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LGBTQ+ History Month: Interview with Sarah Prager

By on October 11, 2019   /   Author Interviews  

Not only is October LGBTQ+ History Month, but October 11 is National Coming Out Day.

To mark these two events today, we’re featuring Sarah Prager, author of the award-winning Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World (2017), illustrated by Zoe More O’Ferrall, as well as her forthcoming book, Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (2020, illustrated by Sarah Papworth). Sarah has also developed the Quist mobile app (quistapp.com), a free resource that teaches LGBTQ+ history in youth-friendly ways.

 

Let’s welcome Sarah to the Mixed-Up Files blog today to discuss a topic that’s important to her.

Hi, Sarah! We’re celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month, so your books are the perfect lead-in to this topic. Can you tell us a bit about this celebration and how it ties to your books?

LGBTQ+ History Month has been celebrated in the U.S. every October for 25 years, and we owe its foundation to a high school teacher. LGBTQ+ history education has the power to save and improve lives, and I’ve loved being an educator on it for the last six years. Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History is an illustrated collection of biographies that celebrate some of the most amazing folks our history books forgot to mention.

What made you choose this topic?

When I came out at the age of 14, I found a sense of community in teaching myself about my LGBTQ+ ancestors. Figures like Sappho let me know that I wasn’t alone and that I wasn’t the first one to feel this way. That was incredibly powerful for me, and I wanted to bring that same representation to the next generation. Of course, this topic is important not just for LGBTQ+ youth but for everyone of all identities to understand that LGBTQ+ people have always been here, are not some fad, and have shaped the world as we know it.

What historical periods will your forthcoming book, Rainbow Revolutionaries, address?

This book has stories from as early as the 300s BC! We go all the way up through the present day, featuring people from ancient China (200s BC Han Dynasty), al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Spain in the 900s), turn-of-the-century Paris, the U.S. civil rights movement, and the Soviet Union. All in all, there are ten different centuries represented.

Who are some of the people you researched and what did you discover about them?

It was hard to narrow it down to the fifty who ended up being featured, but the ones who made the cut all have gripping stories. There’s Chevaliere d’Eon (1728-1810, France), the spy who transitioned while serving abroad; there’s Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995, the Netherlands), the lesbian who forged identity documents for Jews during World War II; and there’s Navtej Johar (1959-present, India), the gay Bharatanatyam dancer who brought a case against the Indian Supreme Court to decrimanalize homosexuality…and won!

What was the most interesting or surprising fact you found?

One story I had never heard of before researching this book was about Maryam Khatoon Molkara (1950-2012, Iran). In 1987, she single-handedly got a powerful ayatollah to publicly approve of gender affirmation surgery for trans people!

Can you share a favorite anecdote?

Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002, U.S.) and Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992, U.S.) have always been favorite LGBTQ+ historical figures for me. Sylvia had this “I’m gonna say it even if you’re uncomfortable hearing it” attitude that is so admirable and Marsha was known for being incredibly kind to everyone who came across her path. They were best friends and together created a movement against all odds. They both experienced a lot of violence and oppression (including from within the gay community) but they persevered.

How have views of LGBTQ+ identity changed over time?

A common misconception is that we’ve gone in a straight (no pun intended) line from hate and discrimination for centuries towards the fight for liberation in the last 50 years. Actually, there was an incredible diversity of queerness around the world, oftentimes accepted and celebrated and normalized, for centuries before the arrival of European invaders. It was the colonial era that made worldwide hatred of queerness the norm. Apart from that influence, we see societies with three or more genders or with bisexuality as the norm, as a couple examples. Every time and place has had totally different ways of understanding and labeling what we’d today call LGBTQ+ identities, way too many to name. While words like “gay” and “trans” are new, the concepts are not.

Why is this topic important for middle graders?

