Representation – Page 8

How Trans Happens

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:05-05:00June 1st, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Representation, Trans|

There's a fight going on, but not many people know about it. It boils down to what most fights look like after a long time simmering and evaporating away their unnecessary parts—the right to tell a story. Like many other battles this one is about a people, power, and ownership. I'm talking about where transgender comes from, why it occurs, and what meaning to draw from it. If we left it up to The New York Times and David Letterman, transgender people, all, struggle with being the wrong sex in the wrong body. Chances are they know it [...]

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Considering Intersectionality

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:05-05:00May 23rd, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Class, Intersectionality, Race, Representation|

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about creating multi-layered characters as one of my goals as a transgender writer. I was talking about LGBT characters at the time, but pulling back a bit on those parameters, I think the dedication to crafting believable, complex characters should extend to every personality in the narrative. And if we're going to support well rounded character development as writers, we should remember to support intersectionality while we're at it. All I mean here about intersectionality is that I want to include a liberatory understanding of the differently positioned, race, ethnic, class, [...]

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LGBT Themes and Science Fiction: Fast Friends

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:06-05:00May 16th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Representation, Science Fiction, Speculative, Trans|

I write speculative fiction, usually somewhere between soft science fiction and magical realism, and often, though not exclusively, with LGBT themes and characters. I suppose I could write more mainstream stories, but I like to twist things up and mess with the universe, and besides, I'm a genre geek. I swear this is less from a God complex perspective, and more about playfulness and political intent. Metaphors for transition, coming out, family acceptance, and the like can replace a description of the real thing, and in so doing, open up some space away from angst so more time [...]

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My Goals as a Trans Writer

By Everett Maroon|2020-03-28T13:43:18-05:00May 9th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Representation, Trans|

Like many writers I know, I took a meandering path to this writing profession, starting out confident and then dedicating a long decade in quicksand—I think it's called self-doubt—after which I think I found myself in the center of the earth, and let me just say, it's hotter than I thought it would be down there. During this long break I suppose I opted to have a sex change, and then I realized that I needed to write about my transition. I didn't want to relate a tale of anguish and grief. Instead, I focused on the ludicrous [...]

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We Want More Gay YA

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:21-05:00April 10th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Representation|

By Maggie Hira I’d like to think I wasn’t quite eavesdropping on them. But I was. I totally was. And what I heard was extremely enlightening. It happened a few weeks ago at my local Barnes & Noble. I was in the YA section, as usual, not looking for anything in particular, but browsing for something that would catch my eye or pique my interest. That’s when I heard them chattering in the other aisle—two teenage girls also on the hunt for an interesting read. I didn’t want to listen in on their conversation, but I couldn’t help [...]

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Guest Post: Jo Knowles

By Maria|2020-03-28T13:43:21-05:00April 8th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Advocacy, censorship, Representation|

Last weekend I was driving near the Brown campus in Providence, RI with my family. When we stopped at a light, two male students crossed the street, holding hands. They were chatting away, smiling, like what they were doing was the most natural thing in the world. My husband and I both commented on how nice that was. And how rare. Because honestly? In most places in this country, you will not see two boys walking along a busy street holding hands. Carefree. Safe. In most places in this country, there are still boys and girls just like [...]

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Teen Novels: Once Again, a Decade Ahead of Television

By Maria|2016-05-24T14:54:17-05:00April 7th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: History of Queer YA, Representation|

Brent Hartinger is an author, screenwriter, and playwright. He can be found on Twitter as @BrentHartinger I've been saying for years that if you want to know what's going to be on television in five or ten years, look at what's happening in books today. Like clockwork, we authors always predict exactly where the mass culture is heading. Okay, so maybe we didn't predict the outrageous, depressing mess that so much of reality television has become. We authors tend to predict the things that appeal to, um, slightly higher aspects of human nature. Take the whole issue of [...]

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THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION

By admin|2020-03-28T13:43:24-05:00April 4th, 2011|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Representation|

I think my greatest hope as a writer is that I’ll resonate with someone. Not everyone. I think it’s impossible to write something that resonates with everyone. But even if just one person reads something I wrote and can empathize with a character or a situation, I’ve done what I set out to do. When writing succeeds, it’s because of resonance. The writer holds up a mirror and gives us the shock of recognition. Sometimes we relate to a character’s aspirations. Sometimes we just understand their hardships. I’m not sure I believe in universal truths but I definitely [...]

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The Gay Gamut

By admin|2020-03-28T13:43:24-05:00April 2nd, 2011|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Representation|

Today's guest post was written by Charlotte Johnson of Lady Charlotte's House of Delirium. Enjoy! Admittedly, my exposure to LGBT characters in young adult fiction has been less than desired. Perhaps the first gay character I met was in Holly Black’s second novel, Valiant, which of course was Ruth (and eventually Luis, but only in retrospect…actually, I wasn’t even sure Ruth was a lesbian because Jen, a girl who did not approve of Val, had called her so). Then, when I read Tithe, I met Corny. Oh dear, Corny, those scenes between him and Nephamael were almost [...]

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