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I’ll Write LGBTQ Characters Forever

By |2020-03-28T13:42:01-05:00May 1st, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: |

by Francesca Lia Block I'm often asked about my LGBTQ characters but it's kind of like asking me about women and men, or teenagers and adults, in my books.  They just happen to be who they are and they're usually based on people I know and love. I don't think about it consciously, though I do want to include a diverse array of characters and I believe it's important to have more books about all under-represented people, including the LGBTQ community. Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block (Henry Holt and Co., 2013) [...]

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Announcing the GayYA Blogathon!!

By |2020-03-28T13:42:01-05:00May 1st, 2015|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

GayYA has many goals, but everything we do essentially comes down to one purpose: get more LGBTQIA+ YA published. We are more committed to this than ever! This May, we're thrilled to bring you a month long blogathon. Every day, you'll hear from different authors, librarians, educators, and bloggers. We hope to use this opportunity to spread the love far and wide for LGBTQIA+ YA, and show anyone that might have any doubt that there is huge audience for LGBTQIA+ YA. (If we can accomplish these things, more LGBTQIA+ YA will be published!) We so look forward to [...]

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Call for Volunteers

By |2020-03-28T13:42:01-05:00April 20th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

Join us in our mission to provide a platform to discuss and promote queer YA! As a GayYA volunteer you can connect with our group of volunteers who are all extremely passionate about queer YA, create unique resources that support authors and enable teens to find queer books, and occasionally read queer YA before it is published. We are looking for five new volunteers. The general time commitment for volunteers is 5 hr/wk, but it is subject to change as our busyness increases and decreases, and we can be a little flexible around your schedule. Volunteers may be [...]

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New Releases: April 2015

By |2020-03-28T13:42:01-05:00April 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

April 2nd (USA) Weathering the Storm (Harmony Ink Press, 2015) Weathering the Storm by Caitlin Ricci -- (GAY) Goodreads Summary: "Robbie’s dad has always been hard on Robbie and his brothers, but when their mom dies on Robbie’s sixteenth birthday, he becomes downright abusive. Robbie doesn't understand why his dad is so mean to him or why his brothers resent him for their mom's accident, but he desperately tries to hide the bruises. On top of that, after his dad's horse training jobs run out, he moves them to Colorado to their uncle's ranch in the [...]

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It’s GayYA’s Fourth Birthday!

By |2020-03-28T13:42:02-05:00April 2nd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

For our Fourth anniversary, we are taking a trip back through the best of GayYA's archives, and celebrating 4 years of excellence from authors, readers, educators, and more by featuring a post a day for the month of April. In May, we'll host a month long blogathon, which we are SO EXCITED ABOUT!! :D To keep up with which posts we're featuring as the #BestofGayYA, follow this post! Speaking Into the Frost by Jessica Albrecht One of my characters recently – and completely unexpectedly – came out to me. I smiled when it happened. I looked up into the trees. It [...]

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Author Interview: Everett Maroon

By |2020-03-28T13:42:02-05:00March 30th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Interview|Tags: |

Today we bring you an interview with Everett Maroon, author of The Unintentional Time Traveler and Bumbling into Body Hair. In 2011 he was a regular contributor for GayYA-- we're so pleased to have him back for this interview on his books, trans YA, and himself. Hope you enjoy! The Unintentional Time Traveler by Everett Maroon (2014, Booktrope Editions) Fifteen-year-old Jack Inman has mad skills with cars and engines, but knows he'll never get a driver's license because of his epilepsy. Agreeing to participate in an experimental clinical trial to find new treatments for his disease, he finds himself in [...]

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Excerpt Tour: Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

By |2020-03-28T13:42:02-05:00March 26th, 2015|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: , , , , , |

Here at GAY YA we are extremely excited about the upcoming SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli, and today we have the pleasure of featuring an excerpt from the book! Get excited because SIMON it's an amazing debut, and you do not want to miss it. No seriously, all that praise it has been getting online? Completely worth it and you need to check it ouuuut.   Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Balzer + Bray, 2015) But first, what is it about? Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the [...]

Writing an Intersex, Agender Character

By |2020-03-28T13:42:03-05:00March 23rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs|Tags: , , , , |

“...before you go on, yes, most likely whatever you’re about to ask is very rude. If you’re wondering about what’s under my clothing, it’s very rude. If you’re wondering about my genetics, my hormones, my biology… there’s a pretty damn short list of people for whom any of that is actually relevant. Having said that, for the sake of simplifying things: you and I would not be able to have children together, for example, unless we were to adopt or employ some extremely invasive medical science...” Ellis’ face showed that ey was unperturbed, perhaps familiar with impolite questions, [...]

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Criticism and Discussion of The Other Me

By |2020-03-28T13:42:03-05:00March 20th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: , |

by Suzanne Van Rooyen Authors need a thick skin. Putting a book out there for others to read takes enormous amounts of courage. Not only does it feel like you're exposing yourself – if not laying your soul bare for strangers' eyes – but you're also opening yourself up to the possibility of criticism, and not just the constructive kind. All of this I had experienced before with my previous novels, so I knew what was coming when my YA trans novel, The Other Me, made its way into the world. But I wasn't entirely prepared for the [...]

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Sneak Peek: Honey Girl by Lisa Freeman

By |2020-03-28T13:42:03-05:00March 19th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Sneak Peek|Tags: , , , |

Today, we're honored to be hosting a short excerpt from the newly released Honey Girl by Lisa Freeman.                               The records on my turntable were stacked starting with Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon. When Rox flipped the switch, she listened and said, “I love Joni,” like she was her best friend or something. It was the first time I had ever seen Rox without her waterproof mascara. She looked younger. Also, wearing my flannel nightgown and slippers, she looked downright sweet. “Would you [...]

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