A Super Queer Announcement!

 

Today I get to announce something that has been in the works for well over a year now and I am finally able to talk about it!

It has just been announced in Books+Publishing so I’ve got the All Clear!

I’m the editor of a short story collection of LGBTQIA+ short stories written for young adult readers by Queer Australian authors that’s coming out June 2019 with Walker Books Australia! It will be called:

And I couldn’t be more excited to share this news with you all! (I don’t know about you, but this sounds like the most delicious piece of literary yumminess to be served up ever!) (I begrudgingly acknowledge my bias in the previous statement.)

The list of contributors is AMAZING! Check this out:

 

A post shared by Michael Earp (@littleelfman) on Mar 1, 2018 at 8:56pm PST

 

(This picture successfully captures my emotions today)

I’ll also be contributing a story, which is super exciting, but really, with a table of contents like that, I am very happy to be cast as ‘Man With Enthusiastic Placard #1’.

This all began soon after Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology came out last year edited by Danielle Binks (a mightily talented and passionate individual). At the time, I was the Chair of the #LoveOzYA committee. Danielle was the former Chair of the committee, so people naturally assumed there was some correlation between the committee and editing the anthology. (Just to set the record straight – so to speak – this is not the case at all. Begin, End, Begin came about through Danielle’s passion to see Australian authors coming together in a way that highlights the ‘local stories for local readers’ idea that is the ethos of the #LoveOzYA movement. She worked extremely hard to achieve all the success that her anthology has received – Seriously, you should see the awards that baby has won!) But, because of this assumption, many people asked me: “Are you going to edit the next anthology?”

At the time, the idea seemed too much. I would love to edit an anthology, but I kept thinking if I did, it would have to be queer. Like, super queer.

A post shared by Michael Earp (@littleelfman) on Jun 3, 2017 at 10:28pm PDT

 

Then, I went to Reading Matters for the first time ever, and my world expanded. I felt alive with the passion the literary community holds and the deep yearning for LGBTQIA+ stories to be told. Not just by the LGBTQIA+ community, but by their allies. Because – NEWS FLASH – you don’t have to be queer to read queer stories! Do you realise how many cis-straight novels I’ve read in my time? What would the world be like if cis-straight people read the same number of queer stories as we’ve read non-queer? (I feel like I’m getting off track.)

Anyway, I could feel the world was ready for a big queer literary celebration. So at that very conference I started plotting my contributor wishlist and with the help and guidance of some amazing people (but a particular shout out to Danielle Binks and Nicola Santilli) I started to work towards what I wanted to see in the world.

I’m so incredibly happy that this is coming to fruition. (I’m not crying, you’re crying!)

I’ll close up there, because I know I’ll be talking about this anthology a lot from here on in. But, I want to say this:

What do you want to see in the world? Why not start working towards it today?