Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series
Welcome to GayYA’s Bisexual Awareness Week Series!
Bisexual Awareness Week is a yearly event that “exists to help draw attention to the public policy concerns of bisexual people while also celebrating the great resiliency of bisexual culture and community.” (Find out more about it here http://www.bisexualweek.com/about/ and keep an eye on the #BiWeek hashtag!)
During Bisexual Awareness Week, we’ll feature posts from bisexual/biromantic contributors on various issues surrounding bisexuality in YA. We have a FANTASTIC line up of posts, and we’re so excited to share them with you all!
The Awareness Week series are something we’ve started doing for all of the LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on our site at all times, we’ve found that dedicating a specific and concentrated space to a community to talk about issues of how they’re represented in YA can produce phenomenal results.
A big part of Bisexual Awareness Week is Celebrate Bisexuality Day (also called Bi Visibility Day) on September 23rd. During Bi Visibility Day, we’ll be be tweeting throughout the day, to chat as a community about bisexuality in YA and recommend to each other our fave bisexual YA books. Though a focus will be given to supporting bisexual voices within the community, everyone is welcome to join in!
And now, let the series begin!
Pat Schmatz Blog Tour: Book Birthday
We’re thrilled to be hosting the last post of Pat Schmatz’s book release blog tour. Pat’s new book, Lizard Radio, is out in stores today! You should make sure and pick up a copy– not only is it a phenomenal read, it is also our pick for GayYA’s October Book Club. 😀
Check out all the stops on the blog tour, and enter the giveaway here!
| YA Books Central | The Pirate Tree |
| TeenReads | The Children’s Book Review |
| KidLit Frenzy | The Book Rat |
| Swoony Boys Podcast | Gay YA |
Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither?
Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift—the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the “knowings” inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world.
Hello Gay YA. When I started writing Lizard Radio, you did not yet exist. Now you do, and I do, and the world is changing.
I cannot tell you what a relief it was to write a book about a teen who is like me. Kivali is not me, but the ease of writing a teen with much of my core, essential experience of the world was amazing. It was a gift I could not have imagined when I started writing for teens at the age of 24.
I was out as a lesbian but I didn’t have a word for my experience of gender. Some words came close – androgynous, butch, dyke, tomboy – but they weren’t quite right. Radical feminism gave me a solid political and emotional foundation for my personal life, but when it came to working with kids at that time, anything gay was poison. I was carefully closeted in my writing, and kept any queer content in code.
I didn’t have to do that. I could have been fully myself from the start. But you see, I wanted to break into the business. I wanted to sell books. I didn’t know how to write my own experience in a way that people would buy or read. I thought it would always be like that.
It’s not like that anymore. It really isn’t.
I first heard Kathleen and Vee of Gay YA read at an open mic for young writers almost a year ago. They blew me away. Their writing was technically terrific, yes. But the words they were writing? That’s what got my attention. They were truly fierce. They made me want to be better, to do better. They made me write better.
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.
Lizard Radio is me standing over here on the island of my youth, waving furiously at the queer kids and trans kids and the young activists of all kinds – hollering to them “Hey, I’m here! See me? I’m oldish now, but I was once like you are and I’m still like you are and you are raising me these days as much as I’m raising you and THANK YOU.”
This world is still difficult, still dangerous. As of this writing in mid-August, 13 trans people have been murdered in the U.S., almost all people of color under the age of 30. Then there are all the young people who kill themselves, or those who shut up, duck and cover, pass when they can and stay silent when they can’t, those who are just trying to survive childhood and high school and emerge into the world unscathed. It’s safer on Main Street now, but not in the back alleys. We have some new safety in numbers, but we’re also a threat in our numbers and the backlash is wicked.
My dream is that Lizard Radio helps at least one young person take a step toward living their truth, knowing they should and will be loved and appreciated for exactly who they are (whatever and whoever that may be). This book is my first uncoded effort to stand up and say, “Hello my young friends, I am here and I stand with you, bringing all of my privilege of race and education and the security that comes with the invisibility and respectability of aging. We need you. I need you. Bring on your activism, your social media networking, your voices and your truth. Don’t let them shut you up, okay? Do what you need to stay safe, but do not let them shut you up. At the very least, speak the truth in your own mind until the day comes when you’re safe to speak it out loud. Then speak it, and speak it loud.”
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Pat grew up in rural Wisconsin and has lived in Michigan, California, and Minnesota. In addition to writing, she’s interested in language study (ASL, Italian, Japanese and Spanish), drawing/cartooning, travel and anything outdoors. She occasionally teaches writing on-line and in person, and is always happy for a chance to visit a middle school or high school classroom. Her #1 favorite hobby, relaxation and adventure has been the same since she was little – stories. Stories in books, music, art, dance – it’s all about the story. Find her on Twitter or Facebook.
Author Interview: Elliott DeLine
We’re thrilled to be talking today with Elliott DeLine, author of the YA/NA books Refuse and I Know Very Well How I Got My Name, and the autobiographical nonfiction book Show Trans! We got to chat with him a bit about his work, transgender YA, and why it’s so important to have transgender authors writing trans YA. We also got some great questions from Elliott’s readers about his writing process and more!
Vee: Hey Elliott! Thank you so much for joining us on GayYA. To start, can you share a little bit about yourself and your books?
Elliott: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me on GayYA. Let’s see, a bit about myself. I’m a 27 year old writer. I am trans. I use he/him/his pronouns. I was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. I like to travel and I live in a motorhome with my partner, his son, and our two cats. I also make art and write songs. I have written and published three books, which I am very bad at summarizing. That’s one of the hard things about self-publishing: you have to do everything, including come up with a sales pitch for your books. And if novelists were good at being brief, they wouldn’t write novels. I will attempt none the less to sum each book up in a sentence. Refuse: a socially awkward, shy, and depressed trans man named Dean is obsessed with Morrissey and music, falls in love with his college roommate, another trans man who has a girlfriend and a band. It’s about being an outsider among outsiders. My second book, a novella, is a coming-of-age story about the same protagonist, Dean, and his experience from like age 3-16. It’s a prequel to Refuse, and it’s mostly his abusive relationship with a girl and bullying by his peers junior high and high school. It’s about and feeling alone and finding your voice. Those two books have both been compared to The Catcher in the Rye, which I take as a big compliment. Lastly, there is Show Trans, which is a memoir I published last October. It’s the hardest one to summarize. It’s about my experiences attempting to date, traveling West, and facing a lot of messed up stuff as a trans young adult.
Refuse by Elliott DeLine (2011)
V: Reading trans YA can have a big impact on trans teens, especially those that were written by authors who are themselves trans. What kind of responses have you gotten from trans teens, and why do you think it is important for trans authors to tell trans stories?
E: I’ve gotten really great feedback from teens about my books. Particularly the first two. People have told me that I expressed things they weren’t seeing talked about anywhere else, or that it’s the first transgender protagonist they actually related to. I’ve had people tell me that my books helped them through really hard times. When people tell me these things, it means the world to me. I could cry about it, honestly. I wish more teens had access to my books, but I’m still a pretty underground artist at this point.
I think it’s important to have trans people writing about their own experiences for fairly obvious reasons. I’m tired of people speaking for us and using us to sensationalize their story and make money. Trans people deserve to speak for themselves, like all people.
V: What are your favorite books starring transgender protagonists (besides your own, of course!)?
E: I’ve struggled to find many books with trans protagonists that I related to or enjoyed. I sat and thought about this question a long time and had trouble coming up with anything. I think that’s telling. I did like Stone Butch Blues. That book was important to me, even if it was different from my own experience. Nothing else jumps to mind. This isn’t to say there aren’t good things out there: just nothing I can think of that I really loved, personally. I wish there were more books and movies where a character were trans, incidentally, instead of that being the whole focus.
Signy asks: Describe your writing process. Do you outline? Do you write every day? Set a schedule for writing? Any habits?
E: My writing process varies greatly, often depending on my mental state and mental health. Sometimes I have a routine, sometimes I do not. It depends on the project and what feels right. I usually write something every day, even if it’s just in a journal, because writing makes me feel good. But I can’t say I commit to working on Official Creative Writing Projects every day. I have other interests and responsibilities and self-care that take up time as well. And sometimes days and even weeks will pass without me writing something significant.
If by outline you mean scribble notes to myself, then yes. It’s not a very organized process, but it works for me. For the most part, I just go with what comes out. It depends on the project.
I’ve tried setting schedules, but usually they only work short term. If I say “I will get up every morning at 7 am and write!” that isn’t likely to happen. But if I say, “Tomorrow, I want to get up at 7 am an write,” then usually I can follow through. I try to stay in the present.
Any habits? Hm. I like to write in coffee houses and other calm, public places. Sometimes that works better for me than working in isolation. Other times I need complete privacy. I also find walking first helps me get into a writing mindset.
I Know Very Well How I Got My Name by Elliott DeLine (2013)
Krys asks: On what medium do you usually do your rough drafts? Do you have a special notebook? What do you do when inspiration hits and you don’t have a way of writing immediately?
E: My rough drafts are usually typed, with occasional exceptions. The document is like a living, changing body, all the way up until the finished piece. Sometimes I have a rough draft and then a second document that I copy and paste into, for a final draft, so that I have the outtakes in case I change my mind.