This topic is important for all ages, but I think middle graders are in a place where they are ready to start re-examining what they learned in elementary school, like was Christopher Columbus really as heroic as they were told. They’re also becoming ready to look at historical figures as real people who had full lives including crushes and dates and questioning themselves. I think it is the perfect time to introduce a book like this that may complicate the way they look at history.

Thank you for being with us. We appreciate sharing your insights, and we’re looking forward to your new release.

Blurb for Rainbow Revolutionaries

Take a journey through the lives of fifty revolutionary queer figures who made history in this groundbreaking illustrated biography collection from the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere.

Did you ever wonder who invented the computer? Or who advised Martin Luther King Jr. on his nonviolent activism?

Author Sarah Prager and illustrator Sarah Papworth bring to life the vibrant histories of fifty pioneering LGBTQ+ people our history books forgot to mention. Delve into the lives of Wen of Han, a Chinese emperor who loved his boyfriend as much as his people; Martine Rothblatt, a trans woman who’s helping engineer the robots of tomorrow; and so many more.

From athletes (Billie Jean King) to doctors (Magnus Hirschfeld) and activists (Marsha P. Johnson) to painters (Frida Kahlo), LGBTQ+ people have made their mark on every century of human existence. This book is a celebration of the many ways these hidden heroes have made a difference and will inspire young readers to make a difference, too.

About Sarah Prager

Sarah Prager is the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World (2017, YA, HarperCollins) and the forthcoming Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (2020, MG, HarperCollins). Queer, There, and Everywhere received numerous accolades including three starred reviews and being named a 2017 Best Book for Teens by New York Public Library and Chicago Public Library. Prager also created the Quist mobile app in 2013, a free resource that teaches LGBTQ+ history to thousands around the world (quistapp.com). Her writing has been published in The Atlantic, HuffPost, and many other publications, and she has spoken to over 125 audiences across five countries on the topic of LGBTQ+ history. Prager lives in Massachusetts with her wife and their two young children.

Connect with Sarah:

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Cover Reveal: DON’T CHECK OUT THIS BOOK

By on October 10, 2019   /   Fiction, For Librarians, For Writers  

We’ve got a surprise for you, today – an exclusive COVER REVEAL!

Are you ready to see the amazing cover?

The one that shares Kate Klise & M. Sarah Klise’s upcoming release . . . DON’T CHECK OUT THIS BOOK? It’s so MG and absolutely perfect for the story! And the story, well . . . we’ll get to that in a minute. But first, the cover.

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Book Summary:

Is the sweet town of Appleton ripe for scandal?

Consider the facts:

  •        Appleton Elementary School has a new librarian named Rita B. Danjerous. (Say it fast.)
  •        Principal Noah Memree barely remembers hiring her.
  •       Ten-year-old Reid Durr is staying up way too late reading a book from Ms. Danjerous’s controversial “green dot” collection.
  •        The new school board president has mandated a student dress code that includes white gloves and bow ties available only at her shop.

Sound strange? Fret not. Appleton’s fifth-grade sleuths are following the money, embracing the punny, and determined to the get to the funniest, most rotten core of their town’s juiciest scandal. Don’t miss this seedy saga from the creators of the award-winning Three-Ring Rascals and 43 Old Cemetery Road series!

A Special Note From Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise:

“We were in elementary school in 1971 when Abbie Hoffman released Steal This Book. Back then, we were too young to appreciate Hoffman’s counterculture classic, but we wanted to tap into that same rabble-rousing vibe for our new novel, Don’t Check Out This Book!, which celebrates books and libraries, and makes the case that fearless readers are really our last best hope for democracy.”

Isn’t it all sorts of awesome?! I know, right. The book releases March 10, 2020. That seems so far off, but don’t fret because you can pre-order your copy now! Pre-Order Page | Goodreads Link

Kate Klise bio: Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise have collaborated on numerous award-winning middle-grade and picture-book projects, including the Regarding the Fountain and 43 Old Cemetery Road series. Kate lives in Norwood, Missouri. She visits more than seventy school classrooms a year. Sarah Klise lives in Berkeley, California. Visit www.kateandsarahklise.com for more information. (By the way, Klise rhymes with mice.)

M. Sarah Klise bio: Illustrator M. Sarah Klise and author Kate Klise and are sisters and collaborators. They started making books together many years ago in their bedroom in Peoria, Illinois. Kate wrote the words; Sarah drew the pictures. Their first book was about an adventure-loving little mouse that traveled around the country. That story was never published. (In fact, it ended up in the garbage can!) But the Klise sisters had so much fun making their first book, they kept writing and drawing. And now they’ve published more than twenty award-winning books for young readers, including Regarding the Fountain and Dying to Meet You. The Klise sisters no longer share a bedroom. Kate lives in Missouri and travels often to visit schools and libraries. Sarah lives in California. But the two sisters still enjoy working together, especially on their new series about a pair of circus mice. (By the way, Klise rhymes with mice.)

So, tell us what you think?

 

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Taking Stock of Writerly Weaknesses and How to Avoid Overwhelm

By on October 9, 2019   /   Articles, For Writers, Writing, Writing  

One of my graduate students once told me that as she was reading a craft book on writing, she suddenly felt that everything she read about was a technique that she had failed to apply to her work-in-progress.

I laughed with recognition. It’s like a medical student who thinks she has every disease in her textbook.

This can feel a bit dire, even scary, as well as a little overwhelming.

However, just like a solid protagonist, you must comfort your flaws in order to achieve growth.

Today, my musings will be posting on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. And I will sit in synagogue and take stock of my behaviors, actions, and habits. This is a designated period of forgiveness as well as renewal.

As a writer, I try to also take stock of my areas of weaknesses and consider practices I might like to change. It is one of the greatest joys in writing—this idea that we can always grow, always learn.

But how to stop the overwhelm of it all?

Once when I was in graduate school, I visited my professor and I was really upset. She had read my submission, and I felt she had been too easy on me. “But what about setting?” I said. “I’m horrible with exposition. And my characterization and my rhythm and… and… and…”

She told me to take a deep breath and realize that it’s crazy making to try to fix everything all at once. Read a chapter for just one or two issues. For example, you could look at it to see if the dialogue sounds naturalistic and then edit with that in mind. Then you could examine how you’re dealing with tertiary characters, for example.

But after you’ve looked at a few craft areas, she recommended putting the piece down for a bit.

Although I didn’t believe her at the time, I do now.

There is be wisdom in putting your WIP on pause. You might, after a few months, have fresh eyes on your writing project. This does not mean to give up. Sometimes a little vacation can be healthy. You might even keep a notebook and, as you get an idea for revision, write it down, but not actually apply it right away. The WIP can be something you can attack when you feel ready and excited about it.

So, I guess, what I’m saying is take stock of what you want to fix in life, and in writing, but don’t feel like you need to remedy it all at once.

Tomorrow, PG&E will shut off my power for two to five days (I live in a wildfire area of California). It feels appropriate to me, on this day of awe, to take a pause, a break.

Although it seems a bit daunting, I’m actually looking forward to it.

Hillary Homzie is the author of Ellie May chapter book series (Charlesbridge, 2018), Apple Pie Promises (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2-18), Pumpkin Spice Secrets (Sky Pony/Swirl, 2017), Queen of Likes (Simon & Schuster MIX 2016), The Hot List (Simon & Schuster MIX 2011) and Things Are Gonna Be Ugly (Simon & Schuster, 2009) as well as the Alien Clones From Outer Space (Simon & Schuster Aladdin 2002) chapter book series. During the year, Hillary teaches at Sonoma State University and in the summer she teaches in the graduate program in childrens’ literature, writing and illustration at Hollins University. She also is an instructor for the Children’s Book Academy. She can be found at hillaryhomzie.com and on her Facebook page as well as on Twitter.

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