Tony: The finalists for the YA catagory of the Lamda Literary Awards are almost always from manstream publishers.
Arthur: There's less segmentaion in the BFYR area. (There's no "gay teen" section. Gay YA is shelved with all YA.)
Tony: Really satisfying careers happen when talented writers writer to this niche about which they are passionate. (Visit Lamda Literary at http://www.lambdaliterary.org/ to learn more about their awards and programs.)
Lee: He started his blog, I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? two and a half years ago when he realized there was no "safe space" on the web that readers could go to as a resource for LGBTQ material.
Nick: Invites queries.
Noah: Don't hold back on what you want to create. It will stunt you creatively.
Lee: The tides have turned. There are about 250 books on his blog right now. Things are moving forward. And there's crossover into adult readership when it comes to LGBTQ YA lit. (Adults are reading the books the didn't have available when they were teens.) There are so many stories that need to be told--mid-grade crush books, fantasy, graphic novels.)
Aaron: Don't be afriad to tell the story in your heart. We have not reached critical mass when it comes to coming out stories. He's writing the book he wanted to read when he was young. (It's a YA memior that will be published y Little, Brown.) And he had to get over his own inner-homophobia to begin to put it on the page.
Arthur: It's not just gay teens reading gay YA. Straight kids are reading them, too. But we're not living in "a rainbow land of golden goodness." It's important to strap on your blinders when you're writing. Don't focus on possible outcomes. Just focus on the story.
Tony: Homophobia still exists in the culture and institutionally. Choosing to write a beautiful LGBTQ story is a choice that could present obstacles. Those writers are choosing to battle those obstacles. That shouldn't stop an artist from telling the story they want to tell.
Aaron Hartzler (author and SCBWI Director of Communications) moderated a panel including Arthur Levine (Scholastic VP and Publisher), Lee Wind (blogger,
leewind.org), and Tony Velenzuela (Executive Director, Lamba Literary and writer), Nick Eliopulos (Scholastic Editor), and Noah Woods (illustrator and writer) discuss LGBTQ books for young readers.
Arthur: There's a change in the market place from the past 10-20 years. It's no big deal to publishers, writers, book buyers, etc. to have books with LGBTQ content/charcters/themes. Yeah, your book may get banned or burned...yay! Publicity.
Nick: There's not that much out there. There are a lot of aspects to the gay experience that haven't been covered, so there's a lot of oportunity in this area.
Noah: You avoid authenticy if you censor yourself and avoid LGBTQ material.
* Disclaimer: The inclusion of the above image is not a commentary on Cheer Bear's sexuality. However we strongly believe he/she is an ally of the LGBTQ children's literature community.
There's been a new addition to the panel for this morning's breakout workshop "A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace" with Aaron Hartzler (Director of Communications, SCBWI), Arthur A. Levine (Vice President of Scholastic and publisher of his own imprint, Arthur A. Levine Books - as well as an author himself), and Tony Valenzuela (Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation):
ME, Lee Wind (Writer and Blogger of "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" where over 200,000 visitors have come to find out about GLBTQ Teen books, culture and politics!
I hope you can join us in the Palisades Room, 11:15am - because this is going to be awesome!
More than 40 of us took over the north row of gazebos by the pool at Friday's lunchtime to mingle and meet and talk Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Allied Characters and Themes in Children's and Teen literature. We were joined by Arthur A. Levine and Tony Valenzuela, who were gracious and candid in their answers and comments.
We went around the circle and everyone introduced themselves to the group, sharing what they were working on and mentioning what (if any) GLBTQ content was included in their work.
A few illustrators wondered what opportunities existed for children's book illustrators to include queer content, and we spoke about Marla Frazee's "Everywhere Babies" and a new picture book Arthur A. Levine has coming out (as an author) "Best Best Colors" as examples of the power illustrators have to show diversity in their art and in the books children experience.
Arthur fielded questions on how to include a gay character in a way that wasn't stereotypical (make sure the character is a fully realized character - i.e., if they're muscular - why? how did they get that way?) and about the challenge of including queer content (and diverse content in general) in middle grade books where it's not the main character's focus.
Tony shared that this past year, there were more Childrens/YA submissions than 21 other categories (second most out of 23) for the Lambda Literary Award.
And I brought up, from my perspective blogging at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" that the tide is shifting - we're no longer in a world with only one or two books representing Queer characters - and with more representations, the pressure to make any one GLBTQ character representative, or perfect, lessens. (And who wants to read about perfect characters anyway?)
All in all, everyone's appetites were whetted for tomorrow's 11:15AM Workshop, when we'll be able to dive in even deeper!
A Look At The LGBTQ Marketplace - Palisades room
With Aaron Hartzler,
Arthur A. Levine
Tony Valenzuela
and
yours truly, Lee Wind.
Hope to see you there!
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Of all the exciting, useful and inspirational workshops and keynotes this one sits at the top of my list for the whole conference. I left filled with inspiration and hope for my own work as a writer/illustrator and even more for the reading lives of all our kids.
Thanks to everyone on the panel: to Lee Wind for your blog (I'm off to the library with a heavy list - we'll see how heavy it really is on the way back from the library), to Noah Woods for your cool little Tom Cat and encouraging us all to stop holding back, to Tony Valenzuela for pointing out that mainstream publishers ARE putting out GLBTQ work, to Nick Eliopulos for inviting queries, to Aaron Hartzler for moderating and writing your own story, and to Arthur Levine for showing us how simple and natural including LGBTQ characters can and should be.