I do have a special notebook! I’ve had many. I’m a pretty avid journaler, outside of my public writing. I have a general notebook where I just write whatever I feel I need to. Again, it’s not that organized. It’s the act of writing that is therapeutic for me. I also usually have notebooks specially for ideas related to my current main project, so that I can write ideas down when inspiration hits and not forget them. I carry that with me most places.
Brad asks: How much time do you spend revising your work? How many people review your writings before you publish them? Can you describe the transformation from the first draft to the published work?
E: I spend a great deal of time revising my work, both as I go along and when I go over the final drafts. For the most part, I have been my own editor. I’ve usually had one or two other people who I trusted read over my final drafts and provide feedback, as well as point out grammatical errors I may have missed. But for the most part, it’s a solo endeavor, right up to when I submit the document to the sef-publishing website and order the printed copies. That’s how I like things, even if it means the occasional imperfections. The readers know that what they are getting is authentically me.
Teylor asks: Things you are sick of seeing in Gay YA? Things you would like to see more of?
E: I don’t read a lot of LGBTQ YA, but I will say that I am sick of stories about transgender characters by cisgender authors. Sometimes they are OK, but I think we really need more transgender young people writing stories from their own perspectives. That would be very powerful. I am interested in helping other young queer writers self-publish, like I did. It doesn’t have to be costly for us. It wasn’t for me. It’s important our voices are heard firsthand and that other people don’t profit off them. I encourage young writers to look into self-publishing, and to not wait for someone to tell them their writing and stories are “good enough.” You can start a blog, make ebooks, print-on-demand websites, zines… You get to decide when you are a writer, not some university degree or agent or publisher. Those things can be OK, but what’s most important is good storytelling. And you can do that all on your own, starting today. If you have the energy, go for it! And be wary of people who want to take your stories without paying you, for anthologies or other things. It’s OK to have boundaries and not feel it is your duty to share your story, just to help others or enhance visibility. You deserve to succeed as well.
Credit: Joseph Mudge
Elliott DeLine is a 27 year old transgender writer from Syracuse, NY. He has published three books: Refuse, I Know Very Well How I Got My Name, and Show Trans, as well as numerous essays and short stories. Elliott also makes visual art and music.
Cover Reveal + Interview: Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community by Robin Stevenson
Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community by Robin Stevenson is delving into an awesome new area—it’s a Middle Grade nonfiction book about the history of Pride and Stonewall! It’ll be coming out April 2016. Today, we’re THRILLED to reveal the awesome cover of this awesome book. We also got to talk to the fantastic author herself about why this book needs to exist, what exactly is in it, and why you should be super excited for its release in April 2016!
For LGBTQ people and their supporters, Pride events are an opportunity to honor the past, protest injustice and celebrate a diverse and vibrant community. The high point of Pride, the Pride Parade, is spectacular and colorful. But there is a whole lot more to Pride than rainbow flags and amazing outfits. How did Pride come to be? And what does Pride mean to the people who celebrate it?
Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community by Robin Stevenson (Orca Book Publishers, 2016)
Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community by Robin Stevenson (Orca Book Publishers, 2016)
Isn’t it fantastic?! I think it has the perfect feel for a Middle Grade book about Pride, and these pictures are just amazing.
Below is our interview with the author, Robin Stevenson!
Vee: There are a number of books out there about Pride and Stonewall, but none (that we know of) that are targeted towards Middle Grade readers. We think it’s SO COOL that you’ve dived into this! What made you want to write about this, and what are you hoping young readers will get out of this book?
Robin: As a queer parent of an eleven year old, I’ve been struck by how rarely my son sees families like his in the books he reads. And kids shouldn’t have to wait until they’re in their teens to see queer families and learn about the LGBTQ community. My son was a month old at his first Pride Day, and has been to Pride every year since. At Pride, kids get to see a wonderful diversity of people, families, gender identities, sexual orientations and forms of self-expression, and to see this diversity as beautiful—as something to celebrate. I think every kid deserves to experience that. I’d love to see this book in school libraries so that kids with queer families and kids who are themselves LGBTQ can see themselves reflected in these pages– and so that all kids can learn more about the history of Pride and the diverse community that celebrates it.
V: What was your research process like and how did you decide what to include? There’s a lot of info about Stonewall and Pride out there, some of it rather dark. How did you go about deciding what would go in a middle grade book about this?
R: Deciding what to include—and what to leave out– was definitely one of the hardest parts of the writing process. I felt like every small section I wrote really deserved a whole book to itself. I mean– Stonewall! Sylvia Rivera! ACT UP and Queer Nation! Coming out in high school! Gay-Straight Alliances! Intersex activism! Drag! Pride in Uganda!—and the list goes on… Luckily, my publisher is awesome and let the book grow considerably longer than the word count we had agreed on in my original proposal.
