Content Warning: The Podcast

Main Character Energy with Gregory Taylor

Episode Summary

Gregory Taylor - educator, librarian, and book award panelist - talks history of queer representation in young adult literature and the current environment of censorship. Stay tuned after the credits for bonus book talks.

Episode Notes

“Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop

The Trevor Project

Stonewall Book Award and Rainbow List from ALA (American Library Association)

BOOKS MENTIONED:

1942 - Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly- first YA literature

1967 - The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - onset of modern era of YA Literature

1969 - I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip by John Donovan - First Ya queer character

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Ruby by Rosa Guy

Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence - short stories, edited by Marion Dane Bauer

Luna by Julie Anne Peters - 2004 first trans main character

Boy Meets Boy - David Levithan

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian

Cross My Heart and Never Lie by Nora Dåsnes, Translated by Matt Bagguley

Emmett by Lev A.C. Rosen

Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig

Door by Door: How Sarah McBride Became America's First Openly Transgender Senator by Meeg Pincus, Meridth McKean Gimbel

To See Clearly: A Portrait of David Hockney by Evan Turk

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle