But choosing what I write about is definitely inspired by what I see kids doing today. My start in writing was not inspiration so much as breathing. That wasn’t my inspiration when I started writing. Like, what would I like to see happen in a book? The book that I’m working on now is (asking): what if you had a kid who was nonbinary and felt very comfortable with themselves and felt very comfortable with being queer, and they start flirting with a straight boy? What does that do for their identity?ĪG: A lot of my inspiration comes from going to school visits, like I did yesterday, and seeing that my books end up in kids’ hands. But I would say it’s most often that I have an idea of more of a theme of what could happen. JW: When you’re preparing to write a story for that age group, does it usually start with characters and the story you want to tell or do you start with a theme that you want to get across?ĪG: It’s kind of book by book. That age deserves tools to make sense of this bizarre world we’re in. But when you’re 10, 12 years old, you’re developing friendships and connections that are distinct from your family, and are really your own.
If you’re 5 years old, there’s only so much leeway for what you have control over. Could you say why it’s important, especially for middle schoolers?ĪG: Middle school is a time when we’re really starting to figure out who we are as people, and how we interact with the world when we have more agency to make decisions. JW: You also talked in your keynote speech about queer literature being absent at the middle school level. But without the language, I just felt abstractly different. Once I had the language, it was very easy to connect it to myself. I was reading a book called “ Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us” by Kate Bornstein, and no one had ever let that be an option before. Gino also wrote “You don’t know everything,” “Jilly P,” “Rick” and “Alice Austen Lived Here.” Gino identifies as genderqueer and writes stories primarily about LGBTQIA+ characters navigating school, friendship and growing up.Ĭo-Editor-in-Chief Jackie Wright: Could you tell me about the time when you were first able to find yourself represented in literature?Īlex Gino: The first time that I really made sense of myself was when I was 19. Since its publication in 2014, “Melissa” has been among the top 10 most challenged books in the U.S. Gino’s first book, “Melissa”, received various recognitions including the Stonewall Award from the American Library Association. Alex Gino, a children’s book author from Staten Island in New York City, was among the keynote speakers. The University of Georgia held the annual Georgia Conference on Children’s Literature March 18-19.
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