Is CRASHING AMERICA "lesbian fiction"?

 

When I wrote my first novel, CRASHING AMERICA, I thought of it as a story about a tough 17-year-old street kid, not a story about a lesbian. I never thought of my book as lesbian fiction for lesbian readers, although occasionally I described it as a book about "a San Francisco queer runaway," or "a lesbian Huckleberry Finn."

 

 

I don't spend much of my life thinking about writing lesbian fiction or gender-queer fiction. Yet my book was rejected by 69 agents and publishers before it found a home at an LGBT press, Alyson Books. When my book came to market in 2005, it was placed on the Lesbian Fiction shelf. The reviews I got were mainly in gay and lesbian magazines; my television appearance was at QTV, a gay channel in Burbank. CRASHING AMERICA was nominated for awards sponsored by organizations who believed in promoting gay and lesbian fiction.  And many of those who generously embraced my work also turned out to be categorized as writers of lesbian fiction or gender-queer fiction.

 

 

On one hand, I was thrilled. On the other hand, it felt strange to have my work placed in a corner, unseen by the general public. 

Why complain, though. Let's face it. Most literary fiction is placed in a dark corner, unseen by many, whether it's about lesbians or not. In retrospect, I see that CRASHING AMERICA was lucky to get any attention at all. To be part of a wave of fiction written by lesbians was rewarding and I loved doing readings and meeting authors. I was lucky to get to know such writers as Ali Liebegott, Eileen Myles, Mattilda, Michelle Tea, Elizabeth Stark, Lauren Sanders, and many more.

 

 

Now that I have the rights to my novel, and am publishing it as an eBook, I look forward to again getting the attention of lesbian readers, gender-queer readers, and those who want books about characters that are not in a gender straightjacket. I hope for feminist readers looking for non-binary-gender fiction or YA LGBT fiction. But most of all I hope to satisfy readers looking for adventurers and rogues who are tough in an unclassifiable way, like Girl, my protagonist. I needed to write the kind of person I hadn't seen in fiction. It didn't have so much to do with being lesbian, as with being female and young and unformed, rough-edged and brave. (And I can't help but hope someday fiction won't need to be divided into categories.)

 

 

We'll see. If I'm lucky enough to get more readers, maybe CRASHING AMERICA will get a broader readership this time. One thing is for sure: some people will be moved, others will be indignant; some will call Girl a psychopath, others will fall in love. Whether lesbians or not, readers come in all stripes.