d love to rep a broader array of voices.
Thanks, Jim!