Home/Tag:Representation

The “B” Word

By |2020-03-28T13:41:18-05:00September 23rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: , |

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 3 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA - On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors by Camryn Garrett Reading a book is like being sucked into someone else’s world. I’ve learned about other worlds, but also my own through reading. Not only have I discovered that I was struggling with mental illness, but I’ve learned more about other cultures, other thoughts, other places, all in between two covers. But on the other hand, I’m often learning about a specific group of people. It changed between the [...]

Comments Off on The “B” Word

On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors

By |2020-03-28T13:41:19-05:00September 22nd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: , , |

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 1 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series – Bisexuality in YA by Claire Spaulding When I first started brainstorming for this post, I came up with a list of what I want to see in bisexual YA: more badass bisexual ladies going on adventures! Swoon-worthy romance with happy endings! Bisexual pirates! Seriously, guys, where are my bisexual YA pirate novels?! But then I moved beyond what I want in bisexual YA right now, and I started thinking about what I wanted in bisexual YA back when I really, deeply needed [...]

Comments Off on On Failing to Recognize Ourselves in Mirrors

Bisexuality in YA

By |2020-03-28T13:41:27-05:00September 21st, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: , |

Bisexual Awareness Week Series: Day 1 – Previous Posts: Introduction to Bisexual Awareness Week Series by Shira Glassman Climbing the Date Palm by Shira Glassman (Prizm Books, 2014) When I was a little girl, it took me until I was fourteen to realize that the way I liked girls counted as that way. Looking back, it was pretty obvious; I was obsessed with the cute blonde detective on Mathnet at age six and the Egyptian princess in The Ten Commandments at seven; at nine I talked about boobs an awful lot (my name for them, at [...]

Comments Off on Bisexuality in YA

On Love in a Dystopian Time: A Call to ([White] Queer) YA Authors About #BlackLivesMatter

By |2020-03-28T13:41:31-05:00August 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: , , |

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 [...]

Comments Off on On Love in a Dystopian Time: A Call to ([White] Queer) YA Authors About #BlackLivesMatter

Dumbledore Gets Married in Ireland. Sort Of.

By |2020-03-28T13:41:33-05:00June 25th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: , , , , , |

by Jennifer Polish So Dumbledore and Gandalf got married. At the suggestion of J.K. Rowling. And all the fandoms rode off into the proverbial sunset. But that’s not the entire story. In the same episode of Doctor Who that Shakespeare was portrayed as bisexual (I punched the air myself before remembering I was watching it with a straight cis guy who was glaring at me), the Doctor proclaims – after saving the world with the iconic spell Expelliarmus! (please don’t ask how) – “Good old J.K.!” Which is largely what the queer interwebs have been saying of late: [...]

Comments Off on Dumbledore Gets Married in Ireland. Sort Of.

Author Interview: Corinne Duyvis

By |2020-03-28T13:41:34-05:00June 22nd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Interview|Tags: , , , , , |

We're so psyched to have the chance to talk with Corinne Duyvis, author of the fantastic queer YA fantasy Otherbound, about world-building, the work she's done with DisabilityinKidLit, her queer SF/F wishlist, and much much more. :) Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they’re fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she’s punished, ordered around, or neglected. She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes. Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, [...]

Comments Off on Author Interview: Corinne Duyvis

Give Your Characters an Online Presence

By |2020-03-28T13:41:38-05:00May 30th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Writers on Writing|Tags: |

by Steve Berman There was a time when you could be all alone even when surrounded by dozens, even hundreds, of people. I'm talking about high school and the time before the Internet and smart phones. Everyone feels isolated now and then, but true isolation, being ignored while the rest of the world goes about its day, is something teenagers face. Especially LGBT teens. We're the outsiders, after all. Different. Sometimes special, but very different. Where we look we see a world that was built for heterosexuals and cisgendered people. Seeing a film, watching a commercial, noticing a [...]

Comments Off on Give Your Characters an Online Presence

Reasons Writers Exclude Queer Characters: Debunked!

By |2020-03-28T13:41:39-05:00May 25th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Writers on Writing|Tags: |

by Libertad Araceli Thomas As an aspiring writer, over the past year I’ve heard and read perhaps a dozen reasons why some writers are reluctant to incorporate queer narratives in their work in progresses. I mean, I get it, writing characters outside of your comfort zone isn’t always easy. What do they always tell us, write “what you know”. As unreal as it sounds a lot of people don’t know any Queer people personally and want to hold onto that excuse but in order to unlock something deeper from your writing, I think it can be a learning experience [...]

Let’s Take Queer YA Out of the Closet

By |2020-03-28T13:41:40-05:00May 22nd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: , |

by Vee S. Authors, editors, and readers are important to the Queer YA community, but there’s another group that matters too: reviewers. We are lucky that there are so many fantastic reviewers reading, loving, and reviewing Queer YA books. But a growing number of reviewers have adopted a “code of silence” around queerness in the YA books they review.  They are well meaning, but that code of silence is putting queer YA in the closet. thingslucyreads posted this excellent video on what she calls Booktube's "code of silence." Luce says in her video that she's noticed that in reviews [...]

Comments Off on Let’s Take Queer YA Out of the Closet

No Dumbledores Need Apply

By |2020-03-28T13:41:47-05:00May 18th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: , |

Hey! We mixed up our links today, 5/20/15. If you're looking for the post on what teens on tumblr are saying or about the call for diversity and having limited spaces to call home, check out Tumblr Teens: BookMad For Diversity. If you want an editor's perspective on why he's going to stop using the phrase "just happens to be gay" and what he's looking for in queer YA, read on! by T.S. Ferguson You may be aware of a conversation that happened in April focusing on the phrase “just happens to be gay.” The conversation was started by [...]

Comments Off on No Dumbledores Need Apply
Go to Top