Promoting LGBTQIA+ YA: A Publicist’s POV
by Jamie Tan
As a publicist, I’m used to being gregarious or quiet, adapting to whichever author I’m with. I’ve sat quietly with authors, filled up space with small talk so an author could have a moment of rest, and leaned back while an author took the floor. I’m here to be supportive, but more importantly I want to be respectful of the author and the work 
they have created.
Pat Schmatz was one of the first authors I worked with when I started at Candlewick. I can say now how much I adore working with her, but when I first met her I was a bit terrified. She will be surprised to hear this, as I was able to keep my deer-in-the-headlights look under wraps (I hope). My hesitations came from the fact that I loved reading Lizard Radio. I respected the book an incredible amount, and at the same time feared that some of the themes in her work might be too personal for an author to talk about publicly. When you scratch away at the science fiction element in the vivid world Pat creates, you see a character full of questions about her personal, sexual, and gender identities. This felt like a book that hit close to home, and I didn’t want to assume anything about authorial intent or experience. I first wanted to see where this book came from, and if the book was as close to Pat’s heart as it seemed, before doing my duty as a publicist and seeing if I could encourage Pat to talk about these themes in a personal way.
Meeting Pat was a great relief. She is incredibly humble and well-spoken, and is the kind of person you could envision yourself having a deep lazy afternoon chat with, leaving you with the feeling that the world has become a bit nicer, more meaningful. In short, I adore her. She has a great relationship with her editor, Joan, and institutional trust in Candlewick. I’m grateful for these two things, as Pat took a chance and gave me her trust. She shared the story behind Lizard Radio, and told me that the story came from a personal place, that she had similar feelings to Kivali. As I listened to her, I wanted to hear her talk more about herself and the experiences that led her to write the book. I didn’t want to push her too hard, but I knew that Pat had a story that young adults (and even adults) would appreciate hearing. I knew that Pat was shy, but I also saw that she had a powerful voice.
Pat Schmatz & Jamie Tan at BEA 2015
Pat trusted Joan, Candlewick, and myself to give her book the respect – and push – it deserved. Throughout the publicity process, Pat was a trooper and pushed herself past her boundaries. She was wonderful at Book Expo America and didn’t mind when I was shouting, “GENDERQUEER SCI-FI!” into the aisles to bring more people in for her signing (it worked). She gave a keynote speech at the Heartland Fall Forum last year to our delight, because not only was Lizard Radio being recognized by independent booksellers, Pat was willing to share her story in front of a very large group of people.
Pat went on a blog tour, with both humorous and serious posts. I actually cried when I read her blog post for Gay YA. While I want to paste the entire thing here, I will hold back and share this teaser:
“I am so grateful for this generation. I can’t begin to tell you. They are giving me, at age 53, inspiration to keep learning and blasting away old ideas, to speak my truth, to try and be as fierce and bold as they are. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it. I’m too encumbered by years of silencing myself, of being silenced by others. But I can try.”
This was Pat at her finest: honest, sincere, and hopeful. This was the unveiled Pat Schmatz I met, and I hope that this is the Pat Schmatz that will continue to inspire people for years to come.
One last thing – Pat is one of the winners of the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award which encourages the exploration and expansion of gender in literature. This award feels tailor made for Lizard Radio, but she was genuinely surprised when she found out that she won. I could think of no person that this award is better suited for, and I am so thrilled that more readers will be discovering her work through this important accolade.
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Jamie Tan is a publicist at Candlewick Press, and is perpetually grateful to make a living doing what she loves most—talking about books. You can find her on Twitter @thejamietan.
Joan Powers, Group Editorial Director, on Pat Schmatz’s Lizard Radio
Of course we all hope that we’re getting to a place where the notion of gender identity isn’t actually an “issue”—that it just is. It’s not for me to say how far we’ve come, or how much “better” things are, since this is beyond my personal experience. What I can say is that acquiring and editing Lizard Radio is part of my personal experience, and helping to shepherd this book—and having the opportunity to work with someone as honest and talented as Pat Schmatz—has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Pat’s main character, Kivali, lives in a world where gender rigidity is central, and as a nonconformist, her struggle is a particular one. But to me, what makes this book brilliant is that it’s also a story about love, power, abandonment, and discovery. That these facets of the narrative are intertwined in a story that takes place in a dystopian world–futuristic, but not that far from where we live—says a lot. It’s not necessarily about how far we’ve come, but about how the path to the destination is broader, higher, and followed by ever more diverse travelers. In my view, that’s what Pat has brought to the conversation. That’s the gift of Lizard Radio.
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Joan Powers is the Group Editorial Director at Candlewick Press.
There was, there is/it was, it is
There was a girl.
There was a girl who loved to read and read and read.
There was a girl who loved to read and read and read but hated it sometimes but she couldn’t tell why.
There was a teen.
There was a teen who watched too much tv but still found time to read and read.
There was a teen who watched too much tv and started thinking that maybe some girls were hot but still found time to read and read.
There were moments.
Experiences.
Thoughts.
Feelings.
Moments.
It was going to a party to relax and seeing two girls making out and feeling your heart soar but feeling disgusted because it was in public and you wondered if that was an okay thing to do.
It was walking on the street and wondering if people are staring at your shaved hair or bold lipstick.
It’s walking on the sidewalk and wondering if there will be a third occurrence of people honking at you from their car.
It’s walking in your neighbourhood and wondering if children will yell at you from inside a car again.
It is going home to read, to escape, but finding no escape because the world you crave can not be found in the books on your shelves but only in your heart.
It is sitting at home on your laptop at 1am in the morning wondering how to share these thoughts and what they mean.
It is being you, but it is also wanting more.
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Shelly Z. is a reader, writer and blogger. She schedules interviews and round-ups new releases on Adventures in YA Publishing, a 101 best site for writers selected by Writer’s Digest, and is a blogger at Read.Sleep.Repeat. She rants as much as she reads. You can find her on twitter at @shellysrambles where she rants about fluffy reads, her library job, and other things that she loves.
A Learning Journey
As a librarian and a blogger, I want to be able to purchase, read and promote excellent books. The first step is finding those books. That would seem easy enough, but I also want to make sure that I’m finding a wide range of quality stories providing windows and mirrors for readers. This is where it gets more complicated. We read through a lens of our own experiences and that certainly affects what we see or don’t see as we read.
I’m on a journey as a reviewer, librarian, and obviously a human being. I make mistakes – lots of mistakes, but I want to learn from them and move forward. Last year, Malinda Lo wrote an illuminating essay entitled Diversity Perceptions in Book Reviews. In the essay, Lo pointed out “not all reviews discuss diversity in a skillful way.” This essay was a reminder to read and review carefully – particularly when reading outside my own life experiences. One of the ways to become better at reading and reviewing critically is to educate myself. As a person who is not LGBTQIA, there are many things I don’t know and haven’t experienced. One solution is to find helpful resources for increasing my knowledge.
Here are some of the best resources I’ve found along the way:
Dahlia Adler’s Quiltbag Compendium
Dahlia Adler’s list of LGBTQIAP+ Books By and About People who Identify as LGBTQIAP+
Lauren Barack’s article in School Library Journal “LGBTQ and You: How to Support Your Students”
GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network)
Malinda Lo’s Guide to LGBT YA
Angie Manfredi’s guest post on The Gay YA “How to Make Your Library a Safe Space for Queer Teens”
Here are some suggestions if you are interested in learning more too:
- Read lots of LGBTQIA books. I’ve done that to a certain extent in the past, but this year to push myself, I’m also participating in the LGBTQIA Reading Challenge hosted by Pretty Deadly Reviews. Some of the resources above include fantastic reading lists.
- There are many LGBTQIA people on Twitter and other social media (see Dahlia’s list). Seek out reviews to see what LGBTQIA readers think about books with LGBTQIA characters. Almost Perfect was a book that gave me pause. Well, it flat out made me angry multiple times as I imagined a transgender youth reading some of the text. I searched out some reviews and also found this informative essay on Gay YA “The “Acceptance” Narrative in Trans YA.”
- Make local connections. Is there a local Pride Center or something like that in your community? Are there GSAs in the local schools or universities? They will likely have many resources available.
Want to promote LGBTQIA books?
- Purchase them. Money speaks to publishers. To encourage the publication of more LGBTQIA materials, we need to buy them.
- After buying them (or requesting your library to do so), promote them. Even short reviews can help get the word out. If you work in a library, be sure to display the books. Buying them isn’t enough. They have to be visible so patrons know they exist. LGBTQIA books can be in thematic displays or booklists of many types. If the topic is science fiction, you could include Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz, Proxy by Alex London, Adaptation by Malinda Lo and More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera.
I work in an elementary level library so I obviously don’t have YA there, but am definitely buying, displaying and booktalking LGBTQIA materials like George by Alex Gino, Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle, I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, and This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman among others. Some librarians may be concerned about parent or community objections to these materials, but students need these materials to be available. Getting into an intellectual freedom dispute may be uncomfortable for adults, but students having access to these materials is essential, so for me there’s no question as to whether I will provide them or not.
Earlier I called this a journey. It’s not always easy, but it’s totally worth the work. I want my students and readers of my blog posts to have access to amazing titles of all types and be able to find those windows and mirrors they need and want.
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Crystal Brunelle is a Teacher Librarian at Northern Hills Elementary School in Onalaska, WI and co-founder of the YA blog Rich in Color. She also has a personal book blog, Reading Through Life and may be found on Twitter @librarygrl2.
Author Interview: Leigh Bardugo
While I was at BEA, I got a chance to meet and interview the fabulous Leigh Bardugo author of The Grisha Trilogy, Six of Crows, and the forthcoming Crooked Kingdom. Six of Crows is one of my top 5 favorite books, and I was so excited to be able to meet and interview her that I was basically spacing out for the whole interview! We talked about the world building around how sexuality is perceived in the Grisha verse, negative (& positive!) reactions to queer characters, what we can expect from Crooked Kingdom re: Wylan and Jesper and more!
Managed to take almost no pics but here’s @marissa_meyer, @MikeCurato, @thegayYA, & @zlikeinzorro‘s gorgeous cover ❤ pic.twitter.com/D0Cg16suCR
— Leigh Bardugo (@LBardugo) May 15, 2016
(My fellow LGBTQIA+ YA bloggers Michael Waters and Shelly came with for the interview!! :D)
Vee: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, it’s so great to have you here!
Leigh: My pleasure! It’s so nice to be here.
Vee: So my first question is, so you have queer characters in both the series and I was wondering, did you go into them planning on making them queer? Or did they just (pun slightly intended) come out that way?
Leigh: I have a pretty varied peer group. Like… in terms of everything so it would’ve been weird to write teams or groups of people that didn’t reflect that. So it was a pretty natural thing. I felt coming out of the Grisha Trilogy that I 
actually could’ve done a better job with representation in terms of, well, everything. The Grisha Trilogy is a very white, very straight series of books. So I wanted to move away from that. And Six of Crows is also set in this city and, you know, Ravka is very isolated, it’s very old world, Ketterdam is kind of the anti Ravka. It’s cosmopolitan, it’s wealthy, people come from all over the world to be there, to work there, to have fun there, so it was this opportunity to present this very different kind of crew without having to go through and kind of weird somersaults to get there.
Vee: Yeah. Cool, that’s awesome. So it seems like the publishing world is getting more and more steadily okay with including queer characters, but there still seems to be some push back sometimes? So I wondered if you had any negative reactions to your queer characters.
