Queer, without apologies

I talked to a young woman from Germany this week who was looking for a book on coming out while on vacation here in Toronto.

“I don’t know if I’m actually gay,” she said, “but I’m . . . exploring myself, you know?”

Dawson has had a good year. Both his non-fiction books and his dark novels for young adults have been doing well and he is the latest (and first male) recipient of the “Queen of Teen” award given biannually to authors who inspire the most votes from teen readers. Dawson was obviously delighted, resplendent here in his new crown:

Earlier this month, Dawson told attendees at the 2015 Young Adult Literature convention in London that his next book will feature a main character along the same path of the German girl I talked to:

“Young people are very reluctant to come out with a label . . . It’s like they don’t want to pigeonhole themselves. If you look at Tom Daley and Cara Delevingne, when they talk about their sexuality, they never use words like ‘bi’ or ‘gay.’ Instead, they say ‘I’m in a relationship with a man,’ or ‘I’m in a relationship with a woman.’ That inspired me. I wanted to write about characters who were just at that precipice of trying to understand desire and sexual attraction.”