I tried to keep the language straightforward and accessible without over-simplifying some fairly complex issues—which was challenging– and I tried to reflect the ways in which Pride is both protest and celebration. And I included personal stories of individual LGBTQ kids, teens and families, which I think will speak very directly to young readers.
The book covers the history of Pride, explores and explains some of the diverse identities that make up the LGBTQ community, and looks at some of the ways Pride Day is celebrated in North America and around the world, as well as touching on the challenges (both internal and external) that the LGBTQ community continues to face.
V: Since this is a cover reveal, let’s talk about this awesome cover! How do you think it fits with the theme of the book? What do you hope it’ll get across to readers? And what was the design process like?
R: Pride is about equality, diversity and freedom- and it’s something everyone who shares those ideals can participate in. I wanted a cover that reflected that idea, and that would appeal to young readers. The cover photo is from a Pride parade on Canada’s west coast and I love the bright colors and energy and movement in this image– and the quirkiness of the unicycle. And I love the back cover too— it suggests the shape of a flag flying, and I think it captures something of the diversity and spirit of the community that celebrates Pride.
All my previous books are novels, so the design process was totally new and interesting one for me. I spent a great deal of time searching for photographs and was thrilled with people’s generosity in sharing their pictures. And I love the overall look and layout of the book— the designer—Orca Book Publishers’ Rachel Page— has a wonderful eye for color and she put a huge amount of time and energy into making this book look absolutely gorgeous.
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On Love in a Dystopian Time: A Call to ([White] Queer) YA Authors About #BlackLivesMatter
by Jennifer Polish
As authors (us too, fan fic writers!), aspiring authors, and readers of YA literature, many of us are often thinking about the meanings of love in dystopian societies. Katniss’s protectiveness of Rue, of Prim. Peeta’s devotion to Katniss. Tris and Christina. Tris and Four. Lucky and Digory. Loup and Pilar. David and Callan.
But, as YA enthusiasts, it is also our responsibility to think long and to think hard on love in this dystopian time.
Because if you go to buy Skittles while Black, or if you love someone who does; if you attend a pool party with family and friends while Black, or love someone who does; if you drive while Black, or love someone who does; if you run through Central Park while Black (there is something distinctly dystopian about Jacqueline Woodson’s main character in If You Come Softly – a teenager – getting shot down by the state for running because he is excited by young love) – then you know that people often write and read very overtly dystopian YA fantasies because we need to root for the proverbial underdog, winning against insurmountable odds. And many like it because it is necessary, as food for survival, because this, too, is a dystopian time.
And especially as queer YA readers and writers, we need to care that most queers in our stories are white – and that does not accurately reflect the world (not to mention it perpetuates stereotypes of queerness as whiteness).
We need to care that in too much YA dystopian stories that take place in futuristic human societies, racism is written off as though it never existed – this “colorblind” thinking only perpetuates the racism that white supremacist structures enforce.
So those interested in GayYA need to blog, tweet, protest, engage – as often as we do in #weneeddiversebooks chats – about how #BlackLivesMatter matters in GayYA. We need to be as communicative about state violence against people of color as we are about the underrepresentation of all queers in YA lit: because the most underrepresented of us are queer POC, and because all of our oppressions are carried out by interrelated structures. Like the criminal justice system (which targets young QPOC all the time); like the education system (great white straight cis men, right?); the publishing industry that so often refuses to put QPOC on cover art (go Malinda Lo for Huntress’s cover art!). And on and on.
White as I am, I don’t want to finish this piece on my own. So here is Maisha S. Johnson on the importance of science fiction, though for our purposes – and I hope Maisha would approve – I am switching out “sci fi” for “YA”, and hope that we continue in this vein:
“Some might call
Through [YA], we create conversations challenging the conditions we’re struggling in and shine light on the remarkable ways our communities survive and work to support and liberate one another. We can question our expectations of gender expression and race, and our sense of who economic and technological systems should benefit and how. I can wonder, “What if everyone in the world was as queer as I am?” and actually take to the page to visualize a world of magical topsy-turvy gender expression and abundant flirtation. I can do one of the most loving things I could ever do for myself – step away from the expectations and walk the wild path I can only create for myself.”
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Jennifer Polish is an adjunct English professor at CUNY Queens College and PhD student in English at the CUNY Graduate Center. When she’s not working on her debut YA fantasy novel (so queer that she felt the need to include some token straight cis characters), she is likely to be reading or writing about YA literature for school, sweating an absurd amount at the gym, or writing fan fiction in small, dark corners.