Leigh: I have had very few, for one thing my publisher has sort of let me do whatever, like when I originally pitched Six of Crows I was like there’s no way! There’s gambling, there’s drugs, there’s all kinds… there’s pleasure houses like c’mon, they’re never going to let me do this and then they were like “good! Thumbs up!” They never pushed back for me on any of that stuff. Now, I had the advantage of having a fairly successful first series, so I imagine there are people who’ve had different experiences trying to get their first book published.
I will say that overwhelmingly the response from readers has been positive but there’s always a few people who are somehow shocked there could be gay people in a fantasy world, it just blows their mind! So yeah, I’ve gotten a few, I’ve had some very weird emails, a few angry reviews, but I think or hope that not only publishing but culture is changing so I think a least people know that there’s no point in yelling to me about it, like clearly I’m not gonna agree with you.
Vee: Yeah, I saw that “unnecessary lesbianism” anon, that was–
Leigh: Yeah, that was one of the most… But that’s the thing that’s utterly– ‘cause you would never ever say “why do you have these unnecessary hetero people in your book?” Yeah, I’ve had a few… I had somebody tell me they would never recommend my books because I had ruined my series with queer relationships– or, they did not use those terms, but that they felt that people might go to hell if they read my books.
Vee: Wow! That’s…
Leigh: And they were saving people by not recommending them and that she felt sorry for Tamir and Nadia because they were…
Vee: Oh my
Leigh: And she, her exact metaphor was, if you saw a friend walking into traffic, wouldn’t you stop them? And I was like, I got some bad news for you, but we all seem to be walking into traffic together, sooo…hey
Vee: Oh my goodness
Leigh: But again, I think it’s important for people… I worry sometimes that the negative stuff gets blown up and that that can do a lot of damage to, and that a majority of the reader love these characters and in fact I would say Jesper and Wylan are two of the most popular characters from Six of Crows, so.
Vee: Yeah, sure. Cool. I was really curious about how sexuality is perceived in the Grisha verse. There didn’t seem to be like any homophobia, but there did seem to be some heteronormativity, and characters assuming other characters were straight. So I was wondering what the world building around that was.
Leigh: Successfully or unsuccessfully, my goal was to present queer relationships as totally normal. Like, I feel like you have a lot of options in a fantasy world, and there’s a lot of prejudice in the Grisha world in a lot of ways… sometimes in terms of magical powers, sometimes in terms of skin color, but I wanted to create a fantasy world that was not as f**ked up– sorry– as ours. And from moment one that was like “yeah, sure” you know? I think in some ways it’s good to just see a positive, healthy, happy couple.
Vee: Yeah, no, absolutely.
Leigh: One thing that was interesting to me though too was that a lot of people who originally read the Grisha trilogy– like one reviewer was like “I did not appreciate the plot twist with Jesper’s sexuality”
Vee: Book 2 in the Wicked Lovely Series Leigh: And I was like– and even people who love that relationship, like, unless you are reading from a very heteronormative place, like, it is clear that Jesper has a thing for Kaz to begin with. Vee: Yeah, that’s totally clear. Leigh: And it’s clear that he and Wylan are like flirting all over the place, like very conspicuously. So I think it’s interesting that even people who embrace those relationships are like, is this a thing? Is this okay for this to be at thing? Like people come at me all the time to be like “is this canon?” and I’m like “hell yeah it’s canon” like. Wait for book two. Vee: I remember, there was this series called the Wicked Lovely series? Leigh: Oh yeah! Vee: And there were two, well, a few queer characters in there, and it was canon and pretty clear, but people who still be like, like they’d go on this forum and be like “guys, I think these two might have a thing for each other” and it was like “yeees?” Leigh: That’s the thing that frustrates me too, like, plenty of people are like “can’t they just be friends?” and like yeah they can but so can you know, anybody. Like in that crew of six people there’s a lot of different relationship dynamics, so. Some