John boyne gay
John Boyne – “Simplicity can be really wonderful”
During one of your sessions, you said that being “a gay writer” is alternative from being “a queer person who writes”. How would you explain the difference? Why is it important for you to make this distinction?
Well, my reason for making this distinction is quite uncomplicated. I don’t think that my being gay has anything to do with my relationship to the craft of writing. I am a writer regardless of my sexuality. Not every book that I write is about existence gay. In fact, very few of the books that I have written are about sexuality. There are many writers who are gay and draft exclusively about that, which is fine too I guess because you opt your subjects. My signal is that being same-sex attracted isn’t relevant to my job in any way, so I prefer to be called a writer.
You have written a lot of books for children and teenagers. Those ahead years can be particularly challenging for a homosexual person. When they receive to know about your sexuality, do you contemplate it gives them energy to deal with their own struggles?
My Brother’s Designate is Jessica () and
Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer (YA Bisexual Fantasy)
Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (YA Bi/Lesbian Fantasy)
At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill (Gay Historical Fiction)
Stir-Fry by Emma Donoghue (Contemporary Lesbian Fiction)
The Heart&#;s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (Gay Historical Fiction)
Bonus: Coming up in , The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth (Romantic Lesbian Contemporary YA) and The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar (Lesbian Contemporary YA Romance)!
John Boyne still doesn&#;t really know why he fell foul of the gender nonconforming mob. The creator of The Male child in the Striped Pyjamas was attacked on social media and accused of ‘transphobia’ following the publication of his children’s novel, My Brother’s Name is Jessica, in The book came in for a kicking from trans activists. &#;No matter what I said or did, I was the devil incarnate,&#; Boyne tells me.
The social media mob descended on Boyne
Five years on, Boyne remains baffled what the fuss was about. &#;There is no hatred in the book,&#; he says. &#;It&#;s a book about acceptance. It&#;s a novel about love. And I think they made a vast mistake in not recognising that at the start, because the monstering that I came in for, if anything, turned my brain somewhat, from probably being per cent on that side of the (trans activist) debate to somewhere else.&#;
Boyne says his motivation for writing a novel with a manage character who is transgender stemmed from his own upbringing. Boyne grew up gay in Catholic Ireland during the s and s. Aside from having to cope with homophobia – and th
Sue Leonard
Posted by Sue Leonard on Wednesday 15th March
WHEN John Boyne started writing The Heart’s Invisible Furies, the debate that preceded the marriage equality referendum was in full flow.
And, listening to the naysayers , it seemed unfair to him that the whole country was making a choice on behalf of the small minority that makes up the gay community.
“People were making statements based on nothing but prejudice and I start it very upsetting,” he says over coffee in a Dublin hotel.
“Are their marriages so unstable that the action of a complete stranger could threaten it?” He sighs.
“I made the mistake of engaging on Twitter with people who felt differently to me, and you can’t prevail those arguments. It’s like engaging with Trump people.”
Growing up homosexual in Ireland was a terrible trial for Boyne. He spoke of the struggle through his teens and 20s while publicising his last novel, The History of Loneliness, which looked at the issue of clerical overuse through the life of a ‘good’ priest.
This new book, an epic history of Ireland exhibiting the changes of the last of 70 ye