I read Francesca Lia Block’s Dangerous Angels (the collected Weetzie Bat books) when I was about 17. My best friend Monica gave it to me, and that book changed my life. It’s the first place, after Ellen, that I encountered any openly gay people. I grew up in southern Idaho, which is just about the reddest part of one of the reddest states in the country, and to see major gay characters, characters portrayed in a positive light, as though their lives are the most natural thing, just another way of living, was so powerful. Couple that with [...]

I’ve been musing over the labels we give books, especially labels in sales lists: ‘Gay Books’, ‘Lesbian Books’, ‘GLBT Books’. I’ve been wondering if everyone has the same understanding of these labels, exactly, and whether they are an entirely good, helpful thing, or have the potential to be negative in some way. I’d like to know what people think. I’ve been scanning several ‘genre lists’ and in one alphabetical list ‘Gay and Lesbian’ found its place between ‘Dark Fantasy’ and ‘General Fiction’. So, I thought, when does a book become ‘Gay and Lesbian’ as opposed to ‘Dark Fantasy’? [...]

Our winners for Old Habits and Ink Exchange are below: Old Habits: Alison, comment #3 Ink Exchange: Twitter user @eas770 Please email us (maria@gayya.org) with your shipping information to receive your book!   Today's poll is up on our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/lp7tV1  Answer the question to pick what book we give away next week!

So. David Levithan. He’s pretty amazing, right? Honestly, his books pretty much send me spiraling into fangirl glee. Boy Meets Boy gets most of the accolades, and rightly so. It’s a lovely and wonderful book, joyful and hopeful. But for my money, Wide Awake is not only his best book but one of the best novels I’ve ever read. It’s hopeful in a different way, a love story to possibility and to connection. Wide Awake is set “in the near future,” on the eve of the election of the first gay Jewish president of the United States, and [...]

Sara Zarr is the author of Story of a Girl and the forthcoming How To Save A Life. You can visit her online at her website. A couple of years ago, I was speaking to a bunch of young readers at a book festival, and during the Q&A, one girl shot up her hand and asked, “Why did you decide to make Michael gay?” The question caught me off guard. Michael is an adult character in my first novel, STORY OF A GIRL. He runs the pizza dive where the main character, Deanna, has a summer job. On [...]

by Gillian Chisom Almost two years ago, I was sitting in a bookstore café working on my embryonic vampire novel. Its premise, at that point, went something like this: 20-year-old Eric has a great life: budding career as a pianist, fiancée with whom he’s madly in love, etc. All of this changes when vampire Gregory waylays Eric on his way home from a rehearsal one night and turns him into a vampire. Eric struggles to adjust to his new life. Meanwhile, he and Gregory develop an intense, complicated relationship which includes some romantic tension, but that never develops [...]

I just released my debut novel, The Dark Wife, which comes out of the closet immediately when I tell you what it's about: a YA, lesbian retelling of the Persephone/Hades myth. When sharing my happiness for the book release, I get the shifting from foot to foot, the nervous tapping of the fingers together, and--if they're brave--the person will ask me the following question: "Can straight people read it?" To which I respond, yes, straight people absolutely need to read it. Not just my book, or maybe not even my book--but straight people need to read gay books. [...]