A after releasg his groundbreakg novel about two small-town gay teens love, David Levhan looks back.
Contents:
LEVI ISN’T GAY OR EVEN STRAIGHT
'It was probably a radil notn 2003 that teenagers uld be gay' * is david levithan gay *
Wh Boy Meets Boy, I basilly set out to wre the book that I dreamed of gettg as an edor – a book about gay teens that don’t nform to the old norms about gay teens lerature (i. Has to be about a gay uncle, or a teen who gets beaten up for beg gay, or about outsts who e out and fd they’re still outsts, albe outsts wh their outstedns mon.
Of Boy Meets Boy, the reviewer at Booklist wrote: “In s blhe acceptance and celebratn of human differenc, this is arguably the most important gay novel sce Annie on My Md and seems to reprent a revolutn the publishg of gay-themed books for adolcents” – which pretty much blew me away when I read . A different kd of llaboratn is The Full Spectm: A New Generatn of Wrg About Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, Transgenr, Qutng, and Other Inti, an anthology I -eded wh my bt iend Billy Merrell. My sixth novel, Wi Awake, starts wh the electn of the first gay Jewish print, and is about two boyiends who mt go to Kansas when the electn rults are threatened.
DAVID LEVHAN EXPLOR GAY TEENAGE LOVE 'TWO BOYS KISSG'
David Levhan — ‘I've always known I was gay, but wasn't nfirmed until I was was my teacher who said so. It was right there on... * is david levithan gay *
It was wrten right after the 2004 electn, and published right before the 2006 electn, which ma me hope that a gay Jewish print was a closer realy than I might have thought. It’s about a straight girl and a gay boy who’ve been bt iends forever...
It was spired by many thgs – a story I had wrten for an anthology entled How Betiful the Ordary that was narrated by the AIDS generatn of gay men, lookg at the Inter generaton; the te story of two NJ boys who broke the world rerd for longt ntuo kiss 2011; and some ls happy stori of gay teens who found tougher obstacl at about the same time. In the dozen years that US thor David Levhan has been wrg young adult (YA) novels that foc eher on or around LGBT issu, teen-marketed books wh gay narrativ have e out of the closet, and to the mastream. When his 2003 but, Boy Meets Boy, beme a naway btseller on both sis of the Atlantic, also urted – as naway btsellers often do – an attendant ntroversy, not merely bee his lead characters were gay, but bee they weren’t persecuted or peril, but simply love.
“It was probably a radil notn lerature back then that teenagers uld be gay, and happy, and love, and that this alone would drive the plot forward. Ty Cooper, the self-appoted “world’s gayt person”, was Will Grayson’s break-out star, and the subject of an awful lot of subsequent fan mail. Published later this month, is expected to be a btseller among gay and straight rears alike, but as Levhan suggts, would have stggled to fd a mastream publisher 20 years ago.
* is david levithan gay *
As an edor for the US publisher Scholastic, he is also rponsible for helpg brg a wi range of books to mercial attentn, many featurg gay, bisexual and transgenr characters. The notn that there is jt one gay story to tell is as ridiculo as suggtg there is jt one straight story.
”A prevly, thgs were different, and gay narrativ were often owned upon teen fictn.