Tag Archives: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Fave Five

Fave Five: Queer YA Set in Georgia

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

Time Out by Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, and Carlyn Greenwald

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters

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The Courage of a Single Book: a Guest Post by There Goes Sunday School Author Alexander C. Eberhart

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Today on the site, I’m thrilled to have a guest post from Alexander C. Eberhart, a debut novelist whose gay YA, There Goes Sunday School, releases from 7 Sisters Publishing on June 4th. This is a post about how a single book bolstered him to write the books he wanted to see in the world, and what better topic is there for a queer lit blog than one on the power of existing queer lit? (And what better day to post it than on the release date of Leah on the Offbeat, the companion novel to Simon??)

Before we get to the post, here’s the deal with There Goes Sunday School:

In sixteen-year-old Mike Hernandez’s life, only one thing is clear: Gay is NOT okay. His family’s life revolves around the church, a church run by the vocally intolerant Pastor Myers, so Mike has resolved to spend his life in the closet. His only escape—besides the occasional, anonymous gay make-out session—is his art. He pours his complicated emotions into risqué drawings he keeps in a secret sketchbook. A sketchbook he carries everywhere.

When his sketchbook goes missing in the middle of Sunday school, Mike is sure his life is over. He’s going to be outed, ostracized by their community, condemned by the pastor, maybe even homeless. What’s worse, the pastor’s son, Chris, suddenly seems hell-bent on adopting Mike and his friends and he has no idea why.

When an awkward confrontation with Chris leads to an unexpected kiss instead of a much-expected punch, Mike’s world is turned upside down. As their friendship grows and faith is questioned, Mike may be forced to choose between the comfortable life he’s always lived and a chance at the love he never thought he deserved.

Buy it: Amazon

And here’s the post!

It’s 5:00am. I look at my phone a second time just to verify I’m reading it correctly. How did it get so late? What am I doing here, half twisted in bed sheets and flipping page after page of this YA book I ordered from Amazon. I started reading thirteen hours ago, and now I’m ravenous. I devour each chapter, desperate to reach the culmination of this work of teenage angst. One question sears itself into my mind—Who the hell is Blue?!

The book I was so voraciously enjoying was none other than Becky Albertalli’s Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, more popularly known now for it’s movie adaptation, Love, Simon. If you’ve had the immense pleasure to enjoy Becky’s masterpiece, whether on the screen or off the page, then I know you’ll empathize with me when I say that this story changed how I viewed YA books. Not only that, it was everything I had been searching for in fiction since I was an awkward, Harry Potter fan-fic reading, pimple-ridden thirteen-year-old. Finally, a love story for people just like me!

While reading Simon’s tale of Oreos and secret emails, a question occurred. Why aren’t there more books like Simon on the shelves?

When the last page fell, and the early morning sun had started peeking through my curtains, this newly developed question buried itself deeper into my subconscious. You see, at this point in my life, I’d more or less hit a rock bottom. I was in between jobs, my passion for writing had shriveled over the summer as weak plots collapsed under the weight of my own insecurities. I was desperate for a sense of direction. Little did I know, my mind was only collecting these scraps of discarded stories, storing them like kindling until the spark of inspiration could ignite them into a blaze.

It was 6:00am when I grabbed my laptop and started sifting through the rush of ideas rising from the inferno my mind had become. By midmorning, I had mapped out the plot for three new projects, all centering around protagonists that I wish I could have known ten years prior.

One of those projects grew to become There Goes Sunday School, my debut novel, in which I poured everything that I needed to hear as a gay teen growing up in the south. This story became so special to me, that I almost didn’t submit it to be published, fearing it would lose its power if it were watered down. Fortunately, I was not the only person itching to tell these stories, and I found a publisher that not only supported me as an author, but whose mission is to bring diverse stories to light.

Now, I get the privilege to fill the shelves with all the stories I wished for growing up. Now, I strive to create characters that show young adults that they can be proud of who they are. Now, I’m ready to keep progressing the world of YA.

And it all started with a little red book and really late night that changed my life forever.

ALEXANDER grew up in the Metro Atlanta Area his entire
life, moving from suburb to suburb, just on the outskirts of the city. He’s always had a passion for writing, even from a young age. He still lives on the cusp of Atlanta, inching his way ever closer to finally becoming the City Dweller he’s always wanted to be.

In the meantime, he spends his days writing stories with queer characters and drinking an unfathomable amount of coffee. When he isn’t crafting quality queer fiction, you can find Alexander most likely curled up alongside his boyfriend, watching a movie or another equally lazy task.

Lit in Translation, Shopper's Delight

LGBTQA MG/YA in Translation

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One major access problem with LGBTQIAP+ books is that so many of them are published in English and never translated into anything else. To that end, here are great books that are (or will be; some of these are forthcoming) available in other languages. (Of course, most of these books have different titles in other languages; I’ve chosen the easiest method for myself by posting the titles in English here. If you need assistance with finding the title in its native language, please feel free to contact me or comment below.)

Please note that links were taken from a combination of Amazon and author websites, so while they may not be the right link for your location, the point is to see that the translation exists so it can be a starting point for you tracking it down. I also recognize that languages can vary by territory, and that, for example, sometimes rights are specifically purchased for Brazil and the book is not available in Portugal; I did the best I could to note such instances but feel free to leave notes/corrections in the comments.

(Caveat: I have not read any of these translations, and cannot speak to whether the queer storylines have been modified, as unfortunately certain countries are particularly wont to do.)

US = a link to that edition on American Amazon, via affiliate link, or on BN.com

This will be a regularly updated resource, so if you are an author whose book has been internationally translated, please get in touch or comment below to have your book added! (Or make any corrections as needed.)

Bosnian and Montenegran

  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Catalan

Chinese

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Complex)
  • George by Alex Gino (Complex)
  • Every Day by David Levithan (Simplified)
  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (Simplified)

Czech

Danish

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • George by Alex Gino
  • More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
  • History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
  • They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Dutch

Estonian

Finnish

French

Georgian

  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

German

Hungarian

Indonesian

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Spring/Haru)

Hebrew

Icelandic

  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Norwegian

Polish

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (US)
  • Alan Cole is Not a Coward by Eric Bell
  • This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
  • More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
  • History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Portuguese

(Most of these links go to amazon.br)

Romanian

Serbian

  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Slovakian

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Spanish

Swedish

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour

Taiwanese

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • George by Alex Gino
  • More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Thai

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
  • The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
  • Every Day by David Levithan

Turkish

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
  • The Last Beginning by Lauren James
  • Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
  • We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
  • People Like Us by Dana Mele
  • This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
  • More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
  • History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
  • They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Ukrainian

  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Vietnamese

  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • George by Alex Gino
  • We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
  • Every Day and Another Day by David Levithan
Fave Five

Fave Five: LGBTQ YA Set in the South

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If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (TN)

Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (GA)

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen (LA)

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown (GA)

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (MS)

Rainbow heart

Miscellaneous

LGBThanksgiving!

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I asked people to tell me the LGBTQIAP+ books they’re most thankful for, in honor of American Thanksgiving coming up this week, and here’s what they had to say! (And if these happen to encourage you to do some holiday shopping, all the better!)

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