YA Pride

How I Knew I Was a Klutz

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:02-05:00June 20th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs|Tags: Trans|

It’s been a blast writing for the good folks and readers of Gay YA—I believe in the core of my being that young readers need these stories, especially as there are so many nincompoops out there who would slam the entire genre and dismiss our hard work out of hand. Those naysayers are not our audience, after all. I hope you’ll come and see me over at my blog, Trans/Plant/Portation, and elsewhere around the net. And I do suspect I’ll be back here from time to time, as the powers that be are inclined. Happy reading, and happy [...]

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Finding an Audience

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:02-05:00June 14th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs, Writers on Writing|Tags: publishing|

I've looked at stories, characters, plot devices, layering, the writer's mission, and some of the tropes around gay YA and genre fiction this past month or so, but left to examine among many other aspects of writing is audience. Not all writers seek publication, and that's fine, but for those of us who want to get our words communicated to the world outside our heads should understand our options, the market, and readers' expectations. In no particular order: Get your work in line with your mission—Looking to write crossover or mainstream YA novels? Then there needs to be [...]

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Pushing Fluids: Guest Post by Sara Ryan

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:02-05:00June 14th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|

When I met her, she was married to a man. Now her partner is a woman. When I met her, she was an ardent lesbian who couldn't imagine what it would be like to be attracted to a man. Now she's married to one. When I met hir, zie was queer. Then trans. Then -- in part because zie became frustrated contemplating the costs and inadequacies of surgery -- zie returned to female pronouns. Though I tend to avoid pronouns altogether when discussing that particular friend, waiting to see what might be next. One of my favorite reviews of my second book, The [...]

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Gomorrahs of the Deep, a Musical Coming Some Day to Off-Broadway Part 3!

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:43:02-05:00June 12th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|

We are happy to bring you the third and final part of Gomorrahs of the Deep, a Musical Coming Some Day to Off-Broadway by Steve Berman, a gay musical short story from his upcoming anthology. Missed Part 2? Catch up here: http://www.yapride.org/?p=289 "Where did you get the guitar,” Hugh asked when he saw me sitting in the front row in English. For the first, and last, time. “I borrowed it from the music department.” He smiled. “Do you even know how to play?” “No, that’s why I borrowed a guitarist, too.” I waved toward Casey, who also cut class [...]

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Giving Back to LGBT and Ally Teens

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:43:02-05:00June 8th, 2011|Categories: Archive|

I know what it’s like trying to find a scholarship that really fits who you are. It seems they want a little more of this or a little more of that. Well, I decided to start my own scholarship and hopefully there will be people out there that realize this is them. It’s very informal and that means you will be applying for a scholarship with an amount you aren’t sure about. To help make it easier, it will be at least $200 which I will pay if we don’t raise enough money. Now…raise money? What’s that mean? [...]

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The Persistence and Power of Labels

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:03-05:00June 7th, 2011|Categories: Archive|

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Jessie J, particularly one song from her debut album, titled “Who You Are”. We appear to be living in an age of anthemic songs about “loving who you are” from pop divas, gay icons at their finest: Katy Perry with “Firework”, my beloved Mama Monster Lady Gaga with “Born This Way”, and this smaller, more intimate offering from my new favourite, Jessie J, a queer English singer-songwriter. My fresh-faced, musical snob 18-year-old self would be appalled by the amount of commercial pop I’ve been listening to ever since I left [...]

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When Darkness Falls

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:03-05:00June 6th, 2011|Categories: Archive|

A little explosion happened on the Internet this weekend when Meghan Cox Gurdon, writing for The Wall Street Journal, took aim at contemporary young adult literature for what she saw as too much gruesomeness, violence, and "darkness," which defies specificity so much as to be next to meaningless. I'd like to unpack some of what was offered by Ms. Gurdon and respond. And because I was gearing up to write about mentors in gay YA before her article came out, I'll try to include a bit of that here, too. The world is significantly different in 2011 than [...]

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Gomorrahs of the Deep, a Musical Coming Some Day to Off-Broadway Part 2!

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:05-05:00June 5th, 2011|Categories: Archive|

We are happy to bring you Part Two of Gomorrahs of the Deep, a Musical Coming Some Day to Off-Broadway by Steve Berman, a gay musical short story from his upcoming anthology. Missed Part 1? Catch up here. The next day, during lunch, my best friend Casey lowered her vintage cats eye glasses further down her nose before poking me with a french fry. “You look like someone took away your pixie sticks and your parents blocked Bravo.” “I had a fight with Hugh.” She dipped the offending fry into a puddle of mayonnaise kept by a napkin on [...]

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Jacob Woods on HIV

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:05-05:00June 3rd, 2011|Categories: Archive|

Jacob Woods writes at his blog Good as Gay about lgbt and related social science topics that interest him. He is a psychology student and the president of the Gay Straight Alliance at Itasca Community College in Northern Minnesota (I’ve got nothing to hide.) Here are his thoughts, stemming from his experience with psychology. I have held firmly that the lgbt community is highly promiscuous. More promiscuous than the heterosexual community. My first encounter with this was an anecdotal one. When I first started realizing I was gay, long before coming out of the closet, I would go [...]

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Gomorrahs of the Deep, a Musical Coming Some Day to Off-Broadway

By Maria|2016-05-24T14:54:10-05:00June 2nd, 2011|Categories: Archive|

Today, we are excited to bring you a musical gay love story, written by Steve Berman. It will be released in a February 2012 anthology, but you get to read it here FIRST ! Stay tuned, because we'll be releasing the story in three pieces over the coming weekend. Enjoy! (Note: Any formatting errors are ours.) When I was seven, my babysitter sat me down on the plump couch in our basement and let me have an entire bowl of butter pecan ice cream if I would be quiet while she watched a DVD—I think she had [...]

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