Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Literary Reviews
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
    • Erotic Novels
    • BEST SELLING BOOKS
    • Science Fiction Books
    • Business and Management
    • Computing and IT
    • Cooking
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE
    • Erotic
    • Mysteries, Thrillers
    • Literary Themes
    • Business and Management
    • Literary Agents
    • Literary Devices
    • New Books
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults Novels
    • Computing and IT
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality Novels
No Result
View All Result
Literary Reviews
Home Kindle Publishing

5 LGBTQ Authors On The Inspiration Behind Their Young Adult And Middle Grade Books

admin by admin
June 24, 2020
in Kindle Publishing
0
5 LGBTQ Authors On The Inspiration Behind Their Young Adult And Middle Grade Books
0
SHARES
1
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


lgbtq young adult middle grade kacen callender leah johnson book covers queer

Covers of young adult and middle grade books Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender, The Henna Wars by … [+] Adiba Jaigirdar, Camp by L. C. Rosen, Rainbow Revolutionaries by Sarah Prager and You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.

Balzer + Bray, Page Street Kids, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, HarperCollins, Scholastic

For Pride month, I interviewed 10 LGBTQ authors about their latest books, broken out into two parts. Below are five young adult and middle grade authors who each explore the inspiration behind their book, their intended audience, their learning process and what they hope readers take away. See part 2 featuring authors of adult books here.

Kacen Callender, Felix Ever After (Balzer + Bray, May 5, young adult)

Related posts

London, Ont. teen who worked at long-term care home dies after COVID-19 diagnosis

London, Ont. teen who worked at long-term care home dies after COVID-19 diagnosis

January 24, 2021
Jael Richardson discusses her new novel ‘Gutter Child’: ‘What happens when you grow up in a world that’s designed for your failure?’

Jael Richardson discusses her new novel ‘Gutter Child’: ‘What happens when you grow up in a world that’s designed for your failure?’

January 23, 2021
kacen callender felix ever after trans young adult novel author

Kacen Callender is the author of young adult novel Felix Ever After (Balzer + Bray).

Ashley Cain

What was the inspiration for your book?

When I was questioning my gender identity a few years ago, I came across the label demiboy. I’d never heard the term before, but it perfectly described the feelings of my nonbinary identity that is sometimes fluid and becomes more binary as a guy. I’d wished I had heard the word before, and also thought how much of an influence a transgender character in a story was for me on my journey to discovering that I was trans, so decided I wanted to write about a demiboy character, Felix, with the hope that he might help someone on the path to discovering their gender identity, too.

Who is your intended audience for the book?

The intended audience is transgender and nonbinary teens. Though some content might not always be appropriate for younger readers, I also hope that trans and nonbinary adults can find joy and validation in Felix’s story.

What did you learn about yourself while writing it?

I constantly struggle with feelings of self-worth and self-love, as a Black, queer, and trans person in a world that doesn’t always love me; I already knew that I have to love myself, but writing Felix Ever After, which is so much about self-love and validation, felt like a constant affirmation of love for myself.

What do you hope readers take away from it?

I hope that readers will enjoy a funny, romantic contemporary, where realistic teens make mistake and learn and grow; but my biggest hope is that transgender and nonbinary youth will feel validated and seen.

Adiba Jaigirdar, The Henna Wars (Page Street Kids, May 12, young adult)

adiba jaigirdar the henna wars queer muslim young adult novel author

Adiba Jaigirdar is the author of the young adult novel The Henna Wars (Page Street Kids).

Lia Carlotti

What was the inspiration for your book?

Henna was the inspiration for this book! I was on a summer holiday visiting my grandmother in Bangladesh. I had a lot of tubes of henna and decided to teach myself how to do henna. Growing up, it had always been my cousins applying henna to me, so I had never learnt how to do it. Unfortunately, I’m not a good visual artist so I wasn’t very successful at doing henna. But it sparked an idea of two teen girls with rivaling henna businesses. The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. Then, I thought, wouldn’t it be even better if the two were romantically interested in each other? I’ve always loved the enemies-to-lovers/rivals-to-lovers trope, so it seemed like the perfect way to write the story.

Who is your intended audience for the book?

Obviously, as a writer I hope that my book has universal appeal. But I really wrote it for my younger teen self. A queer Brown Muslim girl who never got to see representations of herself in books or any kind of media, really. So, extending that outwards, my intended audience for this book is the teens who are like me. The queer Brown and Muslim girls who are unfortunately still starved of representation in media.

What did you learn about yourself while writing it?

I learned a lot about how I’ve changed as a person since I was a teenager, to now. A lot of the things that my main character, Nishat, goes through on the page are reminiscent of experiences that I had as a teenager, but I didn’t have the tools or language to be able to deal with it in the way that my character does. I suppose I learned that I’ve grown a lot!

What do you hope readers take away from it?

