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Today’s podcast features #LoveOzYA queer authors and butterflies Will Kostakis and Alison Evans. Nalini Haynes talks with Will and Alison about their books and queer representation in stories. Will says a lot of gatekeepers want stories about the ‘cocoon’ stage: difficulties and trauma around coming out. Now, he says, we need stories about butterflies: adventures, romances, joyful stories about people who’ve come out. Both authors wrote books about the butterfly stage: joyful books about characters who are ‘out’.
Will Kostakis
Made in Australia from imported ingredients, Will Kostakis is a writer of all things from celebrity news stories that score cease and desist letters to tweets for professional wrestlers. That said, he’s best known for his award-winning YA novels. His first novel, Loathing Lola, was released when he was just nineteen.
So you know what to do while you’re in lockdown, folks! Write like Shakespeare, who wrote King Lear during the plague. Shakespeare is a hero of Will’s. For more information on that, see Will’s previous appearances on DMZ including this textual post on equity and representation and this podcast.
Alison Evans
They love writing weird stuff and started out writing fan fiction online in high school, loving it. Halfway through year 12, everyone was asking what everyone else was doing for uni. Editing the zine Concrete Queers, a zine for queer people and #enbylife, keeps them busy. They live on the unceeded lands of the Wurundjeri People, in the west of Melbourne with their wife and cat.
Books they recommend include:
- Wilder girls by Rory Power
- The dangerous art of blending in by Angelo Surmelis
- Hot dog girl by Jennifer Dugan
- We are the ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
- Where things come back and Noggin by John Corey Whaley
- Anything by Erin gough
- All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
- Out Now: Queer We Go Again!
Thank you Will and Alison.
Watch this space
Watch this space: upcoming podcasts include kids’ authors, authors who’ve written mental health and more.
Thank you for joining us for this podcast.
Update
This post was previously published but has been altered by request.
