Hypertext Magazine asked William Grant, author of with your friends, “One of the things at the core of your novel is the relationship between two boys falling in love in their suburban town in Illinois. How do you think your novel, and the relationship between Peter and Ryan, fits into the world of ‘gay’ books?”
By William Grant
My teenage years ended in the height of the big “Coming Out” story surge. Glee was premiering (and skyrocketing) and it seemed like every show, movie, and (when they actually got published) book was featuring a character grappling with the pain and confusion of coming out to their family and friends.
While I, and most people in the LGBTQIA+ community, deal with some version of this in our own lives, I was driven towards other stories. Stories I wasn’t seeing.
It’s uncommon, even now, to get a story (in any artistic medium) that doesn’t include the gay characters struggling with their “gayness.” We don’t get stories that are about us getting to fall in love, feel the comfort of another person, and, God forbid, have neither of those things be driven by a fear of acceptance of their sexuality.
My novel focuses on how we deal with hard situations in life, the situations that we have no way of avoiding as human beings in the world. Peter and Ryan are finding love and comfort in each other as a shelter from that. They’re connecting the same way we all do when we’re struggling. We find people who can help us through and that’s what they do in this story.
I hope when people read my book, they don’t look at it as a “gay” book. I’m proud if there’s positive representation in it that people connect with, but I hope people connect with all of the characters because they’re all just people trying to survive. Just like us.
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Related Feature: Excerpt: William Grant’s WITH YOUR FRIENDS
William Grant holds a BA in Fiction Writing and Photography from Columbia College Chicago. He’s had work published in Hypertext Magazine and The Lab Review. He currently lives in the Chicagoland area with his partner and their cat. This is his first novel.