I hope that readers can take away Nishat’s resilience. She is the kind of character who comes up against a lot of difficult things but never wavers in her trust in herself and her love for who she is. For queer readers, and especially queer readers of colour, this is a really difficult thing to hold onto. So many of us are told from a young age that we shouldn’t be who we are, that we are undeserving of love and support. But Nishat is not a character who believes those things, even when they are said to her. So, I hope that readers can leave the book feeling like they love themselves a little more. 

L.C. Rosen, Camp (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, May 26, young adult)

lc rosen l.c. author camp gay young adult novel

L. C. Rosen is the author of the young adult novel Camp (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers).

Rachael Shane

What was the inspiration for your book?

The original inspiration for Camp were those 1960s Doris Day/Rock Hudson screwball comedies about the battle of the sexes. I always loved that genre, and felt it was a shame that queer stories were so few and far between then that we never got to see that genre as a queer story. So I took that idea, and made it queer and modern and for teens, by putting it at an all queer summer camp where they could have a sort of “battle of the masc/femme” love story. 

Who is your intended audience for the book?

It’s young adult, but I think adults would enjoy it, too—and straight teens and adults are included in that! A summer camp love story is a summer camp love story! But, when I think about right now, I think mostly about all the queer kids at home who maybe are missing their summers because of COVID-19, and how they might even be cut off from their queer communities because of living with their straight parents. So I really hope Camp gets to them most of all. 

What did you learn about yourself while writing it?

I think I had a chance to sort of reclaim actual summer camp for myself? I went to a conservative Jewish summer camp and experienced a lot of homophobia there. So being able to write about a joyous summer camp was a real joy, and made me think about summer camp in a new way. 

What do you hope readers take away from it?

I hope that readers take away that there’s no right way to be queer, and we have to define our queerness for ourselves, not let other people define it for us. That being more traditionally masculine or feminine has no value to it—what has value is being the version of yourself that makes you the most happy. 

Sarah Prager, Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (HarperCollins, May 26, nonfiction)

sarah prager rainbow revolutionaries lgbtq queer

Sarah Prager is the author of the middle grade nonfiction book Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 … [+] LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (HarperCollins).

Denis LargeronTagg Magazine

What was the inspiration for your book?

I was overwhelmed by the response to my LGBTQ+ history book for teens, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World, and saw there was a need for more like it. So many high schoolers told me they wished they had learned about this hidden history earlier. I wanted to create a book for even younger readers so that they could enter their adolescence already knowing that LGBTQ+ people have been a part of human history for all time and are not some new fad. And if those middle schoolers come out to themselves, they could already know that they have powerful ancestors at their backs who are pretty amazing role models.

Who is your intended audience for the book?

This is a middle grade book, so it’s intended audience is readers ages 8-12 or so. That being said, I think teens will also enjoy it and the illustrations make it a gorgeous coffee table book option for adults as well. I’ve even used it as a way to start some conversations with my three-year-old. Non-LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ readers alike will learn some fascinating stories.

What did you learn about yourself while writing it? 

As a cisgender person writing transgender stories in this book, I learned to listen and edit at every turn. When writing trans history, historians struggle between “accuracy” (like using a person’s legal name instead of their chosen name) and respect, and how using modern terms and constructions could be anachronistic. For me, I believe telling trans stories today must be done with respect to the pronouns and name that person would most likely have used today, based on the ones they chose to use throughout their life. I was saddened to see how many sources I encountered in my research do not take that approach.

What do you hope readers take away from it?

LGBTQ+ people are diverse, talented, strong, and fabulous. Our gift to do things our own way has led to inventions from the computer to the high five to satellite radio to airplanes. Those inventors are all in this book and I hope readers are inspired to see that LGBTQ+ people are an integral part of everyone’s daily lives and that our work to dismantle homophobia, transphobia, and other discrimination helps all people through allowing LGBTQ+ innovators to contribute to society as their full selves.

Leah Johnson, You Should See Me in a Crown (Scholastic, June 2, young adult)

leah johnson queer young adult novel you should see me in a crown

Leah Johnson is the author of young adult novel You Should See Me in a Crown (Scholastic).

Reece T. Williams

What was the inspiration for your book?

Liz’s story rose out of an attempt to write into the empty spaces that I saw in YA growing up. I wanted to put a girl on the page who lived and loved and did her best by the people she cares about that I hadn’t read before. I was also thinking a lot about the imagery of what it would look like to give a queer Black girl everything she deserves—to literally put a crown on her head and call her a queen. What would seeing that have done for me as a teenager? What does seeing that mean for me now? All of the pieces sort of fell into place when I began framing it for myself in that way.

Who is your intended audience for the book?

My goal, always, is for Black girls—especially queer Black girls—to see themselves reflected on the page and feel both seen and cared for in my work. They—we—are my first priority. 

What did you learn about yourself while writing it?

This book pushed me to confront a lot of the fear and shame I’d been holding onto since my own adolescence surrounding queerness. As you see Liz growing in the book—getting closer and closer to the type of life where she feels comfortable enough to live her life out loud—I was taking that journey as well. This book will always hold a special place in my heart for its lessons in radical joy and honesty.

