I always love reading something that's going to make me cry and going to make me clutch my heart and going to make me remember things and feel less alone in any kind of feeling that I've had, whether it's related to grief or even just a moment of pure joy or whatever. I find grief so interesting, because it's something that feels so isolating to us and yet it's one of the most universal experiences that there are, and I really believe in reading and watching things for catharsis. I think We Are Okay has the passage: “I must have shut grief out, found it in books, cried over fiction instead of the truth.” Would you say that the draw to writing about grief that you describe there is similar to the draw in reading about it? I was thinking about how the threads of grief come up again and again in your books. That's when we're deciding, where do we want to live? All of those adult choices first land on us in that decade. But I think in our 20s, those are such formative years, and we are just getting our first true jobs. So much of so many people's experiences in their 20s is this quest, right? A quest to understand ourselves. Some people have such capacious imaginations that they are able to envision that - and I feel like maybe I could envision life a few decades down the road from where I am - but I think at that time, I hadn't done enough of my own internal examinations to be ready to do that. But I was 20 when I started it, and I was trying to write this story where they go into their 30s, and I think I just wasn't ready. That's part of why the story took me so long, because I knew that's what I wanted it to be. Is that something that you were drawn to when writing it? I think it's interesting that it's your first adult novel and it's exploring these themes of being lost in early adulthood. I love that the main characters represent two very different types of lost girl. And also feels like - as it always feels when we publish books - like offering a slice of my heart on a platter for people to feast away on.
They've just always been there talking to me, and so to have it be a real book now that is complete, that I can hold in my hands and that will soon be in bookstores is just incredibly exciting. I haven't actively been working on it at all all those years, I've been writing my YA novels and living my life. I had this idea for these characters when I was still a senior in college and then they just have lived in my head. I started working on this book when I was 20. How does it feel for you to finally usher this baby, Yerba Buena, out into the world? Since then, she’s built a rich, contemplative, and firmly gay backlist - including the Printz Award-winning We Are Okay - and become a beloved mainstay of queer YA as we know it.Ĭhatting via Zoom from my New York home office to LaCour’s in San Francisco, I was so curious (and more than a little geeked) to ask one of my personal favorite authors all about the stunning Yerba Buena, publishing gay books, and what makes a good cocktail. This spotlight has been long time coming: LaCour’s YA debut Hold Still, a tender story of grief and hopeful queer love, came out in 2009. You’ve probably seen the gorgeous cover of Yerba Buena, LaCour’s atmospheric adult debut about two star-crossed young women navigating trauma, family, and romance, anywhere from Book of the Month to Target’s book club. These days, thanks to the tireless and trailblazing work of authors like LaCour, it’s easier than ever to find lesbian books.
OLDER MEN HAVE FIRST GAY SEX STORIES FULL
Without a local indie full of helpful queer booksellers to guide me, I walked into Barnes & Noble armed with a listicle of queer books, typed Nina’s name into the computer in the young adult section, and went home with Everything Leads To You.
Books like that weren’t easy to come by in 2014. The first time I ever bought a romance about two girls at a bookstore, Nina LaCour’s name was on the spine.