of them are romantic, some of them are not romantic, some of them are sexual some of them are not sexual, so. Vee: Yeah, for sure! So, my last question is… So, Six of Crows is like, probably one of my top five favorite books of all time. Leigh: Are you serious? Thank you! Vee: Yeah, I just totally loved it. And one of my favorite things was Wylan and Jesper and the fact that there were six main characters and two of them were queer and they had a romantic subplot, and it was just like the coolest thing, and yeah! So I’m really looking forward to what’ll happen with them in Crooked Kingdom and I was wondering if you could share anything about what that might have in store for them. Vee: Yay! [laughs] Leigh: You’re going to learn a lot more about his past. You’re going to learn a lot more about Jesper’s past too, he didn’t really get an extended flashback in the first book, so like, there’s a shift I think in focus towards them. The both have some pretty serious stuff to overcome. I will also tell you that there are three and a half kissing scenes in Crooked Kingdom, but I will not tell you who they are Vee: Three and a half? [laughs] That is very specific. Leigh: Yeah… and they may not be who you expect! But I enjoyed writing them immensely. I’m actually a little worried because I really love romance in books but people often will us the love stories to undermine the validity of a work, like, if it’s romance than it’s not… in the same way they undermine YA. And relationships are very much at the forefront of this, because the first book is very much like a lot of tension, a lot of longing glances, everyone is super repressed. And it’s mainly because they’re about to die, like it’s totally okay to shelve your emotions if you are in the middle of a prison break. But uh, in the second book the stakes are just as high but they’re also in their home town. So in a way it’s as if the town has become a prison because they’re being hunted in their own city, so it provided me with some different moments for a lot of different relationships. A lot of parent relationships too. Like basically everybody’s demons are coming home to roost, so.. Vee: Ah, I’m so excited! Leigh: I hope you like it! It’s also crazy long, it’s a very long book. Vee: That sounds like a good thing [laughs]. Well, that’s all the questions I have… Leigh: Great questions! Vee: Thank you so much again. Leigh: My pleasure! — So uh, if you’re at all like me, you NEED Crooked Kingdom like ASAP, right? Pre-order it here! 
Leigh: Hmm. Okay, here’s what I can tell you… okay. I can tell you Wylan gets his own chapters
Being Queer, Being Latino and Being a Reader: One of Many Latinx Narratives.
by Joseph Jess
Many of us know how hard it is to find queer fiction, that is why we search the depths of the internet for it, blog about it and even write it. If you read enough of the queer fiction out there you will notice that the vast majority of it centers around White characters. We’ve read and loved these stories and will continue to read and love them but the lack of PoC representation is glaringly apparent. I am a queer Mexican-American who talks (and cries) about books on the internet, with a specific passion for Queer Lit. I’d like to share a bit about myself, about seeing myself in Queer Literature and why I do what I do.
A lot of Queer Lit focuses on the shameful idea of being gay, of the main character struggling with the fact that he is gay and then his family struggling with the same fact. Ironically enough, my life doesn’t really reflect that narrative. I’ve known I was a gay for as long as I could remember and, arguably, so did my family. I mean, when your kid screams Hilary Duff songs every day on the way to school, watches the Selena movie a billion times and confesses to you at the store that they think the lady ahead of you in line has pretty shoes, you gotta have some suspicions. And they did. I came out to my mother first because she was the only person’s acceptance I wanted. I told her (while sobbing, despite knowing she’d be okay with it) and her reaction was “Yeah mijo, I know. I love you. Do you have any dirty clothes? I’m doing the laundry.” She hugged me for a bit and went on about her day. I’ve been blessed, and because I have a few other gay cousins in my family, the rest of the coming-out process was pretty uneventful. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for that, because I know not everyone’s coming out was so easy.