What do you hope readers take away from it? 

Liz Lighty is growing up in a town that is very small, very white, and very wealthy—all things Liz herself is not. She’s constantly surrounded by people reminding her whether implicitly or explicitly that they don’t believe she’s worthy of the same freedoms and privileges that they have. So she’s internalized shame, she’s espoused silence with survival, and she’s made herself small as a means of navigating her community. So I knew all of that needed to be part of Liz’s arc: shattering these expectations of the Good Minority, learning to take up space, figuring out what it means to enter every room as a whole person—all of that. I would like my readers to know that too. You deserve every crown, every happy ending. I promise.



Source link

Tags: adultAuthorsBooksGradeinspirationLGBTQMiddleyoung
Previous Post

Even workout classes can be sacred to help people without religion, says spiritual author Casper ter Kuile

Next Post

Global Computing Device Operating System Market 2020 – Impact of COVID-19, Future Growth Analysis and Challenges

Next Post
Global Computing Device Operating System Market 2020 – Impact of COVID-19, Future Growth Analysis and Challenges

Global Computing Device Operating System Market 2020 – Impact of COVID-19, Future Growth Analysis and Challenges

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECOMMENDED NEWS

You Should Write a Book – San Francisco Bay Times

You Should Write a Book – San Francisco Bay Times

7 months ago
On Writing About Family, Partition and a Woman Who Rebuilt Her Life

On Writing About Family, Partition and a Woman Who Rebuilt Her Life

4 months ago
The Day – New book on Montelli hearkens happy memories

The Day – As winter approaches, local therapists share coping strategies for anxiety and depression

2 months ago
Mystery and Suspense – Eugene Weekly

Mystery and Suspense – Eugene Weekly

2 months ago

Products

  • A Dictionary of Business and Management (Oxford Quick Reference) £6.50
  • Preppy Part Two: The Life and Death of Samuel Clearwater (The King Series Book 6) £1.93
  • Quiet: Silencing the brain chatter and believing that you’re good enough £4.99
  • My Hero Theo: The brave police dog who went beyond the call of duty to save lives £10.65
  • Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too £15.63

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

  • Book Writing
  • Business and Management
  • Computing and IT
  • Cooking Books
  • Education
  • Erotic
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Literary Agents
  • Literary Devices
  • Literary Review
  • Literary Themes
  • Literature
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • New Books
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Romantic Novels
  • Science Fiction
  • Self Help

RELATED PRODUCTS

  • Sweet Hope (Sweet Home Series Book 4) £3.99
  • Slime: The new children’s book from No. 1 bestselling author David Walliams. £6.00
  • Children of Time: Winner of the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award (The Children of Time Novels) £8.19
  • The Brainwashing Book: Hypnotic, Erotic Behaviorism and Beyond £11.60
  • Again Again £6.55

PRODUCT CATEGORIES

  • Best Selling Books
  • Erotic
  • Science Fiction Books
  • Cooking
  • Business and Management
  • Education
  • Computing and IT
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Teens & Young Adults
  • Self Help
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • Romance Books
Literary Reviews

Follow us on social media:

Recent News

  • Israeli romantic novel translated into Arabic for the first time – Middle East Monitor
  • Spotify Tests Audiobooks With ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Jane Eyre’ and Other Literary Classics (Exclusive)
  • Lust From Beyond Release Date Delayed to Late February 2021

Category

  • Book Writing
  • Business and Management
  • Computing and IT
  • Cooking Books
  • Education
  • Erotic
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Literary Agents
  • Literary Devices
  • Literary Review
  • Literary Themes
  • Literature
  • Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense
  • New Books
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Romantic Novels
  • Science Fiction
  • Self Help

Recent News

Israeli romantic novel translated into Arabic for the first time – Middle East Monitor

Israeli romantic novel translated into Arabic for the first time – Middle East Monitor

January 25, 2021
Spotify Tests Audiobooks With ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Jane Eyre’ and Other Literary Classics (Exclusive)

Spotify Tests Audiobooks With ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Jane Eyre’ and Other Literary Classics (Exclusive)

January 25, 2021
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE

© 2020 literaryreviews

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • OUR BOOK SHOP
    • Erotic Novels
    • BEST SELLING BOOKS
    • Science Fiction Books
    • Business and Management
    • Computing and IT
    • Cooking
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults
  • Literary Review
  • Literature
  • Book Writing
  • Kindle Publishing
  • Romantic
  • Science Fiction
  • Cooking
  • MORE
    • Erotic
    • Mysteries, Thrillers
    • Literary Themes
    • Business and Management
    • Literary Agents
    • Literary Devices
    • New Books
    • Self Help
    • Teens & Young Adults Novels
    • Computing and IT
    • Education
    • Religion & Spirituality Novels

© 2020 literaryreviews

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In