Comments on: Oz GLBT YA books (updated)

By: Ika

Ika — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:06:39 +0000

Jenny Pausacker’s awesome and heinously overlooked Dancing on Knives should be on there too.

I’d disagree strongly that with kirsty m about not including books with peripheral gay characters on the list. To me a problem with queer YA lit is that being GAY is too often the central “problem” in a character’s arc (I have a whole riff about how this actually single-handedly delayed my coming out by about ten years). Having gay characters whose role in the narrative is not “to be gay omg how will they deal with this terrible burden???” is a huge step forward in YA lit – and that means, among other things, more peripheral gay characters.

By: Kirsty M.

Kirsty M. — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:15:23 +0000

I haven’t read all the titles on the list but I think it’s drawing a long bow to include books that have very peripheral gay characters or ones that subtly infer that a character may be homosexual. Doesn’t that perpetuate the problem that gay characters are rarely the hero of the stories? Padding out the list with books like ‘A Candle for St Anthony’can actually feed homophobia. Surely we need books that are honest and upfront, not obtuse, about gay youth.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:05:38 +0000

Elizabeth: That’s great! So pleased this is spreading.

By: Elisabeth

Elisabeth — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:43:07 +0000

What a fantastic project! I am woefully unversed in Australian YA fic (and now I have a whole bunch of new authors to try to track down), but have decided to try the same sort of thing with Canadian GLBT YA books.

By: Canadian GLBT YA Books « what Elisabeth is reading

Canadian GLBT YA Books « what Elisabeth is reading — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:34:09 +0000

[...] Wed 4 Jul 2007 Canadian GLBT YA Books Posted by elisabethreads under GLBT_books , Canadian_books , ya_books , booklists In response to a speech by David Levithan, Australian YA author Justine Larbalestier is compiling a list of Australian GLBT YA books. [...]

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:42:12 +0000

Sky Legs by Irini Savvides
and should you wish to make it a Oz/NZ list, there’s
50 Ways of Saying Fabulous by Graeme Aitken
too.

By: Club Troppo » Missing Link 3 July, 2007

Club Troppo » Missing Link 3 July, 2007 — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:48:58 +0000

[...] Australian GLBT books for young readers. Learn Hawaiian guitar with Shaun. [...]

By: Justine

Justine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:18:15 +0000

Lawrence: Thanks! Have added the antho. Can’t find another Pausacker, but I’m sure someone will know.

I’m not including anyone but Australians. Poor New Zealanders are always being lumped in with us as if we were all exactly the same. I’ve now seen three reviews of Elizabeth Knox that assume she’s Australian. Very rude.

Simmone: Ta. Added the Walker—which is sadly out of print. I’m sure there’s more, too. Hopefully there’ll be linkage and more folks will chime in with more titles.

By: simmone

simmone — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:21:08 +0000

also sarah walker’s ‘the year of freaking out’ … god. there must be more. surely.

By: Lawrence Schimel

Lawrence Schimel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:02:51 +0000

Also, there’s an anthology titled INSIDE OUT, which is an Australian collection of coming out stories; not YA-specific nor ficiton, but relevant and of interest, I think.

By: Lawrence Schimel

Lawrence Schimel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:57:51 +0000

If you’re open to other Oceania authors, there’s also New Zealander Jerome Taylor’s THE BLUE LAWN and JEROME.

I think you’re also missing at least one Pausacker novel (when I was visiting in 99 I bought a copy of her entry in a YA series, that had lesbian content, but it’s back in NYC and I’m blanking on the title just now…)