The identity I have struggled with is actually my Latino identity. I do not speak spanish very well, despite constant practice, and that has been a major source of me feeling “not Latino enough.” On top of that, the lack of gay Latinos in shows or books also irrationally expressed to me something along the lines of “Real Latinos aren’t gay and they speak spanish fluently!!!” So instead of being a Proud Queer Latino™, I was just a Proud Queer™. In recent years, 
upon speaking with other Latinos and queer Latinos, I’ve begun to realize that there isn’t such a thing as being “Latino enough” and that I am who I am so I need to be proud. Another reason was the Latino queer characters I finally started to find, specifically those in books
As previously stated, the queer PoC representation is not the most extensive (to say the least), which means the amount of Queer Lit that focused on Latinos was even more sparse. It was books by Alex Sanchez that introduced me to Queer Lit and incidentally to queer Latinos. I read his books and was finally able to see bits of my queerness reflected on the pages. There were even queer Latino characters, seeing as Sanchez is a gay Latino himself, but I didn’t really begin to appreciate this until way later on in my queer reading adventures. After reading book upon book about White queer characters, I started to yearn for Latinos like myself in these pages. I regretted not appreciating Sanchez’s characters for their Latino identities as much as I appreciated them for their queer identities, just how I regretted not appreciating my own Latino identity as much as did my queer one.
I’d like to think it all finally began to click when I read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. This book deals with many topics but the character that interested me the most was Dante Quintana. He is told that he is a pocho, “a half-assed Mexican” as Aristotle Mendoza says. Dante, I personally felt, had similar issues with his Mexican identity, while being very comfortable in his Queer one. This was a bit monumental to me, a character who struggled with something very specific that I hadn’t seen talked about but knew from first hand experience? Unheard of. I love Dante for that reason, and because he’s just such a great character. I knew then that it did matter if I read Latino queer characters in books, because if it didn’t then I wouldn’t have felt so good after having done so.
On a more recent note, this past April I read Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera and it was another one of those profound and monumental moments for a queer Latino reader like myself. I saw myself in Juliet Palante in ways I hadn’t seen myself in any other character, similar to my reaction to Dante but yet completely different. In Juliet’s story I saw a young adult who was brown and queer like myself, who knew who she was and was proud, like myself, who was a nerd and from the hood, like myself but also an amazing person, like I hope to be. In her story I saw the queer people of color culture I hadn’t really seen yet in books: queer feminist and activists, young QPoC gathering together and loving each other, new queer romances between non-white characters, very raw and real emotions and so much more. This was a very realistic reflection of my perspective of the young queer life as a person of color in a big city and I was so amazingly in love with this story.
If you haven’t yet gathered, my point is that it’s very important to show many different types of stories when talking about queer narratives. In my case, many different Latino/Latinx stories. I have a newfound determination to not only read more Queer Lit (which I kickstarted in 2015 with my year of only reading books with queer protagonist, aka my Queer Year) but to read more Latinx queer lit. I have already read a few and I have more lined up. Hopefully I will continue to talk about them on the internet, post reviews on my blog and make videos about them on my YouTube channel, to spread the queer joy.
Anytime anyone asks me why I do this, why I read these books or why I talk about them online, I’d just said it’s what I enjoy but more recently I found a perfect quote that just about sums it up. It’s by someone named Van Binfa and it goes: “A lot of the things that I do are half for myself because I need to do it, and half for other people because I feel there’s a need for it out there.” I do it for myself, I do it because it’s important for me to have all these queer narratives in my soul but I also do it for other people, specifically queer people. I do it for the queer person who happens upon my videos and finds books that resonate with their soul. I do it for the queer people who can’t find these books, I do it for the queer PoC who are having an even tougher time finding themselves in Queer Lit. I do it because I want them to know that, despite what they might think or feel, they are not alone.
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Joseph Jess, known online as The Boy Who Cried Books, is a book blogger, BookTuber, and chili cheese fries fanatic. Aside from witches or queer representation, he loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter with all his heart, is an avid reader (obviously) and lover of clouds. Currently an English Lit major in Los Angeles, he hopes to one day find a career in a bibliophile field and share his love of books with the world and get a paycheck at the same time. You can find him at theboywhocriedbooks.com and @queerbrujo